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Title: Bone : Novel, A by Fae M. Ng ISBN: 0-06-097592-X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 12 January, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.76 (25 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Emotionally moving novel
Comment: I disagree with the criticism from other reviewers about the timeline, the one-dimensional characters, and the plot. Having just finished this book myself NG does a superb job of creating delicate, emotional characters and weaving them through a story that unfolds itself in a way that reflects the disorganized thoughts of the narrator as she attempts to explain her sisters suicide to herself. A linear novel would not have the same sense of emotional searching as what NG does in this cleverly crafted novel. This is not a novel about actions and plot, but about people, generation gaps, and emotions.
Rating: 5
Summary: Spare, elegant and poignant. Real life in Chinatown.
Comment: Having been exposed to San Francisco's Chinatown since I was a very small child I was moved by the graceful and melencholic story in Bone. For many years I was a cab driver in San Francisco and one of my favorite places for buisness was in Chinatown. I am a white person with a classic "anglo" background and have rarely seen beyond the public surfaces that the Chinese community shows. So I have a degree of curiosity about the culture from five decades of exposure and the appreciation of an outsider. I am intimately familiar with the images, sounds and smells. I know where the mah jong parlors are in basements in alleys, I know the restraunts, the drug stores and sewing factories with considerable familiarity. This book took me inside all the familiar exteriors that I know so well. I believed every word and felt every breath and heard every inflection. It was a book I savored and read slowly for the poignant dignity of the reality behind the storefronts and and exteriors. It was as good a look and as well written as I believe anyone could do. Someday I'll read it again. This year I'll give it as a Christmas present to those I know will be able to most appreciate this really good and extremely well written book.
Rating: 2
Summary: An semi-interesting read, Contemporary Rubbish nevertheless
Comment: Unfortunately, this novel was on my summer reading list, else I'd never have picked up a piece of rubbish such as this.
It was detestable from the start, since the story began in the middle and nothing was appropriately introduced. This could have worked if the author was Homer, but Ng is far from a great storyteller, and her attempt at this has brought nothing but confusion. As the novel proceeded, the readers are *slowly* introduced to the situation of the Leong family (unless reading the cover flap was intended as part of the introduction of the plot!): the middle daughter named Ona jumped off a high-rise building, which has caused considerable grief in the family. However, instead of detailing the aftermath of Ona's actions and its effect on the Leong family, Ng spent no less than 70+ pages (of a 197 page novel printed in large size fonts) describing the incident with no chronological order! Oh please! She could have at least smoothed out the time transitions instead of jumping harshly from one time period to another.
The ending, like one reviewer said, was "crappy". And indeed there is no better word to describe the ending than "crappy". Why? Because the ending actually ended in the time period *before* the beginning of the book! However, to make things even more confusing, Ng introduced something that might seem like it would be in the appropriate ending time period. Confused? That was her intention, or some rather weak attempt at metaphorical endings.
Of course, with our schools being the way they are, it does not surprise me at all that the mediocre, second-rate teachers (with exclusion of 1 or 2) at our high school's English Department would choose a piece of rubbish such as this instead of classics which are what high-school aged students should be reading. Don't buy or even check it out, it's a waste of time.
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Title: San Francisco Tenderloin - Heroes, Demons, Angels and Other True Stories by Larry Wonderling Ph.D. ISBN: 0965941515 Publisher: Cape Foundation Publications Pub. Date: 01 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Prayers for Bobby : A Mother's Coming to Terms with the Suicide of Her Gay Son by Leroy Aarons ISBN: 0062511238 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 20 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney ISBN: 0394726413 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 August, 1984 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: From Brokenness to Community (The Wit Lectures) by Jean Vanier ISBN: 0809133415 Publisher: Paulist Press Pub. Date: June, 1992 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: The Corner : A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon, Edward Burns ISBN: 0767900316 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 15 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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