Book review: China Dolls

A debut novel about three Chinese-American 20-somethings pursue careers and Mr. Right in ultracompetitive New York City. Alex, Lin and M.J. have been friends since they met in school as kids, studying the Chinese language, and, as the book opens, none of them are married, and each is feeling pressure from her immigrant parents to move to the next stage in life. The women's desires, predictably, differ from their parents'.

This is the premise for China Dolls by Michelle Yu & Blossom Kan. The stand-out character for me in this book was M.J., a sportswriter in a male-dominated field who wants to break into on-air reporting. She's a tomboy who prefers to wear jeans and a ponytail to dresses and high heels. She has a good friend Ming who is also a sportswriter who constantly excoriates her for dating white guys. She meets an old high school flame and thinks that her life is changing for the better, only to realize that he hasn't changed much, and sometimes you can't go home again. Frankly, the whole book could have been about this character and I would have been happy. I was eager to learn more about this character, to see her struggles getting interviews against other male colleagues, I was even intrigued by the fact that she was in a sense competing with her boyfriend, but her section ended abruptly and too fast.

The other characters of Alex and Lin were little more than ciphers for me. Alex seemed to be just an angry Asian woman, and Lin was pretty much a doormat, which I found strange since she was such a high-powered stockbroker. Their stories are also pretty much glossed over and tied up neatly. I also found that all three characters pretty much had the same plot line, while there was much talk about how hard it was to be an Asian woman, there were precious few examples in the book.

Having booked as an assistant for investment banks for over 20 years, I know what a frat boy mentality exists, but what happened with Lin, to me smacked of a sexual harrassment lawsuit waiting to happen. I just found her too passive, I would have loved to have seen her sue the pants of Drew and hire Alex to do it.

Still I enjoyed reading about different perspective on chick-lit. I loved reading about the different customs, and the visit to the fortune teller in the first scene. It gave readers a different view of the New York that seems so familiar from Sex and the City.

Although Alex, Lin, and MJ are Asian, their struggles are universal. I look forward to reading the next book from Michelle and Blossom.

Thanks for reading!

EKM