Book Review: PAPER NAMES Susie Luo

I found PAPER NAMES by Susie Luo on the Libby app. Check for your local library on the app and read great books for free!📚

In certain sections, this book is beautiful and moving. I enjoyed the primary characters, Engineer educated in China and working in the US, Tony, and his first-generation US-born daughter, Tammy, well enough, for what they were, which were unlikable characters who changed relative to each other through the course of the story. Their troubled relationship hurt for me to read, and felt rewarding when they gained personal ground:

“Tammy! You did it!” he said, blocking the TV. “Did what?” she said. His heart swelled so rapidly that he lost his breath. He wanted to tell her about the entire day, what she had made possible, every one of her words that had come out of his mouth during the review. But only one thing, a memory buried deep in his bones, almost someone else’s voice, spoke through him. “Ni shi wo de xin gan.” “What’d you say?” said Tammy. How could he explain it? The phrase didn’t translate well. His mother had used it sparsely. Only when the moment warranted it, when no other words would do. A sweet phrase that meant you are the parts of me that I can’t live without. She had whispered it to him when she hugged him outside the airport before his virgin flight to America. “Dad?” said Tammy. Her eyes shone, unblinking. “You are my heart and liver,” he said. She craned her head back to the TV. “Dad, that’s so gross,” she mumbled, as she put more pretzels into her mouth. p119

But overall, I really struggled to connect to this book. I didn't find Luo's choice to torture the time line either necessary to this narrative, nor did its execution add anything to the story's telling. Perhaps Luo was attempting to mask the narrative's lack of shape and purpose, but an alternative time line was not a good stylistic approach. She would have been better off simply devoting the story to a plot and theme.

For readers who don't pay such close attention to style, this book would probably be a great read. It's certainly moving in sections.

Rating: 🏎🏎.5 / 5 fast cars

Recommend? Sure, immigrant stories offer a lot

Finished: June 26 2023

Format: Digital, Libby 

Read this book if you like:

⏳️ Experimental timelines

👥️ Multiple perspectives 

🌎 Immigrant stories 

🗣 OWN Voices stories