I feel vaguely guilty doing this book review, since it's kind of like stealing the words that Maryn was just about to guess when we were playing Taboo. She lent me this book that she'd been talking about, called Simple Pleasures, by Madeleine Thien, so I'd have something to read on the ferry ride back from Vancouver, and it was definitely the best thing I've read in quite a while.
These stories are amazing and incredibly touching. Admittedly, part of what made it hit so close to home for me was that several of the main characters were women and girls with Chinese ancestry, raised in Canada, and Vancouver, no less. So that made things all that much more personal for me. But the impact, I think, goes way beyond that, and I don't think that you need to have a particular cultural or ethnic background to appreciate them. A word of warning, though: they may make you want to cry on public transit, so be warned where you read them. My steely exterior got me through, though. See if yours does.
Picture Book: At this Very Moment
12 years ago
1 comment:
yeah, this one left me weepy too. It was so good that I wanted to lend it out right away when i finished it, yet at the same time i wanted to crouch over it in a snarling display of possessive dominance. I settled for lending it out to someone whom I knew would appreciate it, but first i threatened the lendee with dismemberment and painful death unless return was prompt. I barely restrained myself from asking for some precious piece of memorabilia as a guarantor of safe return. Normally, i'm pretty free and easy with literature. Comes with the job, see. but not with this book.
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