Customer Reviews

A Thread of Sky: A Novel

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this book in about three days and that's saying something since I had children! I really enjoyed it and immediately wished there was a sequel. My favorite novels are those that I learn something from and this is a book that both illuminates and entertains through beautiful writing. Fei manages to combine sociology, history, women's studies, and rich character development to create a unique but extremely accessible story with a lot of depth and intelligence. At times heart wrenching, Fei has an amazing ability to see the world through the eyes of women of a variety of ages, personalities and experiences. I frequently found myself admiring how incredibly authentic all of her characters feel. In her first novel, Fei is already showing what an insightful and compelling writer she is. Can't wait for more!

Ever since high school American lit classes, I've searched for texts that speak deeply of diaspora, womanhood, and strength - ideas that I felt shaped my life as a young Asian American. I set out wanting inspiration and a contemporary edge in my stories; I wanted to be rocked by great writing. Deanna Fei's A THREAD OF SKY is all that and more. This book had me missing subway stops and staying up late to read, unable to let go of the characters and unwilling to part with the emotional universe of their lives. Fei's prose is sharply beautiful and alive, packed with lines so powerful they make you catch your breath, then look for someone with whom you can share. Here's a story that can illuminate questions, connections, and truths in any reader's experience. It had me thinking, excitedly: this is life, this is love, this is art.

Get this book!! A THREAD OF SKY will sweep you away.

With her debut novel, A THREAD OF SKY, Deanna Fei serves notice that she is one of the powerful, unique voices emerging on the literary scene. This is literary fiction at its best, the engaging story of three generations of Chinese-American women who take a trip to China, along the way confronting issues of cultural identity, the gnawing presence of history, and the complexities of family. The characters are textured, nuanced, sympathetic and vividly developed. Fei's prose is lyrical, surprising, full of poetic images, sharp, sometimes funny, and always sincere. This is a moving, wonderful book that should be of interest to all who appreciate fine fiction. It is a book about mothers and daughters, identity, war and dislocation, modern Chinese history, and the secrets that every family carries and confronts in the present day. A first-rate book that will surely endure.

Three generations of women from a Chinese-American family take a tour of China. For the revolutionary grandmother, it's a difficult homecoming. For her two daughters, it's a chance to determine where they want their own future to lie. For the three granddaughters, all at transition points, it's an opportunity to reconnect with the family and explore their priorities. The book could have done a lot more with these themes; it lightly touches on and glides over many difficult themes. They stay in the mind without being truly plumbed.

The reason to read this book is the author's wise and big-hearted understanding of her characters. Readers can rely on such a benevolent and unflinching intelligence as their guide though the intersection of social currents, history, time, space, and the private life of one family. The triptych structure of the book (The Astronomers, The Constellations, The Stars) suggests that these human bumblings have a connection to the cosmic, and A Thread of Sky delivers. Fei crystallizes into language and narrative the paradoxical desires for solitude and connection: in this family, their love for one another is often inadequate and at the same time too much to bear. Their story is told with attitude and wit: "Shame was productive, though; it spurred her to do better," the binging and purging youngest sister thinks to herself as she considers her artistic creations. This novel is heart-breaking and brilliantly put together and certainly worth your time as a reader.

I quickly kindled my way through this book! The story flowed and pulled me along with it's beautiful writing style and suspenseful plot. The female characters were very relate-able and their relationships are so emotionally raw. I laughed and cried with the 6 of them, and wished I could hug them in real life. My many mirrored experiences while traveling in China also helped me to easily bond with this book, so personally it was very real and nostalgic. Aside from this, the book no less stands on it's own merits. It brightly paints China during a pivotal period in it's myriad history and yet it's universally assessable. Though I wouldn't be surprised if having read it, it made you want to check out the place on your own ESPECIALLY Haungshan, the real thing gives sense to all those ethereal Chinese paintings. The clearly distilled bits of history are also well woven into the personal storyline and gave more depth and context to the older characters and the country. All in all, I THROUGHLY enjoyed it -- it showed talent, real emotional commitment, and hard work from the author.

Deanna Fei has written a story about three generations of women in one Chinese family, all of whom are strong, capable and successful but each of whom also has a hidden secret, burden, or problem. They have not shared this personal aspect of themselves with anyone in the family because they feel it would be a sign of weakness. Instead, each struggles alone creating alienation and separation from the one thing they really need, which is support, understanding, and acceptance from those who love them the most. In the first 12 pages of the book, the reader is introduced to Irene a woman in her mid-fifties who recently and unexpectedly lost her husband Bill to a fatal car crash. Irene was totally surprised by Bill's sudden decision to accept a job assignment in Maine, which he did independently, without first discussing it with her. He had explained he "needed a break." Irene felt she was abandoned. She had announced to each daughter, "Your dad is leaving us," which is how she felt. When he said "Good bye", she had uttered the fateful words, "Good riddance" which now haunt her relentlessly as she rethinks back to the day he drove off. Irene feels she has fallen down a black hole from which she can not return, she entered that dark tunnel from where she can not find the light at the end.

When Irene married, she was at the height of her career, a genetic research scientist working for a firm which was seeking a cure for Alzheimers Disease. Irene initially had outstanding results and felt she was closing in on discovering the cause of this very serious chronic illness but then without warning, her mice died of unknown causes. No one who took over her research (after she took a maternity leave of absence with the birth of her first daughter) could duplicate her results, minus the dead mice, of course. After that point, Irene dedicated her self to becoming a successful mother, she put forth the same effort and energy into motherhood that she did into nearly everything else in her life - she aimed to succeed, to become the best. She decided to celebrate special events and holidays something not done in her past, to create memories, traditions in her family, which now included three daughters and a husband. Irene had grown up in China where the only birthday celebrated was her brother's, when her mother made longevity noodles. Irene embraced American customs and traditions with a passion. She created a coccoon of safety and love for her family but the sudden death of her husband of thirty years changed everything in her life. Irene felt her life unraveling completely. Two of her daughters were adults and the third nearly so, essentially they no longer relied on her. Irene definitely felt alone. Then she got the bright idea of taking a tour to China with her three daughters, her only sister and her mother. Taking a trip together was something they never did before. This trip gave Irene focus and promised a closeness she wish she had developed much earlier in life with all of them. Due to the death of their dad, her three daughters reluctantly agreed to go on the trip. Little did they imagine how it would alter their perspective on the meaning of family, love and provide an understanding of their ancient Chinese roots. It provided a lasting and positive impact on their lives which they could never have otherwise achieved. All three generations of women in Irene's family developed a bond they never expected to happen! Most of them joined this tour reluctantly. Even her sister Susan, who was not thrilled with the idea either, had come face to face with a personal nemesis of the past, with which she needed to make peace.

Irene's eldest daughter, Nora had become a successful Wall Street broker, one of the few females to break into this traditional male role. However, unknown to anyone in the family, she had problems with committment to her boyfriend Jesse. Everyone naturally thought Jesse was the problem, but in fact, he had asked Nora to marry him several times and she delayed her response, being satisified to leave things as they were, ie. living together. Nora had a morbid feared he would cheat on her, like his father had done to his mother. In China, Nora found herself in a difficult predicament, an unexpected event occured, something for which she was totally unprepared. To her amazement, when her personal predicament became known to her family, she was embraced with their love and support, which seemed unimaginable to her before opening up to them. Irene's second daughter, Kay, went to live in China after graduating from college. She wanted to explore her laojia, ancestral homeland, to get a feel for her roots. She was studying in China and had a passion for women's rights. She also strung along several male friends without getting personally involved with any of them. She had not known what it was to fall in love and give of herself completely, that is, until she met Byron, another Chinese American passenger on this tour. Sophie, Irene's youngest daughter, was destined to be the third valedictorian in the family. She was completing applications for college, when her mother brought up the idea of a tour to China. Sophie had a hidden secret which she had accidentallyy revealed only to her boyfriend. To her embarrassment and eventual relief, her secret problem would become known to her whole family who would help her deal with it and conquer it. Lastly, Irene's mother, Lin Yulan, who was an enigma to both of her adult daughters as well as to her three granddaughters, turned out to have a hidden past which awed the family: they learned grandma had been a revolutinonary working for the Nationalst Chinese and for women's rights. They all developed a new respect for her. Ma, as she was called, lived in California with Lou, her eldest and only son. She had not spoken to her husband, who remained in China, for over 15 years, no one knew or understood why. It was believed she got fed up with his womanizing outside of marriage but that was not the real reason. As the story ends, the reader is privileged to learn the truth. The only conflict I have reading this novel is why the author does not let the family learn of Grandma's reasons for breaking off relations with her husband. Perhaps, it should remain unknown because in reality, there are many unrevealed family secrets that die with those who are buried, on the other hand, for this author ir provides material for two new books, a prequel and a sequel on this family, and one to include this subject. I hope the author reads my review and takes up this suggestion! This book is thoroughly enjoyable. It is well worth learning what fateful event occurred between Grandpa and Grandma which could never be forgotten or forgiven. The reader will be surprised what an interestng twist the author managed to weave into this magnificent novel. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

I picked up a copy of "A Thread of Sky" over Fourth of July weekend, and literally didn't leave the apartment until I'd completed it. Yes, it's that good. Deanna Fei sketches powerful portraits of three generations of women confronting their own individual demons, and sends them spiraling across the pages in a way that's poignant, at times painful, and always compelling.

Altogether, it's a haunting, thought-provoking read, and one that I imagine would strike a chord with any empathetic reader. The themes involved -- family, elusive loss, connections to history that both beckon and challenge -- are universal and enduring. I loved it: enjoy.

Deanna Fei's A THREAD OF SKY is a lyrical look at life for one complicated family -- one of my favorite types of stories. In Fei's novel are issues as diverse as racism and family dynamics, infidelity and bulimia. Pregnancy. Marriage. Choosing a career over raising children. Being a woman in a man's world. And learning to let others in.

Though I found it difficult to connect with Irene's younger daughters, Kay and Sophie, I was consistently interested in Nora and her struggles as the head of the family household -- even though she'd left years ago to become a homeowner and stock broker, a profession in which she has excelled. I know the pangs of familial guilt -- the struggle to help everyone, even at your own detriment; the challenge of guiding, supporting and bolstering everyone up. After her father's death, Nora must take care of everything for Irene, who can barely function. And I always wanted what was best for Nora.

A THREAD OF SKY is an interesting novel -- especially since we know that a trip to China is what will anchor the six women together. Irene, Ma, Kay, Sophie, Nora and Susan, their aunt, all arrive for a trek across their homeland. I loved seeing the country -- its people, its traditions -- through their eyes. Kay's sense of not wanting to look like a "tourist" fascinated me, too, and I understood where she was coming from. Having worked hard to live independently in China, the last thing she wanted was to hit all the tourist traps with her family. It was embarrassing -- and seemed to belittle her experience there.

But my heart couldn't help but break for Irene, who worked tirelessly to make the trip fun for everyone. Buying cheesy souvenirs. Consulting Kay on the best place to see the Great Wall -- apart from the peddlers, sweaty tourists and trinket-wielding vendors. For Irene, a woman seeking answers, this vacation felt like a last-chance effort to reconnect with the family she feels slipping away. I don't know if she got what she wanted -- but maybe she did. Maybe it just came in a different form.

There was too much emotional distance between the many characters and me to say I fell in love with this book, but Fei's beautiful prose kept me turning the pages and hungry for more. My favorite passage reads,

"Her mother and sister, herself and her daughters -- they had all set out, in a way, to be astronomers. Focused on chasing the unattainable, on charting the unknowable, and forgetting what made them who they were, what gave meaning to their lives in the end -- the connections between them. It was time they all remembered."

And isn't that what we're all seeking? A way back home -- and to each other?

Regardless of your gender or nationality, Deanna Fei's book is a great read for those who enjoy books with great characters and solid prose that takes them through transformation. I was reminded of THE JOY LUCK CLUB and Amy Tan when I first sat down to read this, but Fei manages to capture a unique voice and style that explores the depth of human relationships, particularly those among females. I enjoyed the book for its sense of diversity and how our values shape us given the circumstances of our time. The character conflicts that evolve when a woman is tragically thrust into widowhood and decides to take her mother, sister and daughters to China to reconnect with their culture. The varying perspectives from a generational front, combined with Asian American culuture born during various stages of post-modern society make this a fascinating read. If you are in charge of a Diversity book club at your office, I highly recommend you offer this book as a selection! Fei writes with great confidence and manages to weave intricate stories into one truly cohesive and stirring volume. A great summer read!