oyceter. Entries tagged with a: headley justina chen

*looks at date*

Er. Better late than never?

Once again, I read fewer books this year. On the other hand, only two books less than last year, so I think that is not bad, considering that I started grad school and all! And I managed to blog every book I read, with the exception of rereads.

The biggest change for me in 2008 was starting the

50books_poc challenge; namely, to read 50 books by POC in a year. I had originally done it from IBARW to IBARW (August 2007 to August 2008), but it's nice to know that I met it for the calendar year of 2008 as well. If anyone's interested about why, I wrote up why I count and how the challenge affected me during IBARW 3. Next year, my goal is to increase the percentage of books by POC so that it's over 50% of all the books I read, total. I'm still trying to make it enough of a habit that I won't have to count, and it's rather embarrassing to see the huge jump in numbers once I started making an effort. The gap between 13 books by POC versus 64 is enormous and indicative of my own aversive racism; it didn't actually take that much effort to find those 51 additional books (although a large part of that is thanks to my local libraries, and aversive racism plays its own role in book selection in libraries as well).

It is nice to see that I do not have to worry much about the percentage of women I'm reading.

As always, feel free to ask about anything here.

( Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian )

( M.T. Anderson, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Pox Party )

( Atul Gawande, Complications and Better )

( Justina Chen Headley, Girl Overboard )

( Maggie Helwig, Where She Was Standing )

( Angela Johnson, The First Part Last )

( David Mas Masumoto, Epitaph for a Peach )

( Andrea Smith, Conquest )

( Catherynne M. Valente, The Orphan's Tales )

( Elizabeth E. Wein, The Mark of Solomon )

( Also recommended )

Total read: 129 (6 rereads)
51 by women of color, 64 by POC, 104 by women

( Complete list of books read in 2008 )

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Terra Rose Cooper is gorgeous: tall, thin, blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Or she would be, if it weren't for the port-wine stain covering the entire right side of her face. Her life is also perfect, or it would be, if her father didn't emotionally abuse everyone in the family, if her brothers in China and Seattle would only check in, if her mother didn't fear driving and overeat since her sister (Terra's aunt) died in a car accident.

But Terra can't control any of this, so she channels her energy into controlling her life, her body, and her face, at least until Asian goth-boy Jacob lands in her path.

I was a little disappointed in the first half of this; it reads like most emo white-girl YA, and though I love the genre, I felt Headley was too heavy-handed early on. The map metaphors in the narrative voice, the symbols of Terra's controlling nature, the coolness and rebelliousness of goth Jacob all felt a little rote, as though they were surface characteristics, but not character. Terra's conversations with Jacob felt particularly boring; there was too much banter about her controlling nature and Jacob trying to push her not to be, and it felt like too many other YA books I've read.

Part of the problem is that it reminds me too much of Dessen's Just Listen, and Headley doesn't handle her characters with the same understated finesse.

But then, in the second third of the book, Headley went somewhere I completely hadn't expected, and the book starts to concentrate more of Terra's relationship with her mother, which I very much enjoyed. There's a little about Jacob's angst as well—he's Chinese and adopted by a white family—but the bulk of the book is Terra's. I loved learning more about her two brothers and her aunt, and I really loved watching her mother find herself again.

I still wish we had gotten more of Jacob; by the end of the book, he still felt like a bit of a mystery to me. Some of the ending scenes also didn't work for me, particularly Terra in the orphanage, which I think was meant well, but felt too much like "Nice White Lady" to me. And though I didn't have huge issues with the largely-white cast and China, some bits ("You're more Chinese than the Chinese!") were a bit grating. Still, given Headley's past record, I don't begrudge her much, and I really hope her next book is a bit more racially diverse.

I didn't love this as much as Girl Overboard, but it's still a solid book.

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I really liked Headley's first book, Nothing But the Truth (and a Few White Lies), and I love this one.

Syrah Cheng is the daughter of millionaire Ethan Cheng; she wanted to be a pro snowboarder, but an accident tore her ACL and so far, she hasn't been snowboarding since. To make matters worse, her mom keeps telling her she's fat, her best friend Adrian (Age) is withdrawing because of his new girlfriend, and her half-siblings hate her.

This could easily have been a poor little rich girl story, but I genuinely cared about Syrah and her problems. Part of this is because Headley does address class a little -- there's not that much overt deconstruction, but while we see the dark side of wealth, we (and Syrah) also get to see how many doors money opens, particularly when comparing Syrah with her friend Age and when comparing Syrah with her half-siblings, both of whom grew up with their father before he struck metaphorical gold.

Also, some day I will get sick of saying this, but right now, I'm still delighted that she's Chinese! And she does not angst about her Chinese-ness, but it is very clearly there. I really appreciate Headley's research; she even knows that there are twelve symbols of luck on the traditional Qing dragon robes, frex. But it's not research for the sake of research; a lot of the conflict in the story comes from Syrah's family history, and it's a history very closely tied to politics.

Also also, I really appreciate that most of the things I loved about Nothing But the Truth are back here: the focus on female friendship; the focus on inter-generational relationships that go beyond simple misunderstandings; the consistent framing of romance as a factor and a problem, but not the problem; the set-up of what look like stereotypical YA problems, but quickly turn into more complex issues; the optimism; and the main character's interest in things that aren't clothes, social hierarchy and boys (I have no problem with these interests, being a clotheshorse and an avid reader/watcher of all things romantic, but it's also nice to see variety in YA books).

Like Headley's first book, the ending feels a little too optimistic to be real, but honestly, I don't care. It made me happy, and I wanted Syrah to win. Also, even though the ending to this book is a little larger than life, Syrah still doesn't solve all her problems with a magic wand. What I left with was the feeling that Syrah had gotten some tools for dealing in an adult way, and while there would still be problems ahead, she'd be better equipped to handle them.

Headley's also continued with her multi-racial world; there's a strong focus on East Asian-ness and Chinese-ness in particular, but there's also the casual mention of not one, but several, biracial kids; Age is Mexican-American, and there's just the sense that the world is not whitewashed, which I really like. Also, I cheer for interracial relationships, both romantic and not. In terms of gender politics, I do wish there were some GLBT characters. In general, though, I love how important all the female relationships are. Yeah, you get some of the high school clique girls, but you also get many other girls and women, friends and sisters and cousins and mothers and daughters and grandmothers.

And! I am still not over reading about things that are from my own life, like sitting around the kitchen table wrapping dumplings, complete with learning how to from older female relatives. The part about making dumplings that look like the Son of the Blob? OMG so my first hundred dumplings! Same with the generational divide and language, and I love love love that Headley's Chinese people live in China and Hong Kong and Seattle and Vancouver, that they move around, that some are fourth-gen sons of immigrants. I especially loved the look at Mandarin and Cantonese and the notion of mother tongues and what that actually means. As far as I could tell, most of the references are right, with the exception of girls' manga as "shonin." But hey, given how much else the book gets right, I don't really care.

I just ... I love reading something in which I actually get most or all of the cultural references, as opposed to the usual "Hrm, what is this meatloaf of which you speak?" reaction (I know what meatloaf is now! And I like it! But I spent most of childhood wondering what it was and why everyone seemed to hate it).

So: yay book! And I'm really looking forward to whatever Headley writes next.

Links:
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buymeaclue's review
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gwyneira's review

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Wow, am I glad that the recent trend is YA POC chicklit (is this a recent trend?), not depressing depressingness.

Patty Ho -- and don't get started on her name, because she's heard it all before -- is hapa, half-white and half-Taiwanese¹. As expected, she's angsty about this, but since this is YA POC chicklit instead of the aforementioned depressing depressingness, she manages to get some self-esteem at math camp, find out more about her family, and just have fun.

I don't think I can be rational about this book, because I spent most of it reading and flailing, thinking, "OMG! People! It is a book about me!" And not me as in "bookwormish shy girl" (which I have encountered more often), but me as in "Taiwan and Bay Area and potlucks and language divides and trying to figure out where you fit in when you're not quite one thing and not quite the other." I mean, it is not about me as well, since I'm not Taiwanese (am Chinese from Taiwan) and I'm not multiracial, but it is also more about me that so many other books that I've read that it is still a joy to find.

I hope someday just finding myself in a book won't be this rare.

But there is a math whiz who reads romances! And a cool Chinese kid from LA and interracial dating (and POC-POC interracial dating)! And! OMG! Headley distinguishes between Taiwanese and Chinese and among Taiwanese and Mandarin and Cantonese and I would love her just for that. But that is not all, because she's got a little in the book about the KMT and Taiwan and the 228 massacre and, and!

I mean, it is not happy material, but Headley doesn't make it the center of the book, but she also doesn't gloss over it. It's just there, part of Patty's background, and I grinned and grinned, because how many times have I done the entire "I'm from Taiwan. No, I don't speak Taiwanese. No, I'm actually Chinese, and you shouldn't call me Taiwanese because it's pretty politically fraught. No, my parents were born in Taiwan, but my grandparents are from China." And usually I do not mind, but it is just so nice to have a place where I don't have to explain.

And not just that, but there is Stanford and the Bay Area, and you can tell Headley has lived here before.

Patty, from a very white suburb Seattle, gets off at SFO for the first time and looks around, astounded at all the Asians, and I wanted to hug her and say, "Hi, welcome home!" (even though I am sure that is rather obnoxious).

The book itself is fairly standard YA POC chicklit, though it's got a strong focus on female relationships (friendships and family), and you can tell Headley's very dedicated to overthrowing stereotypes about Asians even as Patty hates things like her mom's lectures. I definitely snorfled in recognition when Patty's friend Jasmine rolls her eyes at the white girl in camp who feels out of place at an all-Asian sushi restaurant and pulls the "you eat what?" thing.

I can also see

littlebutfierce's point about how the emphasis on the beauty of multiracial people can get a little overwhelming at times, but as she says, given that Headley's own daughter is multiracial, I don't blame her. The focus is definitely on empowering Patty, and while some parts are too slick (I wanted a deeper look at Jasmine and Anne and Auntie Lu), it's a fun and fast read.

I'm very glad I have her next book on hold at the library.

also, taiwan! bay area! a chinese experience that reads like mine as opposed to joy luck club!

¹

kate_nepveu has a good post on the Hapa Project and the terminology of "hapa" that I agree with, though this book uses "hapa" as a neutral term (the author does explain its history as derogative, but not its history as a word to describe Hawai'ians in particular and not Asian multiracial people as a whole). So I will use it this once and then use "multiracial" in the rest of the write up. Whew, that was a long footnote.

Links:

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furyofvissarion's review
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yhlee's review
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buymeaclue's review
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gwyneira's review
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magicnoire's review

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