Shawna Yang RyanRezensionen

Excellent family saga with the history of Taiwan in the background.

I had a hard time with this book. There was so much about the nation's history that I didn't know, it became difficult to figure out what each element meant to the characters. I felt like I missed out of much of the subtle movements that could have made this very alive for me as a reader.
That being said, the story itself is very moving. I was touched many times, and that means that, once I was able to accept that the author just wasn't going to let me in on details, I focused only on the interactions of the characters.
And that ended up as the right choice. I really enjoyed this work...it has a lot to offer readers who are interested in the dynamics that form between people, even when they are only faint friends or neighbors. The impact of these events for the nation and its people really came through on the emotional level.
For a read that shows a different nation and the impact its policies had on its people, try The Family Made of Dust: A Novel of Loss and Rebirth in the Australian Outback.
4 stars!

This is probably not the sort of book most readers will "enjoy," but it's one that I think most should read. Though the pace of the book slows significantly about halfway through, the story itself is so thought-provoking and contributes to the reader's historical knowledge that it's worth pushing through to the end. I could easily see this being a required reading in a literature course, or in a course on Asian history. Even beyond that, I would recommend it to readers who enjoy historical reads, whether or not they have a specific interest in Asian culture.

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Although this book is on the darker side, I liked it. It deals with some of the tougher times that the people of Taiwan went through in their battle for a free country, told through the eyes of one woman starting at the day of her birth. The characters were well written, I felt almost like this was a memoir instead of a work of fiction. I also came out of this book with a little bit of a history lesson on Taiwan. I think the author did a great job researching this subject, and it made me interesting in learning even more and reading some of the works she referenced at the end.

Green Island is an engrossing novel about a family and a nation. On February 27, 1947 a cigarette vendor is accosted for selling contraband cigarettes, a shot is fired, and a bystander is killed. On February 28 crowds gather in Taipei demanding justice, the KMT Party declares martial law and the period known as the “White Terror” begins. During this evening of civil unrest, Dr. Tsai delivers his youngest daughter, who is the narrator of Shawna Yang Ryan’s story. Dr. Tsai becomes one of the thousands imprisoned during this reign and after eleven years of incarceration, one of the few released. From the years 1947 to 2003, through Dr. Tsai and his daughter, who emigrates to the U.S. with her husband, Wei, we follow the evolution of a country and a family. I found myself doing a lot of background research while reading this novel because I found the “history” I’d grown up with to be quite thin compared to what I was now discovering. Green Island is eye opening for anyone interested in history and possesses a good story as well.

I had to read this book for a class on the American Gothic, and I am so glad I did. This is truly an amazing work, unlike anything I've read before. Stylistically it is as jarring as the three boat women -- there are no quotation marks, leading to a lyrical sort of reading with multiple interpretations. The mixing of cultures and traditions leads to a unique setting during a difficult time in American history.

I expected a lot more from this book than I actually got. This book had me scratching my head at the end of it, wondering what the point was of the story.

This was an interesting read. It was my first Goodreads Giveaway win, so thanks to Goodreads and the ones that opened the contest! This was a quick, light read, but it was a little difficult to follow. There aren't any quotation marks used when people speak, so it's hard to decide what's spoken word and what is thought. The time-line also jumps around a bit, but eventually, the storyline of the characters unfold and the ending was pretty good.To be honest, the ending was probably the best part. I can't give too many stars to it because I've certainly seen historical Chinese stories done better. But if you're looking for a quick read to break up your day, than give Water Ghosts a shot.

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

One of the biggest pleasures of running this website is the chance to discover new books recommended to me by other writers I admire; take for example California author Jason Riley, who earlier this year sent along to me the novel Water Ghosts by his buddy Shawna Yang Ryan, under the belief that I would enjoy it too. And enjoy it I did, although I should warn you off the bat that it's a very academic style of novel, and that you will need to be at least partly a fan of academic fiction to have even a chance of enjoying it yourself. It's essentially the tale of a small Chinese-Amerian town in California called Locke in 1928, after the gold rush but before World War Two; and like all good academic fiction, instead of being based around a fast plot, it's much more a deep examination of the various people who live in this town, including the salty female owner of the local brothel, the slick gambling-hall manager who is her biggest client, the two prostitutes who he is in love with, one of whom is half-white, the preacher's daughter who the half-white woman in turn is in love with, and more. When, then, a mysterious refugee ship shows up out of the blue, carrying three emaciated women including the merchant's wife from back in China, the subsequent reverberations turn the town into turmoil; and indeed, also in good academic fashion, Ryan uses this development to examine in a poetic, magical-realism way whether these refugees are in fact the anciently superstitious "water ghosts" of the book's title. A delicate work full of beautiful prose, this is exactly the ticket for those who are existing fans of, say, Joyce Carol Oates or Amy Tan; but if you're not a fan of these other authors, it'd probably be best just to skip this title altogether.

Out of 10: 8.4

Not much happened.

Set in 1928 in Locke, California, the only U.S. city built entirely by and for Chinese immigrants, this story combines mysticism from Chinese folklore with the history of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. I ramble on a bit about how this book addresses stereotypes, here: Worducopia.½

“Water Ghosts” is a mysterious little book that primarily takes place in Locke, California, a town comprised mainly of Chinese immigrant men in 1928. At the time, the US government was severely regulating Chinese immigration to the United States by rarely allowing women to come over with their husbands. This policy meant that a huge stir was created when three mysterious women showed up on a boat in the river on a day when all the townspeople of Locke are at the river for a celebration. One of the women is the wife of a man in town, a wife he has not seen for many years. Of the other two, one is married to a man who is somewhere in the United States and the other is unwed. The idea that there are now available women in their town drives many of the men crazy, forcing them to do desperate things to be noticed by these women. And yet, something about these women isn’t quite right. They have an ethereal, almost ghostly quality.

The book itself was definitely an interesting look at the life of a small, rural immigrant community in California in the first part of the last century. Most of the characters were quite interesting too. I did find the book a bit hard to follow, particularly at the beginning. There are no quotation marks for the dialogue and the narration jumps around not only between characters but between time periods: from the ‘present’ of Locke in 1928, to earlier periods in both China and California. That being said, I felt that the ending really brought all of the disparate pieces of the story together for an absolutely fantastic finish. The last 30 pages or so had me completely in their grip.

Whether or not you will enjoy this book probably depends on how much tolerance you have for a story with shifting view points and time periods (and no quotation marks!) and how much a great ending can redeem a complicated read for you.½