Good Fortune

 

Good Fortune by C. K. Chau

416 pp

Elizabeth Chen and her sisters Jane, Lydia, Mary, and Kitty live in New York City's Chinatown.  Their mother is a real estate agent and their father runs a restaurant.  Elizabeth's mother sells their beloved community center to a company who plans to change a lot about it.  The two investors are Brendan Lee (the equivalent of Mr. Bingley) and Darcy Wong (the Darcy character).  What ensues is very similar to the novel "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen but with modern twists.  Jane falls in love with Brendan Lee.  His sister and Darcy Wong try to keep him away from her.  Elizabeth and Darcy have sparks, but Darcy's prejudice and Elizabeth's pride get in the way.  In the background is the fear that the buyers will change the community center so much it will no longer work for the people in the neighborhood.  Mr. Collins is part of the book and is not someone there to inherit their father's wealth, but instead works for Catherine  de Bourgh and offers Elizabeth (who is unemployed) a job.  She does not want to take it, but her friend Charlotte does.  Eventually, Elizabeth goes to visit Charlotte.  There she meets Catherine De Bourgh, her daughter, Darcy's sister, etc.  The pride and prejudice eventually get overthrown and Elizabeth and Darcy fall in love.  There are several modernizations, but the basic story line is still there and sometimes gets in the way.

I love Jane Austen, but didn't feel like this kept the spirit while becoming something new.  As a former English major, I may be too picky.  I give the book 3 of 5 stars,

The Bohemians

 The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik 352 pages

Dorothea Lange. I wonder how many young people recognize her name or recognize the most famous photograph, “Migrant Mother” taken in 1936 during the Great Depression. Probably not that many in the thirty and younger crowd. I have to admit, while I know the name and the photograph, I knew little about the woman behind the camera. Author Daznik has written a compelling biographical fiction novel that allows readers to get to know Dorothea during her coming-of age as an artist in the 1920s.

Dorothea left her native Hoboken, New Jersey, when she as twenty-three years old for San Francisco. She arrived in a town, only twelve years from the 1906 earthquake, that celebrated and misfits.

One of the first things I learned about Dorothea was that, when she was seven years old, she suffered from polio which left her with a stunted leg and a noticeable limp. She loved photography because she felt that she could hide behind a camera; that no one would notice her.

When she first arrived, she was pickpocketed of all the money, some two hundred dollars, she had in the world. In a city where she knew no one, she was terrified. She spent her first night there on the street. One of the first people she was met was, in the book, called Caroline Lee. In reality, Caroline is referred to as “Ah-yee” or the “Chinese Mission Girl” in the historical data.

The two became quite close. Carolina introduced her to the Monkey Block, where all the artists lived. It once occupied the site of the Transamerica Building. Its pyramid-shaped is one of the city’s most iconic buildings. Back then, Monkey Block was “a four-story artists’ colony that housed some eight hundred writers, performers, and artists…and it was the heart of San Francisco’s bohemian area.” According to the Author’s Notes, that only Chinatown still stands---and looks much like it did in the 1920s.

“’The Bohemians’ is about a lost time and hidden history.” It is a story that resonates in today’s world---anti-immigration sentiments, corrupt politics, war, a world pandemic and racism.

I almost put this novel on my DNF list, but I kept seeing it on all the book sites. Granted I didn’t really care for the first 80 pages, but if you decide to read this novel, hang in there until then. Something grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. “The Bohemians” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

China Dolls

China Dolls by Lisa See  400 pages

 The story’s locale is 1938 San Francisco. Three young Chinese-American (or American-Chinese as I prefer since they were born in the USA) young women meet when they try out as dancers (or ponies) for the opening of the city’s glitzy new nightclub, Forbidden City.

Grace Lee is 17 years old. She arrive is the Bay Area with a few precious dollars, a whole lot of talent and a pair of dancing shoes She still bears the bruises from the savage beating her father gave her. She rather starve to death in an unknown town rather than go back home.

Helen Fong lives in Chinatown in her family’s compound. Her entire family, a traditional Chinese family, lives there. She works in her father’s laundry and any money she gets is given to her father for her brother’s education. Her traditional parents

Ruby Tom is a defiant young woman, ready to take on the world, with a secret she isn’t willing to share.

The girls become fast friends. They have two things in common: they want to break the stereotypical roles that their faces force then into and they want to be stars.  This is their story; the story of hard work, discrimination, love, and betrayal over the years of 1938 to 1948. They work the nightclub circuit, fall in love, and learn more about themselves, and the country they call home, than they ever dreamed possible.

The novel is broken into three section based on a quote from Buddha: the sun, the moon, and the truth.  Inside each section, Grace, Helen, and Ruby take turns telling their story. The problem was sometimes, most of the time the voices were indistinguishable. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great read, but since each girl’s story is told in first person, I had to keep looking back to remind myself who was talking. The best part of the novel was the backstory surrounding the nightclub-life.

I give China Dolls four out of five stars.