Set in 1970s Ohio, the narrative begins with the death of Lydia Lee, the favorite daughter of a mixed-race couple. Her father, James, is a Chinese-American professor struggling with social isolation, while her mother, Marilyn, is a white woman who abandoned her medical ambitions. The story reconstructs the family’s history to show how the parents projected their unrealized dreams and desires for integration onto Lydia. Through the perspectives of her siblings, Nathan and Hannah, the book details the weight of parental expectations and the isolation of being the only non-white family in a small town.
Readers interested in the psychological dynamics of dysfunctional families and the specific pressures of the immigrant experience find this book useful. It provides a technical look at how silence and secrets erode domestic stability. Those who study social history or racial identity in mid-century America gain a clear picture of how cultural marginalized status shapes private relationships. The reader finishes the book with a precise understanding of the disconnect between a person’s internal reality and the identity their family forces them to inhabit.
- Published
- 2015
- Language
- EN
