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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
are we there yet???, February 11, 2005
This review is from: The Dim Sum of All Things (Paperback)
i can't believe i'm reading this book. for what it's worth, the character doesn't seem to have much of a voice other than just whining. she attempts to sound amy tan-ish with all the metaphores and similies. i mean, come on - how many Chinese-American 20-something year old females do you know that thinks or says stuff like "The fog resembled bright white crystalline cotton reflecting off the liquid metal waves."(p. 164)??? or "White guilt was like smog in the Bay Area, like filthy puffs of charcoal gray exhaust blasting out of Muni buses and impregnating the city air, hanging around the horizon like a ring of oven grease, but perhaps, at times, contributing to prettier sunsets." (p. 6)??? lindsey complains a lot about being who she is and it's obvious she's in the midst of a crisis of being an asian and american. i mean, as third generation, just how difficult can it be? is she so neglected by her parents that she's trying to "find" herself while living with her grandmother? she's a complete snob (french and english major in college), completely unambitious (after double-majoring in languages, a job as a receptionist? not that i'm knocking receptionist, but she seems to come off rather condescending as a character, as if she's too good to work for the vegan warrior), completely lost (hello, identity crisis? cultural ignorance? observant but blind!!), completely childish (playing silly mind-games with Michael Cartier, who just so happens to be 1/4 chinese himself, but she discounts that and considers him a Hoarder because he *looks* white. as if *his* heritage isn't as important as hers.), completely myopic (mememememememe, IIIIIII...), and completely judgemental (why knock people for buying hello kitty if she herself buys it? and so what if asian girls decide to bleach their hair blonde? weren't they the ones who helped her out when she pooped in her white pants???). she's ashamed of her heritage, her self-identity is missing about 98 knobs on a 100 knobbed switchboard), and has no backbone. her brother is a pompous pig and though she doesn't kow-tow to him, she lets him get away with being annoying just because he's the "number one son." trust me, i'm the number-one daughter in my asian family and no matter what the number-one son does, i stand up for what i believe in.
this book - this character - is an insult to so many asian-american women out there who're strong, independent, and free. perhaps what lindsey needs is a therapist.
and if the voice, thoughts, and feelings of lindsey are the exact same voice of kim wong keltner, she should be ashamed of herself. she herself married the white-devil.
in short, this is one contradiction of a book and character that's a bad waste of time. i'm 3/4 way through the book and i can't wait to finish it so i can move on to something better. (i can't put down something i started, however bad it is. bad habit.)
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but... too stereotypical, May 14, 2004
This review is from: The Dim Sum of All Things (Paperback)
As said before. If you take the work to be purely fiction with half elements of truth sprinkled throughout, then this is a book worthy of 2 1/2 stars, not 2. But I gave it 2, and it lost 3 stars for NOT having a full and strong and most importantly, DIVERSE research base on Asian-Americans. Unless of course, that was deliberate on the author's part, to show a weak character and to end with a cliched happy ending with her heroine's boyfriend being 1/4 chinese (so he would be more accepted). The book never represents anyone with their personalities being MORE than just superficial, Hello-Kitty or Money obsessed Asian Americans. Every character struck me as being ashamed or embarassed/tight-lipped about their heritage (Except Uncle Bill) and superficial. I also did not like how the references to her being 'strong' were not really highlighted or explained in depth in the book. What did the author really mean by 'strong'? That she could stand up and say she wanted to live her life instead of being a wisp in a crowd? Or that she managed to find a Caucasian boyfriend? Or that she could finally get over her shame to learn about her origins that she can't deny any longer? I think this was a huge oversight throughout this book. It just carried its fluffy, aerated weight on a frail skeletal frame of Asian-American stereotypes, sayings and little anecdotal nuances to try and disguise itself as a true novel. Looks to me like the heroine didn't really learn anything useful in the end, like be more engrossed in the culture, or to do something about these stereotypes, or even to embrace her Chinese-ness she has shunned her whole life. Even the aunts and mother portrayal was really disheartening and sort of made me cringe with their ineptitude. I consider myself a very willful, strong Asian-Canadian young woman, and I truly felt this book cheated me of something precious - an accurate portrayal of the true Asian-American angst. It portrayed and promoted a stereotype of asian americans as either completely and blindly in love with the Caucasian male ideal (yet denying it at the same time, but also denying dating any asian males) and literally losing their true sense of self, lost in a world of superficiality. I especially abhorred the slandering of Asian males. Seems like this book is trying to say we can't live our life because of cultural expectations and rules, which is completely wrong. As a fictional work of art, much like Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha", it should all be taken with a grain of salt and read as such. Wong-Keltner is just supporting and promoting another popular asian american stereotype of us being scared of own shadows, ignorant of our culture, -ASHAMED- of our rich culture rather than proud (really though, any family ties in any culture can be a little embarassing at times, but to have SHAME and disdain for it!?). This book struck a chord in me, but it wasn't the right one.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good read, but this book makes us look bad!, June 3, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: The Dim Sum of All Things (Paperback)
I am conflicted about this book. On one hand, an Asian chick lit novel is a terrific idea and something that I wanted to explore myself, but Keltner beat me to it. She's a sharp, funny and observant writer, and on that level, I really enjoyed her book. On the other hand, her main character Lindsey is paranoid, annoying and hypocritical beyond belief. She hates white men who have a fetish for Asian women, yet she'll only date white men herself. (She's a hoarder of all things white!) She also seems to attract very ignorant white people who, I feel, are exaggerated to the point of offensiveness. I am a Chinese-American living in New York, and while I do occasionally get insensitive and un-PC comments, it really doesn't happen all that often. Especially since I live in a big city with lots of Asian-Americans, as Lindsey does. I don't feel it's realistic to say that you get hit on by hoarders every other day, and get accosted by insensitive white people on a regular basis. The examples that Keltner gave are events that happen every once in a while, over a lifetime. That's not what being an Asian-American is really like, and I shudder to think that non-Asians reading this book will come to the conclusion that Asian-Americans are as paranoid and sensitive as Keltner makes us seem. Perhaps the author really is like that, but no Asian-American I know mulls over his/her identity quite as hard. Yes, it's difficult to belong to two separate cultures, yet not feel a part of either, but it's something that we grew up with and have learned to deal with (most of us with ease). Perhaps the problem is that Keltner never really assimiliated, at least not in the sense that matters. She may be good at English, but she never got the hang of being a real American, which by definition means being a mutt.
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