Beautiful As Yesterday
-
- £3.99
-
- £3.99
Publisher Description
‘A delicate and brilliant novel on the arguments, triumphs, loves and differences of a Chinese family in America’
Xinran, author of Good Women of China
Mary and Ingrid are sisters, born and brought up in China, now living in the US. Mary is the older of the two; seemingly a devoted wife, mother, churchgoer, and with a well-paid job. But she is tormented by adultery, her grudge toward her parents, and her despair at work. Her estranged sister Ingrid, meanwhile, has never settled to anything, and is haunted by her college boyfriend’s tragic death. When their widowed mother travels to the US for the first time, they can’t avoid a family get-together. Amid all it stirs up, it becomes clear that the uneasy relationship between the sisters has its roots deeper than either has ever acknowledged – and extends to their parents and their homeland.
Beautiful as Yesterday is a penetrating exploration of belonging; of family and friendship, love and loss.
‘Fan Wu is an exciting storyteller with an original take on the disarray of family history and American culture, and, ultimately, how we manage to define ourselves’ Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this second novel from Wu (February Flowers), the story of two estranged sisters who have emigrated to the United States from China sings in places, but is otherwise wooden and unsurprising. In the turn-of-the-millennium Bay Area, Mary Chang is struggling to overcome a restlessness generated by the growing distance in her marriage; her bitter feelings toward her younger sister, Ingrid; and the impending six-month visit of her widowed mother which Mary hopes will become permanent. Having witnessed Tiananmen Square as a college student in China, Ingrid is now piecing together a living in New York as a tour guide and translator, traveling often, changing boyfriends just as frequently and hanging with artsy, bohemian friends. When her mother arrives in the U.S., Ingrid moves to San Francisco to be close by. Predictably, secrets from the past are revealed. A surprise plot twist in the climax is oddly devoid of tension. Shifting points of view among chapters don't clarify the characters, who remain half-formed and fuzzy. Though strong in the sections set in China, the book feels unfinished and derivative of Amy Tan and other Asian-American writers.
