Let's Talk Books

This was the best book I read last year.

Li’s brilliant debut plots the development of five Chinese-American university students into a heist-crew capable of stealing from some of the most important art museums in the world. But this is not really a heist novel, this is novel about people, about diaspora, and about colonialism. From Ivy League campuses to the bustle of Beijing, Parisian nights and the liminality of being 22, the book captures so much of the world, and of the human condition.

Each member of Will Chen’s heist crew felt fleshed out, in so many ways they felt real. Li imbued this found family with anger, grief, guilt, and unconditional love for one another. Each of these people were flawed, their faults as much a part of them, and their decision making, as their strengths. Will and Daniel, as the only 2 men of the group, managed at once a suave masculinity, and a nuanced awareness of their emotions. They were candidly vulnerable, although they seemed to have an easier time revealing their feelings to the women in their lives than others. The remaining 3 of the 5 members were Li’s core women, Alex, Lily, and Irene. Each of these women was united both by their heritage, and their roles as the eldest, or only, daughters in their family. Although their backgrounds where ostensibly different, their was a shared sense of responsibility, duty, and disappointment that felt achingly honest. I loved all of them, and I felt their desire for change.

Li is a subversive author, she takes preexisting tropes and archetypes, and she adjusts them just enough to be exciting and new, without taking away the reassurance of those familiar ideas. She has a lyrical way of writing, that is at once too slow, and perfectly paced. I have never read destruction that was so elegantly described, nor have I come across an author who so masterfully weaves a sense of urgency into seemingly innocent interactions. The late night talks, walks, and moments of reprieve in this novel do as much to move the plot forward as the action. Li is an exceptional talent.

Finally, and what I think she is most successful at, is presenting the liminal uncertainty, of being in your early 20s. Neither child nor adult, neither knowledgeable nor ignorant, constantly trying to find where you sit. Although her characters are doing something very unusual, their sense of loss, of being wholly without genuine direction, is so familiar. Even Daniel, the only person with a clear plan, is struggling with the question of his future. The only point of similarity I can make is Maggie Steifvater’s Raven Cycle, which I think has a similar sense of pervasive yearning- although no other similarities.

I have seen a lot of varied criticism about this novel, and up front I am not Asian-American, nor do I live in the US. But I am in my early 20s, I have recently gone through the post-graduation-job-hunting-rest-of-my-life rigmarole and I am part of a different diaspora; in my opinion if you fall into any of these categories I think you will find something in this book. I, for one, will be reading anything and everything else Grace D. Li writes.