Vanessa Hua

“...a flock of cranes rose from the lake, startling them all. Their magnificence proof of God. Necks extended, pointing like arrows to the heavens. Wings powerful and beating in time to his heart. Why shouldn't soaring precede every fall?”

Wow! Another new voice in the short fiction world and she completely dazzles with this excellent story collection. These are immigrant tales, mostly Asian Americans dealing with the experience of adapting to life in the San Francisco area. Navigating, show more with varying success to adjust and still stay connected with their heritage. Highly recommended. show less

This novel runs smoothly on all its plot wheels: immigrant communities, filial connections, and the frightening bottom that awaits those who don't have the combination of luck and skill required for success. Scarlett Chen is sent by her Chinese lover, a married factory manager, to a Chinese-run pregnancy home for care in LA, where she'll also be able to obtain American citizenship for the child. Due to an error on the ultrasound and her overall unhappiness with her confinement, Scarlett and show more a teenager, Daisy, steal the home's van and head for San Francisco. With some comradely help from the Chinatown community, both women have their babies and survive perilous times. This was a story well-told, an enjoyable combination of the realistic and the fanciful. show less

Interesting theme, and I appreciated the breadth of experiences focused around this point. It's apparent these stories are collected from years of writing as the voice advances. Worth reading but not going on my favorite shorts shelf.

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Lives up to all the hype on Goodreads. I don't know a better way to describe this than to say that it's utterly readable. I didn't know what to expect going in at all but I kind of feared from the first chapter that it would be an entire book describing the subtle and not-so-subtle power plays between the women in the pregnancy house. Luckily that turned out not to be true. It took a turn I didn't expect at all show more but which started off a great adventure. I like the parallel development of Scarlett and Boss Yeung as well as the secondary characters. I wish there'd been more from Daisy's own perspective but I imagine the author was trying not to let all the characters run out of control.

My one beef with this book is how easy it makes it seem to have an infant. I was astonished when I got to the "about the author" section and learned that the author has twin babies, because I couldn't imagine she'd ever spent any time around babies much less had her own. I mean, she tells us that Scarlett and Daisy struggle with their babies but I don't feel it. The babies are well-behaved and conveniently sleep or stay quiet whenever their mothers need them to. Lucky! Still, the babies aren't the focus of the story, just a catalyst for personal development, so I can forgive this.

This is a spectacular first novel. I will definitely keep an eye out for future books by Vanessa Hua. Highly recommended! show less