Customer Reviews

The Dim Sum of All Things

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

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.)

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.

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.

Ai-ya! Some of the comments here about The Dim Sum of All Things are truly...well, dim.

"Manages to be dull and angry simultaneously." You could say that about me, but this book is anything but dull, and only sporadically mad -- and in several shades of that word, at that. Sure, Kim Wong Keltner, the author, goes after those Hoarders of All Things Asian, but she does it with keen, all-too-accurate descriptions of how Hoarders act and talk. I've known a few hoarders in my time, and she's got them down pat. Read the lovely passages about Lindsey's discoveries of her roots in China, and of her rediscovery of a male friend. Where's the anger?

The same, one-star reader/reviewer called the book "one-note." Hardly. It's absolutely musical, and I'm not talking karaoke. It's Keltner's writing that sings. She goes from punky and spunky to rhapsodic, romantic, and even touching. Yes, sometimes she gets carried away with details and similes, and yes, she, too, can be stereotypical, as with one of her aunts. But she is simply not guilty, as she's been charged, with concocting a "trite" story that's been heard a zillion times before. Hers is a refreshingly contemporary take on what it's like to be a young Asian-American woman dealing with everyday life while she's tugged and pulled every which way by friends, family, co-workers, strangers, cultural conflicts and obligations, memories, fantasies, and the occasional hilarious daydream/brainstorm. Lindsey conjures a transvestite who writes a film called Slouching Tiger, Hidden Dragqueen.

I don't remember anything like that in The Joy Luck Club!

The book started off well, with great stories about being ABC, not being able to speak Chinese, and trying to figure out how to fit in as an American and hold on to the Chinese culture. Towards the end, the main character has some serious insecurity issues, and annoyingly paranoid about prejudice and what her family will perceive when she dates a caucasian guy. It's lightly entertaining, but the story became a bit disjointed, and I didn't feel the author achieved the potential of the material. I would advise anyone to buy this book used, it's not worth the retail price.

Now that I've got your attention....
It wasn't so bad but I am horribly ambivalent about this novel.

It was "devourable," an extremely easy read. It was jam-packed with all the racism and stereotype that you would encounter in a lifetime into 344 pages. Ms. Wong Keltner writes of things that are real to Chinese-Americans (Canadians, too) but I can't find myself condoning spilling it all - with this book alone, you would think Chinese-Americans are narrow-minded, paralyzed into inaction by our neuroses.

As a second generation Chinese, I am terrified at the prospect of raising a third generation Chinese child. In the recent past, I have read a book of second generation guys (Terry Woo's Banana Boys) and a memoir of a first generation woman who has a biracial child (Cathy Bao Bean's Chopsticks-Fork Principle) and in terms of writing quality, they far exceeded this novel (hence my "high schooler" comment). I have a beef with people who model their characters after themselves as I feel Ms. Wong Keltner has done, but at the same time, you couldn't describe as accurately somewhere you've never been to (San Francisco was accurately depicted, apparently).

It is a feel-good novel when everything ends happily (like in Joy Luck Club) but in reality, it is much slower, less certain that everything will fall into place. I found the character, Lindsey, to be highly implausible and sadly blind to herself. Other scenarios also didn't strike the right chord, like the author was trying too hard to set up a scenario for her to have a 180-degree about-face. For example, San Fransisco is chockful of Chinese people and so how could she claim to be the only Chinese person in many places she goes? (The author should try coming to the east coast of Canada....) I also resented the portrait of a Chinese fellows as undateable - one thing I know Amy Tan was also criticized for.

I still give 3 stars because I won't be trying to sell this book to the highest bidder and will, rather, keep it. It is not a useless paperweight as it contains many bits of cultural tidbits that may be memorable in the context of the story.

I rarely say this and even more rarely write this kind of review, but this book is truly terrible. It has an interesting title, and interesting premise. But you never feel connected to the main character, and the book feels like a travelogue of what she does and where she goes, blah, blah. This type of thing can be interesting if the execution is good (for example, "Seinfeld" was a great show even though the plots seemed simple). So, basically, the execution here is...terrible.

Also, there is NO WAY this writing is anywhere close to Amy Tan. Tan is amazing, drawing you into her culture and that of her characters because she writes so well; her characterizations are great. The ONLY thing Tan's books have in common with this book is that they both involve Chinese culture and the struggle to reconcile one's culture with modern American values.

The writer seems to have an interesting background to draw on. But she needs to work on her writing in general and her character development specifically. Maybe this is her first novel ever. If so, well, hopefully she'll keep working on it. I will give her points for realism, though. (But who wants to read a description of just how disgusting the bathrooms are in Chinatown? Gross! TMI.)

A casual carpooler mentioned the author and the book about a year ago and i was dying to read it .. but work and life got in the way .. until a really good friend of mine recalled that i had asked if i could borrow the book .. i started reading and i couldn't put it down .. i loved how easy it was to relate to the character Lindsey .. her geographical accuracy of San Francisco (especially Chinatown) was awesome .. i could trace her footsteps with my eyes closed .. her feelings and experiences about stereotypes and righteously assimilated dual-identities are ironically similar to mine .. her book makes me proud to be an American Born Chinese who secretly loves homecooked Chinese food and craves for family history and heirlooms .. i can't wait to read Buddha Baby next .. This is a MUST READ for all ABCs in the Bay Area and beyond ..

This is a fun, light, read by a good writer. As the mother of an adopted Chinese girl, I appreciate the glimpses into the main character's struggle with her identity, and laughed out loud during the ongoing discussion about white guys who like to date Asian women (for what it's worth, I think she's dead-on in her appraisal). I'm looking forward to another book.

The Dim Sum of All Things is narrated through third person, telling the story of Lindsey Owyang, an American Born Chinese who is trying to discover herself. While she adores Hello Kitty and enjoys the traditional Chinese food that her grandmother makes at home, she is still mired and a bit confused when it comes to the clashing of two cultures -her Chinese ancestry and the American culture she was brought up in. Accused of being a banana (Chinese on the outside, white on the inside), Lindsey appears uncertain of what to make of her roots. While she enjoys certain aspects of being Chinese, she also feels as if being Chinese instantly has connotations and brings to mind degrading stereotypes. Despite this, Lindsey's theory of the Hoarders of All Things Asian (white males abnormally obsessed with Asian girls) is hilarious and amusing to read about.

Things become complicated when a white guy at work, Michael, starts to show interest in her. His feelings are not unrequited, and Lindsey soon becomes smitten and obsessed with him. While she adores Michael, Lindsey cannot help but think what her family (and especially her traditional grandmother) might say if they discovered that she was dating a "foreign devil."

Wong Keltner has done an excellent job chronicling the life of funny and likeable Lindsey Owyang. The jokes, while some of them might be considered facetious, fit in well with the light, humorous tone of the book and some of them are also quite funny. It is also necessary to note that Wong Keltner is clearly a talented writer with some of the most original phrases and literary devices. Kim Wong Keltner is a writer to watch for, and her magnificient effort of a book should be commended. This book would be enjoyed by Asian (especially Chinese) women who enjoy reading Asian chick lit. The Dim Sum of All Things is the perfect book to read when you have a free afternoon; it is a quick read and the intrigue of the plot will keep you turning the pages.