Helpful Score: 1
There are so many reasons to love this book it is hard to know where to begin.
Only a bilingual, bicultural writer could have pulled off a coup like this. With a story set in 1964, Revoyr artfully weaves the culturally complex past thoughts and actions of the main character into a wonderful setting and story. Her ability to slowly reveal the weaknesses of her main character keeps the reader in a near dream state, always wondering what new fact of the past or misconception of the intentions of others past and present, will reveal about this Asian male. In the end, Revoyr draws a picture that helps the reader discover the true interior voice of her main character and, if the reader is watching carefully, an honest inner dialogue that might take place in the mind of an Asian male who is constantly surrounded by strong women who both confuse, manipulate and humiliate him.
Revoyr's writing is artful. It was hard to keep in mind that one was reading fiction and not history. Although she acknowledges some "time frame" mistakes, they are too small to affect the story. Her research into the period was deep and her characters seem to fit flawlessly into the great backdrop of the "silent era."
If you like murder mysteries, but they aren't your favorite genre, you'll love the way Revoyr handles the murder mystery that hovers in the background of this story. It's like a wispy cobweb that you know hangs in the corner of the room, but there's no hurry to take it down. Like the spider still working on the greater web, Revoyr is weaving, weaving, weaving all the time to draw the reader in -- until she's ready to let you swat away the cobweb and see the corner clearly.
Only a bilingual, bicultural writer could have pulled off a coup like this. With a story set in 1964, Revoyr artfully weaves the culturally complex past thoughts and actions of the main character into a wonderful setting and story. Her ability to slowly reveal the weaknesses of her main character keeps the reader in a near dream state, always wondering what new fact of the past or misconception of the intentions of others past and present, will reveal about this Asian male. In the end, Revoyr draws a picture that helps the reader discover the true interior voice of her main character and, if the reader is watching carefully, an honest inner dialogue that might take place in the mind of an Asian male who is constantly surrounded by strong women who both confuse, manipulate and humiliate him.
Revoyr's writing is artful. It was hard to keep in mind that one was reading fiction and not history. Although she acknowledges some "time frame" mistakes, they are too small to affect the story. Her research into the period was deep and her characters seem to fit flawlessly into the great backdrop of the "silent era."
If you like murder mysteries, but they aren't your favorite genre, you'll love the way Revoyr handles the murder mystery that hovers in the background of this story. It's like a wispy cobweb that you know hangs in the corner of the room, but there's no hurry to take it down. Like the spider still working on the greater web, Revoyr is weaving, weaving, weaving all the time to draw the reader in -- until she's ready to let you swat away the cobweb and see the corner clearly.
