Tag: debut novel

Win Me Something, by Kyle Lucia Wu

This forthcoming, debut novel from Kyle Lucia Wu recounts the experience of a young woman who becomes a live-in nanny for a wealthy New York family. For me, the protagonist of Win Me Something, Willa Chen, feels like a familiar character – someone we’ve all known. After graduating college she’s left without a clear direction in either her professional or personal life. She ends up a nanny by chance, and her relationships develop throughout the narrative more out of convenience versus intention. She reflects at length about her childhood and family relations, but her reflections don’t seem to have a significant impact on her decisions or progress – she struggles to find her place with her “hired” family as much as she did with her own.

While I found the story and characters familiar and even relatable at times, I was also a little bit disappointed in them. There wasn’t anything especially surprising or gripping about their development – it felt hard to root for the protagonist because she barely rooted for herself. And while there are some meaningful comments on class and race throughout this debut, they didn’t take up quite as much space as I would have liked.

This is an easy, modern read with a familiar caste of characters and relatable struggle, but all told it left me somewhat underwhelmed.

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How Much Of These Hills Is Gold

The answer: One. Hundred. Percent.

I have had How Much of These Hills is Gold on my TBR list for months, and I’m kicking myself now for putting it off even that long. I think C Pam Zhang does an incredible job in this novel of developing both characters and plot.

If you’ve read a few of my other reviews, you’ve probably noticed a pattern: I love books that subtly touch on very important, complex themes or topics. Themes like family, love, race, gender, and the American dream – all of which play a part in this stunning story of one immigrant family’s struggle during the California gold rush.

And if it wasn’t enough to write a gripping story with fascinating characters, C Pam Zhang also blew me away with the elegance of her prose, which dips at time into being borderline poetry. Basically, no matter what you’re looking for in a novel (craft, a good story, memorable characters, etc.) you’ll find it in this incredible book.

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Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi

I’m so late to the game in getting to Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel, Homegoing. And I have to admit, it was not at all what I expected.

In a panel earlier this week, I heard an editor from a prestigious publishing house say that, when it comes to positioning a book, the publishing industry tends to pigeonhole writers into certain categories and that often, their race or heritage plays a role in creating that (often quite biased and racist) definition. I can’t help but thinkin about these comments in relation to Homegoing, given all the reviews that assert “[Toni Morrison’s] influence is palpable” (Vogue) and that Gyasi is “Carrying on in the tradition of her foremothers – like Toni Morrison […]”.

And while certainly Gyasi touches on similar subject matter to Toni Morrison, reviewers who have drawn comparisons to Alex Haley’s Roots or Chinua Achebe’s work feel more apt to me. But I would have added less-obvious comparisons to the list: the epic, intergenerational story that Gyasi has crafted so vividly and so artfully in Homegoing reminds me of Allende’s House of Spirits and even Ken Follet’s Century Trilogy (though of course, much shorter).

The reason I bother to parse out all these comparisons is because I think what Gyasi does so well in this novel (which I should say, I really enjoyed!) is create a thread between generations. And at the same time, she gives readers enough familiarity with each generation that those threads are easy to follow and you can’t help but care deeply for characters even when they appear only for a chapter or two. I found myself wondering how I could care so deeply for a character within a few short pages, and came to the conclusion that was because of this “thread” Gyasi weaves through the narrative. As with our personal ancestry or bloodlines, when we consider the events of generations past, we inherit some of their trauma and injustices, some of their pride and beliefs. It lives on within us and makes us care about that thread. I think that is an incredibly powerful and difficult message to demonstrate through literature but Gyasi, even in her debut novel, has proven herself up to the challenge.

Are you a fan of intergenerational narratives? Did you enjoy Gyasi’s 250-year-long thread? Let me know what you thought about Homegoing in the comments below.

Keep Reading:

Isabel Wilkerson’s fantastic review of Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing. Warning! Spoiler alert!

Finished Homegoing? Loved it? Ready for more? Try Yaa Gyasi’s latest novel: Transcendent Kingdom

Get the book.

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