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I am a little bit ashamed of this review now, though I stand by my initial reaction.

Sometimes the first thought is the best thought. It may be raw, but it's the truth.

The description in your second number five listed is bang on and quite humorous. Don't be ashamed, you may save someone from investing time they could spend on another book.

Ha, thank you, Dave. I appreciate your comment.

not everybody's cup of tea I suppose. But kudos on being honest.

I agree!!!!!!!

I agree...I can't get through it. I like what you wrote about your heritage more than what I liked reading from the book.

Geraldine wrote: "I agree...I can't get through it. I like what you wrote about your heritage more than what I liked reading from the book."

: )

Thanks. Perhaps I'll make that into a short novella, then.

I'm glad I read your comments because I'm halfway through this book and wondering what the hell I'm missing. The answer is nothing! This book is boring and obviously going nowhere. Thanks for saving me precious reading time!

Oops, somehow I never noticed until now that there are two number 5s in the above list. I so need a copy editor to follow me around.

Don't apologise, Sue. I felt the same way as you. My review demonstrates this.

I still squirm at times thinking that I wrote and shared this harsh review. My only consolation is that I might have saved someone some money who's better off using the cash to pay bills.

oy! SPOILER ALERT! I'm reading reviews when I'm halfway done w/ the book, and now I know about the one interesting thing that happens.

Oops, sorry! I no doubt posted this long ago, before I knew where to find the hide spoilers function on ŷ������.

Completely missed the point.

I Had the same opinion of this book.....it tells more than it shows. How did this get published? It was so boring by pg58 I gave up

"The novelist exoticizes her own cultural background for no apparent end." - I'll have you know that today's publishing business isn't interested in books written by Asian women unless they write about arranged marriages and present the white point of view.

Olga wrote: ""The novelist exoticizes her own cultural background for no apparent end." - I'll have you know that today's publishing business isn't interested in books written by Asian women unless they write a..."

If that's true, I'm very sorry to hear it. I live in a bit of a bubble outside of that industry and wasn't aware of this. I imagine that would be a series of very difficult, frustrating, and possibly defeating conversations for the authors.

I was just as shocked by this news when I read a recent article by the Guardian:


It's about British literature in particular but I find it hard to believe that things are different in the US. I hope you find this useful.

Thanks for sharing. I'll read this soon.

I think this article makes some assumptions without backing them up, but that aside, yeah, publishing (and movie studios) is not without fear-based ($$-based) decision making. The narrower the profit margins become, the worse this gets, and everyone misses out on what's possible as a result.

As a post-script, I personally did not care for this book's writing style, which is obvious from my review. But I wrote that nine years ago, when I was frustrated that I'd paid full price and read the entire thing. (A friend had liked it.) I probably should have kept my negativity to myself, rather than poking fun at the author. I'm a more mature reviewer now and I've actually given thought (many times) to removing this review because, sour grapes. I may still do so -- but I'm glad I've left it long enough to read your comments, Olga. They got me thinking about my biases.

What assumptions would that be?
Actually, I partly share your view on her style - it is flawed. I suppose it was just nice for me to read a book written by an American author which refers to a Russian-Ukranian writer's work.
I'm sorry you wasted your money but then I don't suppose it's as bad as, say, buying the original "Atlas Shrugged" for quite a lot of money only to learn that Ayn Rand was actually Russian-speaking :) (and her book is porn).
Thank you for your replies, Sue.

The last paragraph (the one you refer to about what publishers want) -- I can go back and read the article, but I believe it was an assertion by one person, unbacked up by data or by quotes from multiple insiders from the industry. I'd actually love to see this article's concept run with by someone who does long-form thought pieces -- it'd be valuable to see more context about what it is large publishers will or will not be willing to commit to from WOC writers.

I haven't read many Russian (or Ukrainian) authors, nor any Ayn Rand. I'll skip the Rand, but maybe I'll check out the Gogol.

I guess I see your point.
It's funny, your list of favourite books includes The Bell Jar - it's on my to-read list right now - a couple of months ago I had to do a translation of 'Winter landscape with rooks' for a competition, it got me interested in Sylvia Plath's work. Looking forward to reading the novel.

It's a really good book. It reads contemporary while being a time capsule from 1950s America. Very depressing, though (of course). My book club voted to read it soon. I think I've already read it 2-3x.

Your review is perfect . She is a prolific short story writer but when it comes to novels she knows how to bore people with her flat writing style.

Beauty wrote: "Your review is perfect . She is a prolific short story writer but when it comes to novels she knows how to bore people with her flat writing style."

They're very different skill sets. I'm sure it's really hard to go from one to the other, but agents want novels more than short stories because that's what readers want.

Guess you didn't like Waiting for Godot.

i understand your point but i believe that the author's point wasn't to exactly have a plot (clearly there isn't one'; it's just about the lives of a family of immigrants). it's more focused on the themes of immigration and cultural identity and how those are explored within the characters rather than what those characters actually do. also, the fact that this book is written about an asian family in this era is important, due to a lack of representation and the larger cultural differences. this book literally could not have been written about an italian immigrant family because the issues presented in this novel just don't apply.

How dare you make such an insulting review to such a great book!?

The Italian immigrants thing was an attempt (however feeble) at satire and parody. I understand why the book can be considered important; but when I read it, I didn't enjoy it as a story (clearly!). Fortunately, this is one mere reader's opinion and it hasn't had an inkling of influence on the author's success. I will add, I don't write reviews like this anymore. Now I practice more of an "If you don't like it, give it a star rating and don't explain" approach. Writing is hard work and nobody deserves to be panned like this, even on a mere readers' social site. I debate, even to this day, whether to take this review down. I probably will soon. Maybe 2018 is the year!

Sue Bridehead (A Pseudonym) wrote: "The Italian immigrants thing was an attempt (however feeble) at satire and parody. I understand why the book can be considered important; but when I read it, I didn't enjoy it as a story (clearly!)..."

I always try to explain why I didn't like a book, often with a bullet list of things that bugged me; this way other people can read my review, decide the things that bugged me won't bug them, and go read the book and maybe enjoy it. (or they can read my review and realize they won't like the book, and there you go that's one fewer bad review to be written! see? it HELPS the author!)

I think your review is okay. If you really feel guilty, just get rid of the part that says "stay away."

Good suggestion, Nadine. Done!

I'm curious what you said!

I couldn't read the whole book and was worried that am I the only one.

Here in the US, most lit agents are begging for minority writers to submit ��#ownvoices�� stories to them. The opportunity is plentiful. It’s not necessarily evidence of oppression to have low amounts of minorities in any given field; it could be simply that those minorities are not interested in those fields. I’m a minority writer myself, and my novels have all been rejected by agents. But I don’t think it’s racism. It’s just that the agents didn’t like my stories or didn’t think they would sell well. And also just because I’m a minority doesn’t mean all my main characters are going to be the same race as me, so agents may not like that either. They want minority writers to feature a minority protagonist who has liberal opinions.