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Title: The Fortunes
Author: Peter Ho Davies
Narrator: James Chen
Format: Unabridged
Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
Language: English
Release date: 10-06-16
Publisher: Wholestory Audiobooks
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
Inspired by three figures who lived at pivotal moments in Chinese American history, and drawing on his own mixed-race experience, Peter Ho Davies plunges us into what it is like to feel and be treated like a foreigner in the country you call home.
Ranging from the mouth of the Pearl River to the land of golden opportunity, this remarkable audiobook spans 150 years to tell a tale of familial bonds denied, of tenacity and pride, of prejudice and the universal need to belong.
Critic Reviews:
"A poignant, cascading four-part novel about being Asian and western, about immigrants and natives, about belonging in a country and one's skin...outstanding." (David Mitchell, Guardian)
"The book's scope is impressive, but what's even more staggering is the utter intimacy and honesty of each character's introspection.... Davies has created a brilliant, absorbing masterpiece." (Publishers Weekly)
Members Reviews:
It is really three short stories
Well written. How representative of Chinese Americans, I do not know. There is a weak attempt to weave them together in the last story, but they are really separate. The one titled "Pearl" is the most powerful as it explores a Chinese American adopting a Chinese baby girl. Self-identity and acceptance are fiercely sought. Parenthood brings reality.
Four Stars
Interesting story of Chinese participation in the gold rush.
Four Stars
An interesting combination of fact and fiction to explore the history of the Chinese in the United States.
Looking for the elephant
This book is a bit hard to review because it consists of four parts (of greatly varying quality) which can be read and grasped separately, although they all have the common theme of racism. I felt almost like the author simply put four novellas in one volume. The first section is written in the third person past tense. It's mainly about a Chinese man, Ling, who takes a job as a valet to a baron of the Central Pacific Railroad during a time where Chinese workers were being exploited (post Civil War; Lincoln has recently been assassinated). Originally, he is sold to a man, "Uncle" Ng, who runs a combined laundry and brothel, where he helps with the former and falls in love with one of the girls who works in the latter. There is a great deal of prejudice from the "ghosts," or whites who live in the same town. Ling, whose unknown father was white, develops a desire to find gold himself, and eventually leaves the baron to perform various tasks on the railway line.
The second part shifts abruptly into the present tense with the protagonist referred to simply as "she." It takes a few pages before she's identified as Anna Mae Wong, the first Chinese American movie star, and we follow her path from a little movie-struck girl to a respected (but not quite accepted in some circles) actress and finally to her career's and. The third part of the book is told from the first person perspective of the friend of Vincent Chin, an Asian man who was the victim of a famous hate crime in the eighties. The verdict, which was widely considered unfair, helped unite Asians of different backgrounds to form a movement to have the case reopened (and the perps properly punished).
The fourth takes place in the present day (third person) and portrays John Smith, a biracial writer and academic who, after a series of disappointments when his wife attempts to conceive a child, decides to adopt a Chinese baby girl.
