More, belated
Jan. 6th, 2010 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyphomandraTwo more for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
50books_poc.
Kamila Shamsie, Broken Verses. I picked this up because of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
puritybrown’s enthusiastic review –- and am very glad I did. About a woman, Aasmaani, in Pakistan, whose mother was a radical activist, and is now missing; her mother's lover, the Poet, murdered; and how Aasmaani deals and fails to deal with these stories, especially when new information comes to light that challenges her beliefs about the past… It's well written, it's complex and different, and every character feels so clearly a part of their world and their community. I definitely want to read more books by her, although I also feel I should read more explicit Pakistani history first.
What didn’t work for me in this was Ed. He never really felt like a fully developed character, and in particular the "meet-cute" between him and Aasmaani just rubbed me the wrong way – I could never see what she saw in him. Because of that, the ending became obvious before I got there, although it's also that in meet-up chunk between them felt forced, and I never quite managed to see what Aasmaani sees in him. Because of that, the ending became obvious, and really only reinforced my dislike of the character.
American-born Chinese – Gene Luen Yang. Overall, I liked this, and the art, but I found the Jin Wang American high school angst storyline the least appealing of the lot. Partly, this is because I feel like I’ve seen it too many times before, and it’s always a straight male teenage angst US high school thing within which all the women become weirdly two dimensional (arggh. Apart from being a comic) and shiny quest objects. Partly, though, it just felt less real – and less interesting – than the monkey king and Chin-Kee storylines – as if the author were relying on a cliché rather than transforming it.
I do like Wei-Chen's line about Jin's hair looking like a broccoli, though.
50books_poc.Kamila Shamsie, Broken Verses. I picked this up because of
puritybrown’s enthusiastic review –- and am very glad I did. About a woman, Aasmaani, in Pakistan, whose mother was a radical activist, and is now missing; her mother's lover, the Poet, murdered; and how Aasmaani deals and fails to deal with these stories, especially when new information comes to light that challenges her beliefs about the past… It's well written, it's complex and different, and every character feels so clearly a part of their world and their community. I definitely want to read more books by her, although I also feel I should read more explicit Pakistani history first.What didn’t work for me in this was Ed. He never really felt like a fully developed character, and in particular the "meet-cute" between him and Aasmaani just rubbed me the wrong way – I could never see what she saw in him. Because of that, the ending became obvious before I got there, although it's also that in meet-up chunk between them felt forced, and I never quite managed to see what Aasmaani sees in him. Because of that, the ending became obvious, and really only reinforced my dislike of the character.
American-born Chinese – Gene Luen Yang. Overall, I liked this, and the art, but I found the Jin Wang American high school angst storyline the least appealing of the lot. Partly, this is because I feel like I’ve seen it too many times before, and it’s always a straight male teenage angst US high school thing within which all the women become weirdly two dimensional (arggh. Apart from being a comic) and shiny quest objects. Partly, though, it just felt less real – and less interesting – than the monkey king and Chin-Kee storylines – as if the author were relying on a cliché rather than transforming it.
I do like Wei-Chen's line about Jin's hair looking like a broccoli, though.
