TDJ Reads

“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

This month TDJ is reading
Bury What We Cannot Take
a novel by Kirstin Chen

The day nine-year-old San San and her twelve-year-old brother, Ah Liam, discover their grandmother taking a hammer to a framed portrait of Chairman Mao is the day that forever changes their lives. 

To prove his loyalty to the Party, Ah Liam reports his grandmother to the authorities. But his belief in doing the right thing sets in motion a terrible chain of events.

You avid readers out there, share what you’re reading. Let’s go!!

Image from Amazon

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BOOK REVIEW

Done 01/28/2019

Bury What We Cannot Take: A Novel-Kirstin Chen was released March 20, 2018.

Set in 1957 Drum Wave Island-Gulangyu, Fujian Province, China.

Nine-year-old San San and her brother Ah Liam witness their grandmother smashing the portrait of Chairman Mao.  As a way to prove his loyalty to the party, Ah Liam reports his grandmother and turns their lives upside down.  Now they must flee their home on Drum Wave.  Their father is already living in Hong Kong taking care of the family business (so he would like for the family to believe) and along with their mother, Seok Koon, have come up with a plan to get their family to Hong Kong, but when the mother goes to secure passports for herself, their grandmother and both children, the government will only issue them passports on the condition she leave one of her children behind as proof her and her family will return. Begging, in distress and in haste Seok Koon makes the bad decision to leave her daughter, San San behind. 

The rest of the book tells how San San struggles daily to not get caught by the officials as she comes up with a plan of her own to get to Hong Kong, how she survives, how Seok Koon tries everything imaginable to get her daughter back, how the Ah Liam struggles with guilt, but still has his loyalty to the Party, and how the father is barely holding on and is secretly in financial ruin, living with his mistress in Hong Kong.  

Bury What We Cannot Take, is a good read, and most of the time it’s a page turner, but there were several things I didn’t like about the book.  One was the ending, and the other was character development.  The ending seemed rushed, and unreal.  Some of the characters like the dad for instance, has a huge presence throughout the book, but at the end he has such a minimal part.