Eh, I gave up after slogging half of the way through. Impressive descriptive phrases aside, this novel is entirely tedious. Where's the plot arc? The protagonist comes off as a pasty, indolent child, spoiled soft by his position as the only son (born after three older sisters) of a Chinese couple relocated to San Francisco after the Cultural Revolution.

So what he has an almost-comically evil white stepmother? So what the author seeks to create a vibrant '50s hood? It's put to no use and the protagonist is a whiny wimp, not a victim of forced cultural assimilation.

What is amazing about children, what is amazing about immigrants facing off the cultural shock and inevitable clash- is adaptation. A character who adapts to nothing is useless. I would have much rather have heard the same story from the perspective of one of the protagonist's seemingly successful sisters. ( )

This is a novel about a little American born Chinese boy living in a poor neighborhood in San Fransico. His parents fled China with his 3 older sisters when the communists were taking over. When his mother is alive his culture and home life were very different than after her death and his father's new marriage to a white woman. The step-mother tried to get rid of everything Chinese and caused lots of chaos in the family. Add to this the fact that she locked the little boy out of the house in a very rough and dangerous neighborhood so she wouldn't have to deal with him. The story is mostly about how this very small target survives. A very quick and easy read. ( )