It's a wonderful story of his coming of age and finding his mother and himself. Deming did not know what happened to his mother and was scarred from her disappearance and his adoption by a Caucasian couple. Throughout the book, the voices of Polly and Deming are alternated and we learn of what transpires in the ensuing 10 or so years. Deming is eventually turned over to social services an adopted by a couple of college professors who live in rural NY. But then one day Polly goes to work and never comes home. As is usually the case with immigrant families, they are very tight knit.
Polly and her son (Deming) lived with Polly's boyfriend, his sister and her son.
The reader gets the back story of how the mother, Polly, came to arrive in NYC and work at a nail salon.
Read moreĪ very moving story of an illegal immigrant (Chinese) mother an the son born to her in the U.S. If you know nothing about immigrant struggles, how the laws can affect them, why people would leave their homes to seek a better life, you can learn from this novel, or you can watch a few episodes of 60 Minutes, a couple of documentaries, a newspaper to two - same difference. I wish the author had narrowed her focus, and given us more likable characters - at least one or two! I did not find any characters sympathetic - and that is a problem when so many other issues vex the novel. What happens when children move to cities or other countries and send home money to poor rural towns- it's here! Chinese people having gambling issues (stereotypes much?) - it's here! Professors being clueless about pop-culture - yup! Immigrants owing huge amounts to loan sharks who fund their voyage to a new country -ditto! the horror of children being separated from their parents due to deportation - 60 Minutes, the horrid conditions of the detention "jails" - several magazines - you get the picture - it's all here, and I mean all! Many issues were familiar from other sources - exploitation of new immigrants by nail salon owners (including the hierarchy of tasks - who does the lowly waxing vs. My main complaint is that it felt like the author did research, made a list of all the issues that could strike a young girl in rural China, a young boy being raised by a grandparent in China then being reunited with his mother, the fears and struggles of new immigrants, the reality of many female single immigrants, the insecurity of new adoptive parents, the insecurity of an adopted older child, the identity issues that may be caused by cross ethnic adoption, the search to find ones identity and purpose in life etc, and wrote her story to include them all. The writing is okay -a bit more editing could have improved the flow. Really wanted to love this novel, waited a long time to get a copy from my library, however I struggled to stick with it.
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