Red Plum

Rating:
Summary: Two thumbs up to Red Plum
Review: I would give two thumbs up to this interesting novel. I have read quite many Chinese American novels, but they are all about old Chinese immigrants or Chinese Americans who were born and grew up in North America (bananas, as they are called), but Red Plum is the first novel I've read about new immigrants' lives in North America and has quite fascinated me.

Although the theme of the book is about love, it is a literary work in every sense of the term. Interestingly, at one point, one of the characters even explains deconstruction in simple language. What also surprises me is that the entire novel does not have a single steamy scene, but yet the entire contents are highly intriguing all the way through.

Still another merit of the novel is that it will teach the reader a great deal about the Chinese in Canada, about Chinese culture and values, and about Chinese lives in Toronto. Honestly, I never knew there were so many Chinese living in Toronto until I read Red Plum. I totally enjoyed reading this novel and would recommend it to any fiction reader without any reservations.

Rating:
Summary: Red Plum, a charmingly engaging novel
Review: In the charmingly engaging novel Red Plum, the world is seen through an unconventional Chinese woman's point of view as the main character searches for a relationship that allows her to escape the monotonous "housewifely" existence. She fails in her relationships with an artist, a professor, and a businessman until she realizes that, for any relationship to succeed for her, she needs to be able to be herself. What makes the novel even more fascinating is that the author-because of his remarkably diverse background-is able to introduce the reader to the Chinese Community in North America, modern Chinese history, to art, philosophy, literary theory, the politics of teaching Chinese literature in North American universities, and to Chinese cuisine.