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Title: Sour Heart

Author: Jenny Zhang

Narrator: Greta Jung, Jenny Zhang, full cast

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-01-17

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

A debut collection of stories that plunge listeners into the tender and chaotic hearts of adolescent girls growing up in New York City, from celebrated poet and National Magazine Award nominee Jenny Zhang.

Critic Reviews:

"I will never forget the first time I read Jenny Zhang... [I was] stunned, moved and - quite frankly - a little jealous.... This book takes Jenny's voice to a new level.... I hope you love Sour Heart as much as I do." (Lena Dunham)

"Zhang's got range: the poet/Rookie writer/essayist and now fiction writer has a voice that's at once incisive and playful and emboldened." (TheMillions)

Members Reviews:

This book could have easily been four or five stories rather than seven without ...

Zhang's writing style is also very enjoyable. She is able to embellish in a way that does not feel frivolous and I found that even the details and tangents that she explored contributed positively to my reading experience and understanding of the stories.

However, these short stories lean more toward character studies than narrative arcs. The stories are generally low in action and high in detail, which is an interesting particular way of writing. However, by the end of the book, it felt very repetitive. This book could have easily been four or five stories rather than seven without really losing any of the interesting qualities of the book. Generally, I prefer collections of character-focused short stories to be shorter, simply because they are so evenly-paced that it starts to feel repetitive, as though you aren't getting anything new from continuing to read.

I was hoping that these stories would be more narrative-based rather than character-focused, but if you love character-focused stories, then you will love this book! It is simply not my preference but I would highly recommend this book if that sounds appealing to you.

I will say that for a debut collection, this book is remarkable. I will happily follow Zhang's career in the future to see how she grows as a writer. Unfortunately, I do not think that this collection is as phenomenal as I would have liked it to be.

Over all, I gave this collection a 3 out of 5 stars, but I could see it easily being a 4 or 5 out of 5 stars for someone who loves character-driven stories.

Brutal Immigrant experience, poverty, acclimating to the American culture

âShe looked like an alien. (But then again, I was an alien, too; that was the box I had to check on every form. Did aliens have unalienable rights? Were we entitled to liberty and justice?)â

Letâs get this out of the way, there are a couple of stories at the start of the collection that some readers may find disturbing, particularly the sexual encounters between Lucy and Francine and the horrible treatment of Frangie. In fact, some people will stop reading there. But not all the stories carry on in that vein and it would be a shame to miss out of Zhangâs solid writing. Too, the children running wild on the streets of Shanghai, coming into power, turning in parents, abusing and punishing their elders, naming any and everyone at their whim as a counterrevolutionary is beyond humiliating and horrific. History is not pretty. I was riveted by their struggles against poverty, trying to acclimate to a completely new culture and how it touched the lives of their children. Every immigrant experience is different. These are not light stories.