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Book Reviews of China Dog: And Other Tales from a Chinese Laundry

China Dog: And Other Tales from a Chinese Laundry
China Dog And Other Tales from a Chinese Laundry
Author: Judy Fong Bates
ISBN-13: 9781582431888
ISBN-10: 1582431884
Publication Date: 7/2002
Pages: 160
Rating:
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 4

3.6 stars, based on 4 ratings
Publisher: Counterpoint Press
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

2 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed China Dog: And Other Tales from a Chinese Laundry on + 28 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
The writing is full of compassion, insight, and honesty.
reviewed China Dog: And Other Tales from a Chinese Laundry on + 54 more book reviews
Book Description:
Vivid, richly textured, wryly funny, a collection of linked stories about a host of Chinese immigrants from the turn of the century to the present.
A chorus of immigrant voices populates Judy Fong Bates's graceful and poignant first collection. Denizens of the ubiquitous small towns around Ontario, as far from their native land as can be imagined yet united by their proximity to the local Chinese laundry, her characters have in common their driving desire to assimilate, to fit in, to belong to a "majority" culture. But they are also people trapped by a certain cultural pride in confronting a world that may feign acceptance while at the same time reminding them that they are "other."

In the words of the Toronto Globe and Mail, Judy Fong Bates's "deceptively simple narratives expose the hopes and hardships that define her characters' lives." Her graceful writing is full of compassion, insight, and honesty; it opens our eyes to the commonality of what it is to be human.