I enjoy a good memoir, especially one that is well-written and detailed. This book is good in that it delivers that through time and chapters/essays. The way it is written is very different, so make sure you read the afterward because it isn't told in a linear time fashion and can get very confusing quickly, especially since it covers a huge chunk of time. Overall, I think if the organization had been different, it would have been easier to follow but I can't discount that I am approaching this book through my own culture, and perhaps the author's culture does put such value on linear time.

Chongda Cai can tell a story. Some of the episodes in this collection are as crisp and memorable as a well-crafted fictional narrative. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the book as a whole. The most significant downfall may be in the marketing - after reading the synopsis, I expected a linear account of the author’s life in a small coastal Chinese town, increasing my knowledge of the cultural essence thereof. What I found instead was a seemingly scattered set of personal essays (he even calls them such in the afterword) in which Chongda Cai reminisces on various relationships he has had at different points in his life and gleans lessons from the memories. I don’t know why they are in the set order, and the cultural knowledge I gained was tangential at best.

Rarely do I choose to read personal memoirs unless they have a broad historical or social relevance. Had this one been depicted more accurately, I probably would not have selected it, and I would have saved myself a disappointing read. The book is not bad in and of itself; it is just not a good match for me.

Thank you to Chongda Cai, Harper Via, and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.