Review (5/5 Stars):
Usually when people read a book written in the first person, they focus on the main character and forget that they're only introduced to all the other characters through the main character. We forget that those people have their own stories or their own versions of the same story that we are currently reading. Wayson Choy provides the "side stories" of All That Matters in The Jade Peony. From Kiam (first brother's) point of view, I really only saw Liang as the useless girl, Jung as the bought son and Sekky as the sickly baby brother. After reading The Jade Peony, I've fallen in love with the entire family and I grew with them, experienced loss with them and am genuinely concerned about where Jung's love story is going to end up. I'm sure every Chinese Canadian can relate to the characters Wayson Choy has brought to life and feel that nostalgic tug reminding them of their own parents and Grandparents. I loved it.
Synopsis (SPOILERS):
This is the second book about a first generation Chinese Canadian family living in Vancouver in the 30s and 40s. The first book "All That Matters" was written in Kiam - "first brother"'s point of view. It was a hit as it depicted life through the eyes of a boy who traveled across the Atlantic ocean with his father and grandmother to grow up in Vancouver. "The Jade Peony" fills in the different sides of the story we didn't see when Kiam told it. It's told from the point of the view the other children in the household.
We first read about Jook Liang (the only sister). Hers was a sweet story of an unlikely friendship formed between a disfigured old man and a five year old girl who thought he was the Monkey King from the old Chinese tales she heard. Even as she grew up, she remained a faithful friend of Wong Suk and their friendship held even after he decided he would leave and return to China after being away for 50+ years.
The next segment belongs to Jung Sum (second brother). Jung Sum was an adopted child brought into the family when he was 4 (Kiam was 8 and Jook Liang was 2). In "All That Matters", he kind of just appeared and was accepted into the family, now the readers get to hear his story. Jung Sum tells his last memories of his drunk abusive father and being curled up beside his mother's corpse, and finally how he first discovered that he was "of the moon" as Poh Poh puts it. His story was one that people will never forget.
Finally we hear from the youngest - Sek Lung or Sekky as they affectionately call him. In every sibling's story, Sekky was the sickly one that got all the attention from Poh Poh and because he spent all his time with Poh Poh, he became weird and anti-social as she became more and more senile. In "The Jade Peony", Sekky tells his and Grandmama's story of friendship, loyalty and loss. The reader see how Poh Poh's death affected him at the tender age of 7 and how hard it was for him to let go of his only friend. About a year after Poh Poh's death, Sekky started to let go by meeting new friend's his age and became a "normal" little kid for a precious amount of time. One day, after accidentally setting a fire to a stack of newspapers, he found himself back under the watch of a babysitter - this time, the beautiful daughter of their neighbour Mrs. Lim. MeiLing took Sekky everywhere with her, even to the "wrong end of town" to meet with her Japanese boyfriend and they became fast friends. As this book was set in time of WWII, befriending the Japanese was considered traitorous and Sekky was confused as to what he should think of MeiLing's relationship with Kazuo. Kaz seems like a nice guy, always playing with Sekky when MeiLing brings him along, but at the end of the day, he's a Jap - the enemy. Eventually, Kazuo has to leave when all the Japanese in Vancouver were rounded up to camp. This causes Sekky to lose not one, but two friends as MeiLing dies while trying to induce a homemade abortion.
this good
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