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A review by justabean_reads
All That Matters by Wayson Choy
3.5
This is a companion/follow up to Choy's first novel The Jade Peony, which was about the youngest three siblings of a Chinese family living in Vancouver on the eve of WWII. This book follows the older half-sibling, who was born in China, and how his experiences differ from the other three. I'm glad I read this so closely on the heels of the first novel, because while it covers a similar time period (starting a little earlier, ending a little later, taking a couple hundred extra pages to do it), Choy goes out of his way not to repeat material. A handful of scenes get told again, but for the most part, the reader is expected to go in knowing the other side of the story.
I appreciated the lack of "same scene from a new point of view" stuff, especially as those were the weakest parts of the book, and was glad to see that the story book had the same charm, humour and immersion in time and place as the first one. However, our hero in this outing just wasn't as interesting as his younger siblings, and throwing a love triangle into the mix didn't help his cause, so the book tended to drag. I'm glad to have spent more time in the world, but in the end, it didn't enchant me in the same way.
I appreciated the lack of "same scene from a new point of view" stuff, especially as those were the weakest parts of the book, and was glad to see that the story book had the same charm, humour and immersion in time and place as the first one. However, our hero in this outing just wasn't as interesting as his younger siblings, and throwing a love triangle into the mix didn't help his cause, so the book tended to drag. I'm glad to have spent more time in the world, but in the end, it didn't enchant me in the same way.