Customer Reviews

Happy Family: A Novel

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

 

 

I thought this was a really interesting story with well-developed characters. I liked Hua because she wasn't depicted as being perfect like some books do with their main character. The author was able to create the feeling of loneliness that Hua felt and the desperation and sadness that drove her to do what she did. Overall, I thought it was an excellent book and I recommend it.

If you've managed to find this book, your search will be richly rewarded. Wendy Lee has written a true gemstone of a novel: well-crafted, populated by authentic characters and rich multicultural settings, in a narrative arc that grips your interest from beginning to end.

[full disclosure: I studied with Wendy Lee at NYU in 2004, and learned about this, her first book, through an e-mail announcement to alumni of NYU's MFA program]

The story follows a young Chinese immigrant's first years in America, working first as a waittress in a New York City Chinatown restaurant, then as a nanny of an adopted Chinese daughter for a Manhattan couple. Despite the fact that Lee apparently gives away the ending in the book's prologue, the power of the story keeps you wondering and hoping right through the final page.

The best, most resonant literature works because the characters' lives reflect the core human questions everyone faces: identity, choice, destiny. In this regard, Lee's "Happy Family" is as good as you can find.
Read this book, and keep Wendy Lee's name on your short list of authors to watch.

-Rob

Wendy Lee's novel about a Chinese immigrant's complex relationship with an adopted Chinese orphan in NYC and her Caucasian parents is a quiet, affecting account of alienation, loss and memory. Because of its premise, readers may think the book is about international adoption, but Happy Family is really about Hua, the narrator of the book. As a recent immigrant from China who goes from working in a restaurant to working as a nanny for an adopted Chinese girl, Lily, in a privileged (though disintegrating) American home, Hua takes us through her strange present and her familiar, but painful past in China and helps us experience New York City through her eyes. Her voice (and Lee's) is spare, observant, humorous and emotional. By using a unique premise, Lee does a great job of leading you into a complicated life that leaves you wondering what you would have done if you were Hua.

This book has it's flaws, the ending was a bit weak and some parts of the storyline didnt make sense - more about that later. Also, it didnt really get into the day to day life of an illegal immigrant struggling to make a living and support her Grandmother who's back in China. I wanted to know where did she bathe, what did she eat, how did she struggle to with the cultural differences when she first arrived in the US illegally, how much did she pay for her one room home in the boardinghouse she lived in Chinatown?

However, if you don't anaylize and dissect every page, it was a fun and interesting read.
I couldn't put it down and finished it in one rainy Sunday in September.

These are the parts I found hard to believe (SPOILER ALERT):

* The protagonist was raised by her single Grandmother after her parents died in a fire. The Grandmother not only managed to send her to school, pay for her abortion but also scraped together enough money for her to get a fresh start in the US via plane. Where would an elderly woman in the provinces of China scrape together that kind of money?

* Lily's mother not only leaves her child in the care of a perfect stranger (Hua) in the park but hires her to be her nanny without background checks

* How come Hua didnt have enough money to get all the way to California when she had stopped sending her Grandmother money months before and had no additional expenses

* I would have loved to find out how she did make it all the way to LA in the end

Despite some of the lesser believable parts above, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It wasn't perfect, but definitely better than most. Look forward to more books from this author.

I think that the uncomfortable premise of "Happy Family" -- a Chinese immigrant becoming involved in the life of a white American woman and her adopted Chinese daughter -- was its strongest attribute. This is a complicated situation, and misunderstandings between Jane, the mother, and Hua, who becomes her nanny, abound. The author gives them space to breathe. I found myself cringing with recognition at some of Jane's behavior, but she is well-meaning. Her and Hua's failure to communicate is an interesting tragedy. The meditation on the relationships between Chinese, Americans, and American-born Chinese was thought-provoking. Hua's memories of China and experience of New York were vividly drawn.

The book's weaker points, as other reviewers have noted, were the romantic subplot and Hua's dramatic action at the end, which led to an unrealistic denoumont. Lee's prose was uneven at times, but I didn't find it distracting or overwrought. I thought the novel was a nicely-paced quick read. If you think the premise sounds interesting, you should give it a try.

(Also, what a clever title!)

I picked up this book thinking I would be reading a sweet little novel about an adopted Chinese baby and how she fits into her new life. Instead, I found myself in the middle of a domestic drama where things are not as simple as they seem. The story is told from Hua's point of view - a recent Chinese immigrant who is hired as the child's nanny. This is a subject few writers have tackled. The author deserves kudos for taking this on.

As Hua explores New York City, I felt as if I was rediscovering the city along with her. Hua's opinions are not always kind, not always right (as far as this reader is concerned), at times, she seems too judgemental--this makes her all the more compelling. It was refreshing to read a story from the point of view of a recent immigrant.

*slight spoilers below*

In "Happy Family," a Chinese immigrant obtains a job helping to babysit a Chinese girl for her adoptive American parents. Although the parents and their adorable girl seem like the perfect family, things are not what they seem . . .

. . . although they're not far off. It's not very difficult to guess where this book is headed after the first 25 pages or so. Perhaps I've become too jaded by modern media to appreciate this book's message, but the overall plot seemed a bit predictable.

Although I don't consider myself a product of the ADD, MTV crowd, I found this book's pacing to be too slow. Events unfold very slowly, and the drawn out development in the meantime isn't worth the final payout, IMO. It's not until the final 50 pages or so that events begin to accelerate and the themes start to take a more concrete shape. By then, I just wasn't very interested in the characters, which struck me as a bit too archetypical.

I also didn't care for Lee's writing style. Her constant use of aggressive imagery felt forced and unnatural. Overall, I didn't personally care for the book but perhaps someone interested in adoption or multicultural studies would find it more compelling.

The story had potential and interest but there was no dimensionality...we had no insight into why anyone was thinking or doing anything, and certainly no emotion at all, intellectually, physically or expressed, from the main character. That cut off from the reader, it is hard to become invested in the story, character or outcome. By the end of the book, I felt a big...Huh?

I wanted to like it, and don't dislike it, but wish it had been "finished."

Although the book had interesting moments, the narrator was too detached throughout the entire story for me to be able to get into the book. The plot moves in fits and starts and there is a lack of emotion - necessary emotion - to it that causes the actions that do happen to feel almost inappropriate, like they're happening with no build up. Also, the narrator walks this line between being Chinese, and therefore periodically not understanding our crazy American ways, and being almost preternaturally observant and familiar with English and America.

I was also disappointed with this book - it was simplistic, unbelievable and I had a hard time feeling much empathy for any of the characters. Most of the characters were unlikable for the sake of being unlikable and many characters, such as Evan, were placed in the story but made no meaningful contributions to the storyline. As a Caucasian parent of an adopted Chinese girl, I was offended on more than one occasion by the obvious lack of understanding of the dynamics of adoption, whether domestic or international. One example would be when the character Jane refers to her adopted daughter's biological parents as her child's "real" parents. I personally don't know of any parents who have adopted a child and don't consider themselves the "real" parents. The story was trite and ridiculous - I felt as if Lee wrote it on a whim, didn't little research and somehow managed to get it published. It was a lost opportunity to gain meaningful insight into into a huge array of topics including immigration, prejudice, cultural norms, etc. And sadly, the character Lily remained insignificant throughout it all. Perhaps that is what Lee did best.