I really enjoy the simple and relaxing style of "American Born Chinese". It's one of the few books that made me sit down and read from begin to end in one gulp. The characters designs caught my eyes right away. I can tell by the cover that this is going to be a funny book to read. There aren't too much details, just simple lines and color. The information delivers short and clearly, even though it's a thick book, but I manage to get through it in just a couple hours.
Gene Luen Yang put the story together in a very interesting way. He made the readers travel back and forth between what seemingly unrelated stories. At first the book begins with a chapter based on the fable of Monkey King, then it suddenly switch to a totally different scene with Jin Wang, a typical Chinese American boy in school. Before I notice it, I made another jump to Danny and his Asian cousin. It's not until the end when I finally recognize that all these three stories are actually connected.
Well, just imagine how the heck in the world does the legendary Monkey King relates to American school kids far far away in the west. They don't live in the same time period, they don't belong to the same time zone, they don't even speak the same language. Still Yang's able to weave the characters together, and the ending really gives a smack over the head.
Yang's way of pacing out the story might be a little bit confusing at first, I felt like he just throw different short comic strips into the book randomly that doesn't make much sense. However as I read on, I realize that the story is much more than what it appears to be. It's about something we as human face constantly in our lives: who we want to be vs who we really are. Once I see the point of the story, everything makes sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment