Wednesday Reads: Sherman Alexie & Maggie Chen King
Wednesday, November 1st, 2017 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jesse_the_kYou don't have to say you love me —Sherman Alexie, Jr.
print, large print, ebook, audio
A detailed examination of Spokane Indian Alexie's childhood on the rez, his complex relationship with his mother and family, interspersed with poems. His youth involved many medical challenges, strong family ties, continuous abuse, and grim poverty. His mother was both a revered figure in her tribe and a furious, mean, angry drunk. Both mother and son are bipolar, and their tragic and triumphant histories are explored with Alexie's signature black humor. The book made me so sad I had to stop halfway through the excellent narration by the author. I hope to return to it someday.
An excess male—Maggie Shen King
print, ebook, audio
Intriguing near-future novel set in China, still awash in communist sloganeering and community pressure, supported by independent capitalist enterprises. The cultural preference for male children, combined with many years of the CCP's one child policy, results in significant surplus males. Shen King creates a polyandrous society where women still don't have power, and a detailed world that could (almost) make the gender imbalance work. But what struck me most is the story telling: the chapters rotate between first-person accounts by the four principal characters. Each is the hero of their own story, of course; none are reliable narrators. Two of the principal characters seem to have learned about life solely from romance novels. The other two, brothers, are susceptible to arrest, sterilization, and prison because they are "Willfully Sterile" (gay) and a "Lost One" (autistic).
print, large print, ebook, audio
A detailed examination of Spokane Indian Alexie's childhood on the rez, his complex relationship with his mother and family, interspersed with poems. His youth involved many medical challenges, strong family ties, continuous abuse, and grim poverty. His mother was both a revered figure in her tribe and a furious, mean, angry drunk. Both mother and son are bipolar, and their tragic and triumphant histories are explored with Alexie's signature black humor. The book made me so sad I had to stop halfway through the excellent narration by the author. I hope to return to it someday.
Read if ... you want to know more about Alexie, or how art can thrive in grim circumstances, or how Spokane Indians have survived the Columbian invasion.
Avoid if ... you're not interested in explicit explorations of child abuse--sexual, physical, and neglect. Complex, conflicted parent-child interactions
An excess male—Maggie Shen King
print, ebook, audio
Intriguing near-future novel set in China, still awash in communist sloganeering and community pressure, supported by independent capitalist enterprises. The cultural preference for male children, combined with many years of the CCP's one child policy, results in significant surplus males. Shen King creates a polyandrous society where women still don't have power, and a detailed world that could (almost) make the gender imbalance work. But what struck me most is the story telling: the chapters rotate between first-person accounts by the four principal characters. Each is the hero of their own story, of course; none are reliable narrators. Two of the principal characters seem to have learned about life solely from romance novels. The other two, brothers, are susceptible to arrest, sterilization, and prison because they are "Willfully Sterile" (gay) and a "Lost One" (autistic).
Read if ... you want to know what structures could support 40 million unmarriageable males.
Avoid if ... you don't enjoy reading about state murder, massive cult of compliance, autistic and gay characters as inevitable losers.