The altering identities often serve to examine power structures around gender binaries, such as how men (particularly white men) seem to have access to violence while society looks the other way as long as it is directed at someone socially deemed beneath them (by race, class, or if they are a woman).

The magical realism interspersed within the story is often something that I am not a huge fan of but felt like it worked here completely.I had to take off 2 stars because of the unrelenting violence and threats of rape that the main character experiences. A historical signpost on a road in Idaho denoting a vigilante hanging was the inspiration for this magnificent novel. Bodies surge in the direction of the shark fin voice, knocking and grinding for the promise of a promotion, of rank advancement, of favorability.

Despite the protagonist's ongoing cross-dressing which doesn't always ring true, I recommend this tale not only for its artistry but also for its searing "teaching moments" about historical and contemporary prejudice. Brings alive a heroine for the ages , an indomitable teenage girl whose relentless spirit and self-reinvention carries this story.Something about the man’s hand on my shoulder, the calm heat of it, tells me that if I do, we will never leave this place.

Daiyu is sure to take her place in the canon of great Western heroines next to True Grit's Mattie Ross. Jenny Tinghui Zhang, did an outstanding job delivering this heart wrenching emotional - very personal historical novel. Fierce and moving…Zhang delves into the history of violence and prejudice against Chinese people in the U. The novel follows Daiyu, whos difficult life in China becomes an even more difficult life in America when she is kidnapped off the streets and forced to immigrate into the sex trade. The spirit acts as a materialisation of what our heroine believed was only her, of what she believed was now only hers to suffer through: the cruel fate married to this name.

Daiyu never wanted to be like the tragic heroine for whom she was named, revered for her beauty and cursed with heartbreak. From the very first line, Zhang warns you that the story isn’t one you would expect, especially if you wish for it to abide by what you must have already read with respect to the plot’s events.