Run Me To Earth

by Paul Yoon

BOOK CLUB’S REVIEW

This is a story about three teenage orphans struggling to survive in Laos, during the civil war and how their lives are shattered by war. It is also a story about human resilience and the bonds of friendship that last a lifetime.

There were polar opposite opinions in the group about the way Yoon portrayed the three main characters. The first was that he made us care deeply about the three orphans by depicting horrifying scenes and placing the three orphans in them. The reader routes for their survival. The opposite opinion was that Yoon doesn’t develop the characters enough leaving the reader with too many questions about their decisions later on in the book.

The author leaves a lot of space for the reader to process the horrors of war on such young children and the implications it has on their future. This was perceived both positively and negatively by the group. Some of us appreciated that space, others would have preferred more detail from the author in order to be more involved in the story.

But did Yoon do this on purpose? We suspect he did. As with life in general, many memories become blurred, confused and sometimes forgotten, and we can imagine for anyone who has had to survive a traumatic childhood like our protagonists, Alisak, Prani and Noi, is bound to want to forget.

Would the book group read another Paul Yoon book? The short answer is Yes. The long answer is with ‘Run me to Earth’ the author was able to bring a relatively unknown part of history back into our thoughts and memories. We look forward to reading another forgotten part of history when Yoon comes out with his next book.

Breasts and eggs

by Mike Kawakami
Discussed on April 15th 2021

BOOK CLUB’S REVIEW

This story is narrated by Natsuko, a poor woman from Osaka living in Tokyo. She is a young woman who wants a child but only through artificial insemination as she abhors the idea of having sex. The only problem is that artificial insemination is only available in Japan to infertile couples, not single women.
The book is split into two parts. The first part is the author’s blog entry. The second part happens a decade later. These parts don’t flow easily from one to another, making the two halves difficult to connect. Natsuko is a lonely woman living in the heart of Tokyo. She has no close friendships. She has no family. Wherever she goes she asks advice on whether she should have a baby or not. She gets mixed reactions from all the people she interacts with. We found Natsuko to have an immature outlook on all her relationships, but especially the impending relationship she wishes to have with her unborn child. She repeats over and over again that she wants to know her kid. There’s no sentimentality involved. The book ends with Natsuko having a child. She is happy but a lot of the book club members were left thinking asking ourselves if she should have had a baby or not.
Would we recommend the book? Yes and no. Yes, if you are thinking of having a baby. It made a few of our us analyze the pros and cons of having a baby. Other members found the book lacking in structure and couldn’t empathize with the main character.

Wow, no thank you

by Samantha Irby
Discussed on March 2021

Book club’s review

Samantha Irby is an American comedian, author and blogger. “Wow, no thank you” is her latest essay collection.

Samantha writes in a raw, realistic, emotional, and humorous way. She writes about areas of her life, ranging from embarrassingly personal health issues to money, sexuality, and work. Overall, her essays received mixed reviews from our group. Those who were familiar with the US culture were more favorable towards her style of writing and the topics she writes about. Those who were not so familiar, the American slang, language and innuendos were lost on them. Her dry humour and sarcasm left some of the readers a little perplexed: you either like the dark comedy, or it comes across as desperately sad.

That being said, everyone agreed that they were able to relate to an essay or two: whether it was about a middle-life crisis, becoming a step-mom, or wishing at the last minute to cancel attending an event that you had previously agreed to go. We all related to her witty adventures.

Would we read it again? Probably not. Would we recommend it? Probably not. But one thing is certain: some of us either laughed through most of it, others barely finished it due to its onerousness.

If I had your face

by Frances Cha
Discussed on February 2021

Book club’s review

This was a riveting debut novel set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, by Cha, a former culture and travel editor for CNN in Seoul. The story revolves around four young women making their way in a world defined by unrealistic beauty standards, after-hours room salons catering to wealthy and mostly unpleasant men, ruthless social hierarchies, and K-pop mania. What did our book club think of it? Most of us welcomed the unusually fresh insight into the real Korea. Some of us found that at times the characters could blur and the timeline was confusing. We all agreed that these portraits of working women accentuated the importance of female friendships. Would we read another book of Cha’s? The answer was a unanimous yes.