Customer Reviews

Bone: A Novel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

We were a family of three girls. By Chinese standards, that wasn't lucky. In Chinatown, everyone knew our story. Outsiders jerked their chins, looked at us, shook their heads. We heard things. -Fae Myenne Ng, Bone

Thus begins Fae Myenne Ng's excellent novel about three sisters growing up in San Francisco's Chinatown. The story that everyone knows is how the middle sister, Ona, committed suicide by jumping off of the Nam, a local housing project officially named the Nam Ping Yuen. The novel tells of the struggle of the narrator, the eldest sister Leila, and her mother, stepfather and sister to deal with this death and the guilt they all feel. Mah, the mother, feels that it's a result of bad luck brought on by the affair she had with her boss. Leon, the father, thinks the tragedy struck because he violated his vow to ship his father's bones back to China. The sisters are sure that they could have stopped it if they'd had just one more conversation with her. But these explanations, of course, prove unsatisfactory and the story unfolds almost like a mystery as Leila's memory flashes back to reconstruct this family's life and the chain of events that must somehow have lead Ona to that rooftop.

But this novel is more than just a Chinese version of Ordinary People. It often seems that American Culture has only two versions of the Chinese that it trots out over and over. In crime melodramas they are always either the evil Chinese warlord or the chopsocky sidekick. In everything else, Chinese Americans are two dimensional drones--hard working, barely human, super successful, over achievers--who practically define the American Dream. Neither of these images has been undermined by the Clinton administration's scandal's which feature Chinese generals and spies on the one hand and, on the other hand, seemingly simple gardeners, resterauntuers and nuns with millions to contribute to politics.

Ng asks us to consider what kind of pressures and recriminations a Chinese American family would face if they failed to achieve the American Dream. Suppose the laundry business goes bust and the savings are wiped out. Suppose after a lifetime of hard work, they're still stuck in the same apartment in the same neighborhood they started out in. What's life like when the dreams don't all come true? And how do the children in this family escape without feeling like traitors and without turning their backs on their heritage?

These are the questions that Ng seeks to answer. In so doing, she affords us a glimpse at a community that is truly foreign to us. Foreign not merely because of ethnicity, but because of the too facile stereotypes that we've been saddled with by an indolent media and by a political class where both sides have a vested interest in perpetuating the myths.

Like all fiction of this sort, the blame and the wallowing in sorrow gets to be a little tedious, but just when she's in danger of losing us, the novel ends on a wonderful life affirming note. I liked it very much.

GRADE: B+

Having been exposed to San Francisco's Chinatown since I was a very small child I was moved by the graceful and melencholic story in Bone. For many years I was a cab driver in San Francisco and one of my favorite places for buisness was in Chinatown. I am a white person with a classic "anglo" background and have rarely seen beyond the public surfaces that the Chinese community shows. So I have a degree of curiosity about the culture from five decades of exposure and the appreciation of an outsider. I am intimately familiar with the images, sounds and smells. I know where the mah jong parlors are in basements in alleys, I know the restraunts, the drug stores and sewing factories with considerable familiarity. This book took me inside all the familiar exteriors that I know so well. I believed every word and felt every breath and heard every inflection. It was a book I savored and read slowly for the poignant dignity of the reality behind the storefronts and and exteriors. It was as good a look and as well written as I believe anyone could do. Someday I'll read it again. This year I'll give it as a Christmas present to those I know will be able to most appreciate this really good and extremely well written book.

"Bone," by Fae Myenne Ng, uses family values to portray a Chinese family coping with and adapting to an American life in the 1970's. This is an intricate story of three sisters and their struggle to create their own lives in America. Adapting to a new life and culture is an almost insurmountable task to these sisters. Nina, one of the three, moves to New York city and gradually separates herself from her family. Ona commits suicide and leaves her family with a tragic loss. Lei, who has a different father from her sisters, lives a fairly unique life trying to assist her family's needs. Ma, the mother of the three, desperately tries to re-create her life in America. Within her struggle to change her life, she marries Leon to gain her citizenship. Ma strives to continue to lead her family using traditional Chinese values, yet falls short. As each member of the family progresses throughout her struggles, readers will grasp and possibly understand the pain and suffering it takes to maintain family values and conquer change.

In "Bone," Fae Myenne Ng uses a unique structure to tell the story of a Chinese- American family adjusting to changing times. When told by Lei, the order of the chapters is backwards, while other chapters go forward in time. The element of time adds to the overall feeling of a personal narrative, because the details flow as if Lei remembers them gradually, Ng's use of structure makes Lei's story understandable, personal, and gives it a good sense of continuity, just as a narrative should.

"Bones", a beautifully written novel about relationships and the challenges faced by a Chinese immigrant family with first generation Chinese American daughters, provokes the reader to take an intimate journey through the eyes of the main narrator, Leila. Leila, the eldest of the three sisters, is like most children of immigrant parents in that she takes on the role of the "navigator" in helping the family make their way through a new culture and new societal systems. Leila, like many first generation Americans, struggles with living on a bridge between two worlds that of her native Chinese customs, and her Americanized ways of looking at herself and life.

The story takes off with Leila revealing her eloping with Mason to her mother, while visiting her younger sister Nina in New York. Mother, of course, does not take it at all too well. The story unfolds in the present while also addressing reflections of past memories, and even intimately revisiting the past. Through Leila, the narrator's perspectives we are invited to take a personal look at the challenges and richness of the relationships within her family and community.

One point of conviction for the story is the struggle each character deals with. The on-going struggle with self-blame for the suicidal death of Ona, the middle child, this affects each character differently. Ona's death and the symbolism of "bones" serve as metaphors in the unfolding of this most intriguing and inviting story line and for each character's evolutionary process in their own unique and meaningful way.

"Bones" seems to symbolize Ona's death, her mangled bones as a result from jumping off of a tall building; the bones the mother is left with in order to give the meatier parts to her daughters; and the bones of the grandfather who's traditional burial proceedings were not followed through by Leon, the father of the three girls.

"Bone" is a story which will resonate with those who are descendants of immigrant families and with those who are interested in learning about the realities of immigrant families, and especially first generation Americans. I highly recommend this novel! :)

Bone, a novel by Fae Myenne Ng is a story of a Chinese-American woman facing her internal struggles of Westernization, familial obligations, and the unexplained nature of her sister's suicide. The story moves in flash back pattern that at times can confuse the reader, but for the most part helps to convey an Eastern approach to very Western problems. The author focuses on issues faced by first generation Chinese-American children dealing with their parents and more specifically addresses the angst and loss that an entire family feels after suicide. No character is free from self doubt, and Ng does a great job of conveying varied internal struggles faced by young and old, alike.
A particular theme that resonates throughout the novel Bone is that of searching for something that all of the characters might never find. It is evident that the narrator, Leila, is searching for the reason behind her sister's suicide and for the ability to relinquish responsibility and control over her parents' lives. Her mother, affectionately referred to as Mah, is searching for a stable life beyond the back-breaking work of sewing factories or the uncertainty of owning her own business amidst the chaos of America. Leila's step-father, Leon, is searching for the American dream of prosperity and success supposedly granted to anyone who is willing to work hard enough to achieve the goal. Finally, Leila's surviving sister, Nina, is searching for an identity that does not correlate with her Chinese heritage and customs.
These themes are created through the plot of the book. All of the main characters are portrayed as facing their own search, but there is never really any resolution presented. Leila will never know why her sister took her own life. She will always feel responsible for taking care of her parents. Although she might move out of her mother's apartment, she will constantly have some sense of duty to fix her parents' problems or to at least assist them in their daily lives. That type of obligation does not fade easily, and her struggle with that is present through the novel.
Mah will never be able to live a worry-free day and relish in the comfort that she is "set for life". Every bit of emotional comfort that she has she must physically and mentally work hard for. She will always live in a chaotic world in which she could lose every bit of her success. Leon will never achieve that "American dream". He doesn't have the necessary skills to move up the social ladder, no matter how hard he tries. Nina, can never escape her heritage. Try as she may, she is the daughter of Chinese immigrants, and, although she may move across the country, she will still find comfort in what she knows best. In the end, she dates a Chinese man and finds herself most content as a Chinese tour guide. She turns out to be best at the one thing she was running from all along. The plot of Bone easily progresses toward the unanswered challenge of the every day life that the characters lead.
The author is very successful in presenting a common theme to the novel. The reader keeps interest in the story because they are submerged in the idea that there will be some sort of resolution. Will Leila be able to lead her own life without the burden of feeling responsible for her parents? Can Nina ever really escape what she truly is and does she really want to? Or, are they both merely running from the uncomfortable situation of an over bearing family? The author, Fae Myenne Ng, makes the reader feel the emotions of her narrator and the characters of Bone. Truly, the reader can feel the anguish of Leila as she has to tell her parents that her sister has killed herself. There is also Leila's frustration that she must be the constant translator, the best American without leaving behind her Chinese heritage, and the ever present rock of stability for all of her family members. The reader is truly made to feel all of the characters' disappointments throughout the novel. Even though the book does not provide the happy ending that the reader is yearning for, the author closes the story with the notion that this is real life and all the characters can hope for is to eek out a happy existence in the face of tragedy and/or failures. There is no false promise of greener pastures, just the idea that they will all continue to go on, because any other option would be un-natural.
This piece is organized in a cyclical nature. There is no distinct starting point for the story to begin and it does not progress in a chronological order. In fact, the author presents the novel in periods of flash backs that progress from one chapter to another. First, the narrator is addressing a present situation, then the story moves back to a time when she was a child, which then might lead to a story related to a relative. The flash back style works well for the novel because it keeps the reader interested in the next set of problems that will be presented. There is anticipation built up as to whether or not any of the characters will find the resolution they are seeking. The cyclical story line works well for the novel Bone because it coincides with the Chinese culture that the book is about.
I would compare Fae Myenne Ng's Bone to Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate. Both books deal with situations of loss and the matter of familial obligations by a daughter due to cultural precedents. Also, both novels leave the reader searching for the neatly packaged resolution to the story's problems and although there isn't the happy ending that one might expect, the reader is still satisfied with the story of real life as a whole. Bone is a modern look at the plight of a Chinese-American woman and her obligations to her family dealing with life and death. Like Water for Chocolate is a time piece set during the Mexican revolution that deals with a daughter and her overly-demanding mother. For all of the differences of the two novels, both authors' style are similar and provide an entertaining read for any one who wants to get lost in the pages of a book for a few hours.
In conclusion, I would recommend Bone to a reader that is looking for a taste of reality. There are no sugar-coated happy endings to the novel. This is a story of a woman facing the problems that come at her with the sensibility of a mature individual and the promise of an opportunity of a better life than her parents had. It is true to life and can easily be fit in to any reader's culture, not just the Chinese heritage that is referred to in the book. Bone offers what a reader might need, the chance to get lost in another's problems and the realization that across all cultures there is a sense of duty and the chasing of dreams that we could all potentially get caught up in.

Ng's portrayal of a death in the family hits really close to home. The story moved me so much to the point that I read it three times in order to absorb all the emotions and feeling that it drummed up inside of me. The characters live and breathe in San Francisco's Chinatown all as real as you and me. This is a masterpiece of writing, which clings to your heart and never lets go. As an Asian American writer myself, the challenge of capturing such angst and pain to pen is not an easy task. I look forward to reading upcoming pieces from Ms Ng.

With it's spare, carefully woven narrative and backward-moving structure, Fae Myenne Ng's novel is one of the best-written Asian American novels out there. I also appreciated the novel's focus. Unlike other Asian American fiction that seem intent on satisfying the mainstream audience's thirst for ethnicity as a sort of exotic travelogue, 'Bone' avoids overexplanation, aims for higher goals, focusing instead on the larger human story, of which ethnicity is only a part.

Being an immigrant myself, the struggles and dreams of the narrator and her sister are realistic. Many Asian-Americans struggle with identity crisis. The word "acceptance" plays a major role in this novel.

The author successfully wrote "Bone" with a unique approach. The environment, the surroundings, the people and the culture was discussed with clarity. The novel left me with a question: How involve am I to myself? to my family? How do I know when to cross the border?

I really enjoyed the cultural aspects of this book--the descriptions of what it's like to experience America as a Chineese American, and how some of the traditions carry over, etc., but I didn't like way the book seemed to be centered around Ona's suicide (it didn't start that way, but about halfway through that's all you read about). I understand that the family was completely and irrevocably changed by her death, but I wish some of the other characters could have been better developed (especially Nina!)...

It's not a bad book, just not my first choice...

I have read this text twice, and each time, I have found subtle nuances that I had overlooked previously. Unlike MOST Asian American works of fiction, this text tackles Chinese American characters as complex and does not stereotype them. Ng uses Chinatown as a backdrop, weaving Ona's death into the mystique of Chinatown, but does it with such grace and realism. Her writing is simple, but complex in its flow--each word in each sentence seems to be placed there for literary effect--without overstating the story's realism.

I recommend this book to people who are interested in character development and disjointment, and to people who want to explore trauma within a Chinese American family without wanting to read about Chinese American stereotypes over and over again.