Customer Reviews

The Fold

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book's premise is amazing, and it is the reason I picked it up from the masses. I'm always up for a good YA cultural tale. I'd never even heard of the fold surgery. Part of me has always been curious as to what Asians thought of their different looks (their eyes, in particular) in contrast with Americans. I imagined it would be something that either didn't bother them too much, or if it did, it was only a small bother. I never thought this Asian eyes issue was of this magnitude, with ample surgeries going left and right trying to "correct it". For raising awareness to this topic, this book deserves an A+.

Now...

I didn't love this novel. Why? Joyce wasn't that compelling a character. I'll be the first to say this was an important story to be told (read my paragraph above), but the overall execution didn't do a lot for me. More often than not, I was bored with Joyce's voice. The central issue in her life is this prospective plastic surgery, and while she's off obsessing about it, we've got so many more interesting characters making appearances but never interesting Joyce enough to explore their stories more. Examples:

Joyce's older, more beautiful sister, Helen, is the "perfect daughter". She's got a lot built up inside of her, which is blatantly obvious, but almost none of it is ever explored. Helen, despite always being pressured to do better every time, has an amazing, complex, and mature outlook. I would've read an entire book about her if given the chance.

Gina, the best friend. Here's a girl so sure of what she wants, but who has to work extra hard for it because of her family's financial problems. She works and has to keep her grades in tip-top shape at all times in order to get into college. Aside from all this, she's no more than a secondary character in the entire novel whose only purpose is to aide Joyce in the life-or-death situation that the surgery seems to be.

Gomo, the aunt who offered to pay for the plastic surgery. Far from perfect, but she's always got the best intentions at heart. During the brief point in the book where we're allowed to look into her past, we can see she's got so much compelling history, it's a wonder it didn't pop up more.

And those are only off the top of my head. It would've been easy to implement those characters' stories in with this novel's third-person narrative, but for some reason, all we get is Joyce. I wish she'd realized some time or another that the reason she's so insecure is because she spends interminable amounts of time overanalyzing her every facet. No plastic surgery is going to fix that. What she really needs is a hobby.

The ending was a little forced, but I liked it. I think she chose what she did for the right reasons and maybe it's a step in the right direction for her.

I am giving this three stars because I judged it as an important book, and for that purpose, it fell short. It's a highly readable novel, but it didn't stir me nearly enough as it should've or make as big a point as I was expecting. Maybe it's good for entertainment. I'm afraid I'll never know, because I started it expecting something groundbreaking, and those are irreversible expectations. But maybe.

Of An Na's three novels so far, this is my least favorite. While it does deal with some important topics, it never goes very deeply into any of them. As an Asian myself, it annoyed me somewhat that the majority of Asians with double eyelids were implied to have had surgery. I know it probably seems trivial and perhaps irrelevant, but it really does irk me to think that after reading this book, someone might look at me (I have double eyelids, as does the rest of my family and the majority of my Taiwanese friends) and think "Oh, she had surgery. She's not happy with being Asian." Other than that, though, this really was not a bad book. I did enjoy reading it and getting to know Joyce, Gina, and the rest of the characters.

The Fold would be a fantastic read for a teen book club. It has many big themes that are relevant for teenage girls, including: racism, romance, homosexuality, peer pressure, friendship, teen angst, etc. Joyce has the opportunity to have plastic surgery to make her eyes look less Asian, but should she do it? This should be required reading for any teen girl considering plastic surgery.

What would you do to be beautiful?

Joyce, the main character of An Na's new book, THE FOLD, is facing that question. Joyce, who is Korean, is going to be a senior in high school in the fall. Her Aunt Gomo has won some money and has scheduled a surgery to put a fold in Joyce's eyes.

I wasn't sure what a fold was but I am lucky to have a Mongolian exchange student living with me and she was able to explain. Solongo, my exchange student, said that she was lucky to have natural lines in her eyelids, but many of her aunts and cousins do not, and they are very concerned about not having them. It was very interesting and made the book more accessible for me.

Joyce has a big sister, Helen, who seems to be perfect, and Joyce feels that she is living in her shadow. Joyce also has a giant crush on a boy in school named John Ford Kang. John doesn't even know that Joyce exists. Joyce thinks that maybe, if she gets the fold, then John will realize that she is there -- but she really doesn't want to go through the surgery. The book then deals with this subject from the points of view of many other different characters.

I loved this book. I enjoyed the main characters, Joyce's family is funny, loving, and very open-minded. Gomo is demanding, but upon hearing her back story she seems to be someone with a very big heart. I enjoyed the scenes at the Korean church and how everyone knew everyone else's business. This book educated me a little about Korean-American culture. I was surprised to hear how they want to look European, while I always think that they are beautiful!

Thank you, An Na, for the wonderful story. I am now going to read your other books.

Reviewed by: Marta Morrison

I'm Abigail Donjuan from Mrs. Garcia's class. This book is interesting because it talks about how a teenage girl named Joyce doesn't feel comfortable with herself and how she's obessed with John, an Asian boy. Because of that, she wants to make the famous surgery of fold on his eyes that her aunt Gomo offer her.
On the story they pass a lot of events but the author's purpose is to accept and love us who we are because we all are wonderful persons. He also make us know that the family is important and we need to be there every time no matter the circustances.

Summary: The Fold by An Na is the story of Joyce Park and her struggle with self image, love, and family.

The last day of her junior year Joyce finds the courage to ask her mega-crush, John Ford Kang, to sign her yearbook. He does sign, but he signs it too the wrong girl, causing Joyce to question herself and if she will ever be beautiful enough to be noticed by John Ford Kang.

Already being the middle child with the sister, Helen, which she is always being compared too and never lives up to that expectation, and the boy, Joyce has trouble trying to keep her head above water at home. Just when her questioning begins, her plastic-surgery-crazed aunt hits the lottery and decides to help each member of the family better themselves. Offering Joyce the chance to get The Fold, a surgery to alter her Asian eyes, Joyce is then sent into a tailspin trying to decide if she wants the surgery or not.

Helen can't believe she would even consider it, her best friend Gina can't believe she wouldn't jump at the chance for free surgery, and Joyce hates pain. But the only thing she knows is that she wants John Ford Kang to notice her, to be her boyfriend, no matter what it takes to do so.

The question becomes, would she consider surgery without knowing for sure that he will notice her? Or will she make him notice her for who she is?

Review: It was a little hard to get into at first, but after the first couple of chapters it was a pretty good story.

It's something I wish I had read in high school, because almost every high school-er goes through the "would he notice me if I was prettier?" kind of situation.

The stories all coincide with one another and eventually all make sense; there is the semi-shocking, but kind of obvious twist with her sister Helen, Gina's part in everything, the boy next door (literally), the boy of her dreams (there was always that one guy), and the mean girl (we all knew those).

And yes, every time they talked about John Ford Kang, they either said the entire name or called him JFK, neither of which I particularly cared for.

The ending seemed a bit unsatisfying, at least to me, but overall the story was a good one to tell. Although I did never figure out exactly with "The Fold" was, or how it changed someone's face, but that's just me (and yes, I did check Wikipedia, but I still have no idea the difference)!

An Na's new book certainly addresses important issues like self-esteem, beauty, identity and sense of self. It also provides an interesting glimpse into the culture and social mores of Korean-American family life. At times funny, at times poignant, this book may still disappoint some readers due to its loose plot lines and shortfalls in characterization. Joyce is not a very dynamic or strong main character, and I often felt bored with her or that I wasn't really getting to know her. The other characters were only developed inasmuch as to identify their "type": the bubbly out-going best friend, the quirky father, the perfect older sister, the eccentric demanding aunt, and so on.

I hate to sound too harsh; _The Fold_ is still worth a read, and may be more appreciated by teens confronting these issues and circumstances.

Thanks to the widespread availability and high publicity of plastic surgery, most of us are aware of a lot of plastic surgery procedures, from facelifts and liposuction to breast augmentation or reduction. But chances are, unless you're a young woman of Asian descent, you've probably never heard of the procedure at the center of award-winning author An Na's latest young adult novel, THE FOLD.

Blepharoplasty, or eyelid surgery, is used by lots of older women to change the appearance of the skin around their eyes. In the Asian-American community, however, the increasingly popular procedure is used to add a Caucasian-style upper eyelid crease, making the eyes look larger or more American.

That's the argument Joyce's aunt Gomo uses when she offers to pay for the surgery during the summer before Joyce's senior year in high school. Gomo, who had blepharoplasty years before, when she first arrived in the United States from Korea, says, "Here, in the United States, everyone wants to look more American. Even the Americans want to look more American. Why do you think there are so many women who diet, change their hair color and make their noses smaller and their chest bigger?" This is just one of the many questions Joyce has to consider as she weighs the pros and cons of the procedure for her own life.

At first, when Gomo, who has recently won some money in the lottery, offers each member of Joyce's family some kind of "self-improvement" product, they're all overjoyed for the chance to see a better version of themselves. Joyce, in particular, is convinced that a more "American" face might be exactly what she needs to attract the attention of her crush, John Ford Kang, a Korean boy who typically only dates blonde Caucasian girls. It might also be just the change she needs to finally be as beautiful as her popular older sister Helen.

But when each of the so-called improvements actually causes misery (Joyce's mom is allergic to the ink in her permanent eyebrow tattoo, Joyce's dad sprains his ankle while trying to walk in his new elevator shoes, and Joyce's younger brother suffers some truly disgusting side effects from his growth-inducing nutritional supplements), Joyce begins to have her doubts about the wisdom of changing oneself. And when her enthusiasm over the eyelid surgery begins to cause stress in her relationship with her best friend Gina, she's really not so sure Gomo's gift is such a blessing after all.

Although An Na's novel highlights a serious issue in the Asian-American community, she introduces it in a thoughtful but lighthearted way. Joyce's friendship with Gina and her relationship with her sister Helen are at the heart of the story, but scenes at the family's Korean restaurant and the Korean church also provide a lively look into their busy family life and their cultural heritage.

An Na also effectively universalizes the themes at the heart of her novel by placing this specific procedure within the larger context of a discussion about the appropriateness and effectiveness of all kinds of image-enhancing techniques, from braces and diets to hair dye and cosmetics. THE FOLD will certainly contribute to self-reflection, and hopefully discussion, about these issues among all kinds of readers.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

A must read for any young woman who is struggling with acceptance of herself! Moving and provocative...highly recommended.