Claire Zhuang

Book Reviewer
Claire Zhuang

Claire Zhuang (mostly) hails from the fields of the Midwest. She is a proud VONA alum. Check out her personal blog here: clairethemoon.wordpress.com/

Books: Not a Self-Help Book

Not A Self-Help Book

On the Asian American Channel of Reddit, there is a subreddit entitled AsianParentStories. An overwhelming number of posts are vignettes about parents, expectations, and moments that too often take an emotionally and verbally abusive turn. For a number of 1.5 and 2nd generation Asian Americans, this facet of our experience is incredibly pervasive and, unfortunately, too normalized. Hence, I was absolutely thrilled as Yi Shun Lai’s debut novel delved into this reality, bringing unexpected depth to its deceptively lighthearted tone.  

Books: 'The Hundred Year Flood' by Matthew Salesses

The Hundred Year Flood

Before I began the book, I came across an article Matthew Salesses wrote for the Rumpus. Aptly entitled “The Weight of the Future, the Emptiness of the Past”, Salesses provides a poignant reflection on how profoundly he feels his own experience as an adoptee affects his fatherhood -- namely, the inability to inform his daughter of genetic predispositions. I could feel his worries, pain, sense of loss leap out of the screen towards me one sentence at a time.