Bitter Melon

I always love a good novel about culture and identity. Bitter Melon by Cara Chow is an excellently crafted story that demonstrates the struggles with culture clash as well as mother-daughter dynamics.  In her senior year of high school Frances should be taking calculus and a Princeton Review course in order to boost her chances of getting into Berkley in order to fulfill her mom's goals of college choice, major, and the eventual career of being a doctor. She knows how adamant her mom is about sticking to the path - no extra curricular activities, no relationships with boys or any other potential distraction from her plan. A plan that would reward her single, ailing mom for all the sacrifices she made in her life for Frances.

Yet, when Frances ends up in a speech class by mistake instead of calculus, she is in a class where she can thrive. She can't quite bring herself to submitting the change of class by the two week deadline. She begins weaving plans with a friend to blind her mom from the truth. Naturally, there are challenges in this line of thinking that only build the tension of the plot.

When I read the description of the book I had an image of Frances mother in my mind, but she was actually a lot more extreme than I had imagined. As she went to progressively greater lengths to keep Frances under her control, Frances' situation often seemed helpless and the relationship appeared more unhealthy as the events unfolded. Even in sleep she could not get away from her mom's wrath, as she slept on the top bunk in their single room apartment and her mom would make sure to toss and turn all night to show Frances that she was disappointed in her and to express her thoughts that Frances was an ungrateful daughter causing her mom pain and suffering.

The one glimmer of hope was that Frances was quickly approaching a cross roads where she would finally have some freedom once she started college. Yet, to gain that freedom it quickly became apparent that Frances would have to directly defy her mother and destroy much of their relationship. I wondered if Frances would be able to make difficult decisions that would ultimately lead to her own happiness, rather than remaining closely tethered to her co-dependent mother. After all, I knew that this was not a fairy tale style of a story and was not sure how it would end. As the plot developed I was constantly on edge, cringing about Frances' situation, seeing her dilemma. Yet, I was also sad for her mother - sad that she could not understand Frances and that she did not realize how all of her actions intended to make Frances never want to leave her were actually pushing her away.

I appreciated the various levels of relationships represented in the book through the different characters and their families with parents, teachers, and friends to show an array of perspectives from different cultures that ultimately help Frances figure out who she is and the decisions she wants to make. While reading Frances' mother and a family friend made me think back to The Joy Luck Club with the way they would discuss their daughters, as well as her mom's personality in general. This morning it was interesting to read Chow's information about her inspirations for the book on her website and realize how The Joy Luck Club had been pivotal in her high school years.

Bitter Melon will be released this week (December 28), and I highly recommend it! While reading I was also thinking about how it would be a great addition to a high school or college course or book club about identity, matched up with some of the other books that I have loved about the topic, including: Mexican Whiteboy, Born Confused, Randa Abdel-Fattah's books, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The way Chow wrote the book would facilitate a lot of discussion based on the multiple layers, dynamics, and considerations.

*ARC provided by the publisher.