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rebeccazh's review
4.0
3.5 stars rounded up. Like others have mentioned, this is a lyrical, almost dream-like reflection/memoir about the author's personal/familial history. There are themes about memory, language, place/movement/belonging/displacement conveyed through the sparse prose, blank spaces, and deliberately vague narrators. As I read this in multiple sittings, it took me a while to connect the different narrators and characters.
ktrain3900's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.75
There's a fragile and blurry beauty to this book. As someone looking at ways to look at her own family history and ancestors, I have an interest in the archtecture and the structure of the book, of the pieces and sections of it, of its movement through time, the placement of words on pages and across them. There are bones and flesh here, muscles and tendon, and yet I'm still not sure entirely how it works, or if I like how it's working, yet it works. It is one thing, and many things, alive and ghost.
In parts I lose track of who is who and who is saying what, as people are mostly identified through relationship, not name, which is in keeping with the oral tradition of so much family storytelling. I also felt more distance in the third person sections in spite of them being about the author, while the first person sections reach across generations, yet feel more immediate. There's a discomfort generated by this, but one I could sit within.
In parts I lose track of who is who and who is saying what, as people are mostly identified through relationship, not name, which is in keeping with the oral tradition of so much family storytelling. I also felt more distance in the third person sections in spite of them being about the author, while the first person sections reach across generations, yet feel more immediate. There's a discomfort generated by this, but one I could sit within.
bentohbox's review
5.0
Incredibly well-written, and ethereal in composition. Although the style is very fluid, similar to Ocean Vuong without the poetic flourishes, Myint is so talented at weaving together identity, personal history, culture, and the sense of listlessness that infects the book and reader. Also, given that I haven't yet read a lot of Southeast Asian, non-Vietnamese memoirs, so I feel like this is a valuable addition to those in the same lacking context I am in.
suzyreadsbooks's review
no issue with the book, it’s just been over a month since I’ve last picked it up. I think I need to start over at this point. Taking it off my current reads for now but will return to it
kate_st's review
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
3.0
I like the idea of an externalized memory archive that you lay out and let go, but I felt I’d read most of these thoughts and themes before, without much specificity to enrich it. And there’s some repetition in there as well. So in a way I don’t know much more about this person’s story, personally. But nonetheless it’s a mostly interesting and quick read with familial life and afterlife centered in order to preserve it in the experience of diaspora.
hollykaustin's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75