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Title: All That Matters
Author: Wayson Choy
Narrator: Sean Sonier
Format: Unabridged
Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
Language: English
Release date: 12-27-17
Publisher: Audible Studios
Genres: Fiction, Literary
Publisher's Summary:
Winner of the 2005 Trillium Book Award, finalist for the 2004 Giller Prize, and long-listed for the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, All That Matters is the eagerly anticipated sequel to Wayson Choy's award-winning first novel, The Jade Peony.
Kiam-Kim is three years old when he arrives by ship at Gold Mountain with his father and his grandmother, Poh-Poh. From his earliest years, Kiam-Kim is deeply conscious of his responsibility to maintain the family's honor and to set an example for his younger siblings. However, his life is increasingly complicated by his burgeoning awareness of the world outside Vancouver's Chinatown.
Choy once again accomplishes the extraordinary: blending a haunting evocation of tenacious, ancient traditions with a precise, funny, and very modern coming-of-age story.
Critic Reviews:
"A new book from Choy is an event. His writing has a quiet integrity and an exquisite grace." (Maclean's)
Members Reviews:
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Since I live 40 miles from Vancouver, I enjoyed reading about its past and the familiar streets and landmarks. I am always fascinated with different cultures and this book did a great job of sharing the notions of ghosts and other superstitions of the Chinese people. I taught in China and this brought back many memories of those days.
A brilliant, compelling sequel to The Jade Peony
I finished All That Matters by Wayson Choy in the wee hours of the early morning. It was so beautiful and compelling that I could hardly bear to put it down to finish the next day.
All That Matters is the long and eagerly awaited sequel to Choy's first book, the award-winning and national best-selling The Jade Peony. Expectedly, it is a continuation of Jade Peony, this time written in First Son Kiam Kim's eyes, instead of the rotating narrators (which included all of the siblings of the Chen family) found in The Jade Peony.
All That Matters is very reminiscent of The Jade Peony - it is almost like an echo of Choy's first book. The book focuses centrally on Kiam Kim, from when he first boards the Hong Kong ship to Gold Mountain (Vancouver, B.C.) to his adulthood in Vancouver's Chinatown. Kiam Kim's Poh Poh is another important part of the story, with her Old China and superstitious ways. She tells stories about ancient myths and ghosts, of which make Kiam Kim feel torn - in some instances, he believes in the things Poh Poh tells him, but his father is constantly reminding him that they are in Gold Mountain, not Old China, and to adapt essentially to "modern, scientific, Canadian ways."
Kiam Kim's responsibility as "First Son" and "Dai-Goh (Oldest Brother)" sometimes burdens him, but he soon learns that this is the Chinese way - as the First Son and the oldest sibling, he needs to be a good role-model for the rest of the family and, ultimately, refrain from "shaming" the family in any way. He is best friends with Jack O'Connor, an Irish white boy who is his next-door neighbour. A somewhat clandestine but intimate relationship between Kiam Kim and Jenny Chong (the daughter of one of Poh Poh's mah-jong mates) forms. All That Matters also deals with the second World War, of which readers will see makes a significant impact on Kiam Kim and the rest of the characters in the book.
All in all, All That Matters is a satisfying, triumphant sequel to The Jade Peony - and rightfully so that it was long and eagerly awaited.
