Entertaining and Introspective

You may have heard of author Lindsay Wong from last year’s Canada Reads competition as her memoir The Woo Woo was defended by Joe Zee in the debates. Her newest offering is a YA novel titled My Summer of Love and Misfortune and what an appropriate title, especially for a book to be released during this summer’s pandemic.

Iris Weijun Wang is a typical teenager, skipping school, drinking, experimenting with drugs, in relationships with terrible boys. Things all come crashing down at the end of her senior year. Things are so terrible and embarrassing for her strict Chinese parents that she is sent away to Beijing to live with her newly discovered Uncle. Lindsay Wong writes so clearly about the culture shock of an American Chinese girl being thrust into Chinese society. She looks Chinese, everyone in Beijing assumes she’s Chinese and cannot reconcile her inability to communicate and act like a native Chinese girl. Not to mention being thrust into a family with whom she has no connection and very little understanding of where they have come from when all she can see is what’s on the surface. A crazy rich, spoiled cousin and an aunt and uncle too busy with work to help her navigate the culture shock.

I was expecting this book to be heavy in dialogue when in fact it is quite introspective. Lindsay Wong writes from inside Iris’ mind. There is a lot of inner dialogue and the reader really gets a sense of who Iris is as a person. She’s really not a great person to begin with and you can really feel her shifting perspective as the story rolls along.

I love that Iris is far from perfect and although this is YA and you expect a perfect, happy conclusion, you get growth from all of the characters in the story. It’s imperfect and it’s not neat and tidy but it’s growth. It’s very human and relatable. 

I also appreciate how Lindsay Wong took Iris on a journey from weakness to strength. Iris is a pretty big disaster at the beginning of the book and in the end, realizes her self worth and understands that she is responsible for the way she is in the world. It’s not a curse that defines her, she defines herself. It’s a powerful message to send to young adults just finding their footing in the real world.

My Summer of Love and Misfortune is an own voices story written by a Chinese-Canadian author featuring a Chinese cast of characters. The reader derives so much more knowledge and richness from a story written from the perspective of an author who has lived experience in the culture about which they are writing. A fantastic summer read!