As a Chinese American myself, I've read "China Boy" (Gus Lee) and Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan) before
picking up this book without too much expectation, what happened next was two days of non-stop
reading, after the first few pages, I simply couldn't put it down, the pages turned themselves.

At the center of it, there was the meandering main plot of Fong See and Ticie See's beautiful and
complex interracial love story
spanning three quarter of a century with cultural, traditions,
prejudices (on both sides) racism, entrepreneurship, minority immigrant experience weaving together
to form a compelling and surprisingly optimistic epic and quintessential "American" story.

All
through the book, author's family pride, heartwarming optimism comes through like a ray of sunshine
lighting up the struggles, the failures and failings, the successes as well as heart wrenching
losses of three generations illuminating the See family's incredibly enduring love and support for
each other.

The only thing that could've made this book even better is some of the extraneous
details could've been left out, they were a little long winded (especially the last scene of Lisa's
visit to China) and at times distracting from the main plot. But I understand what Ms. See was
trying to accomplish with this book are two fold, first and foremost it is an autobiographic family
history book and there is the temptation to include all the researched details to preserve as family
history, on the other hand she probably wanted to write it in a novel style to make it an easy and
enjoyable read. Short of split the writing into two books, there is no easy way to accomplish both
objectives without two styles interfering, but I have to say Ms See has done an admirable if not
remarkable job considering the epic nature of the story itself.

Ms. See deserves major accolades
for this fascinating and moving historical book.

This is truly a beautiful
book. Ms. See has an obvious talent for research and her efforts were rather astonishing when one
reads the history of her ancestors. Not only does she historically account for chinese immigration
to the states, but details the events and cultures of life in China. Tracing back to the time of
her grandfather See-Bok's early years, Ms See writes about her family that turns out to be more
than a page turner.

The family is entertaining, intelligent, strong and industrious. Her
grandmother is the star of the novel. A pioneer white christian woman, she is abused by her own
family and escapes a life of servitude forced on her by them. In a central californian town, she
talks herself into a job at a chinese underwear factory that caters to prostitutes. The chinese
owner eventually proposes to her despite significant social complications. This is the beginning of
one of the most important chinese families in America and their contributions to the art world and
their personal tales of challenge and love in the early Los Angeles years.