Book Description Review “Meng Jin is a writer whose sweep is as intimate as it is global. Little Gods is a novel about the heart-wracking ways in which we move through history and time. A fierce and intelligent debut from a writer with longitude and latitude embedded in her vision.” (Colum McCann)“Meng Jin’s beautiful debut novel is ambitious in the best ways: meticulously observed, daringly imagined, rich in character and history. Ranging across continents, cultures and generations, Jin poses profound questions: how might we know ourselves, or the people we love? And what truths, if any, travel with us?” (Claire Messud)”Reminiscent of Ferrante…are Jin’s protagonist’s larger-than-life talent, drive and perversity. In her intelligence, vulnerability, volatility, desperation, narcissism and self-destructiveness, Su Lan — despite her voicelessness — is as complex a protagonist as any I can recall….Little Gods expands the future of the immigrant novel.” (New York Times Book Review)”Ambitious [and] formally complex…a powerful, poignant portrait of a woman crippled by her fear of looking back.” (Washington Post)”Steeped in trauma, loss, and imperfect love, Little Gods is a novel about performing the self, filtered through academia, abandonment, and migration…. Smart and emotionally devastating.” (NPR.org)“Little Gods is built from familiar tropes: love amid violence, lost parents, secrets held by those closest to us. But Jin brings a fresh imagination to them, thoughtfully leveraging the language of physics without making the narrative cold or overladen. Her ultimate principle is simple and effective: How do we preserve love in the face of the forces that threaten it?” (USA Today)”An intelligent, somewhat restrained look at the effects that tectonic political shifts have on ordinary citizens, effects that reverberate across the decades, and for its young American protagonist, even across oceans.” (San Francisco Chronicle) “Spectacular and emotionally polyphonic…That Jin has managed to craft such an intimate, emotionally complex story is an awesome achievement. That she managed to do it in her debut novel, doubly so.” (Omar El Akkad, BookPage (starred review))”Brilliant….Elegantly written, emotionally compelling, and thought provoking on every page.” (The Millions)”Jin treads purposefully over a vast landscape of difficult subjects – aging, class anxiety, political instability, intellectual insecurity, racism, migration – unflinchingly deconstructing and then moving beyond each. It is that willingness to follow such threads to their full conclusion…which gives “Little Gods” its greatest strength.” (Christian Science Monitor) Read more About the Author Meng Jin was born in Shanghai and lives in San Francisco. A Kundiman Fellow, she is a graduate of Harvard and Hunter College. Little Gods is her first novel. Read more Customers Review: An amazing tale that explores what we know and can never truly know about our parents through the lens of tragedy, trauma, immigration, and attempted homecoming. The first of 52 books written by women of color from a Daily Kos list I’m hoping to finish this year. A great way to start!
Oh, this is a strange little book. It’s also strangely beautiful and strangely compelling.Who ARE you…really? Ask that question of anyone who is close to you, and you’ll probably get different answers. That’s because we are perceived differently by different people. And that is the crux of this debut novel by author Meng Jin.This is the story of Su Lan as told only through the eyes of her friend and neighbor Zhu Wen, her former husband Li Yongzong, and her angry daughter Liya. And the three points of view couldn’t be more different. Su Lan, an extraordinarily gifted physicist, gives birth to Liya in a Beijing hospital on June 4, 1989 amidst the Tiananmen Square massacre. She returns to her home in Shanghai mysteriously without her husband. Two years later, she is on a plane to the United States to start her life over. And when Liya is in her late teens, Su Lan dies. This is where the story really begins as Liya travels to China with Su Lan’s ashes in her backpack—a land she doesn’t remember—to try to solve the tragic mystery of her mother, a brilliant but soulless woman, who did everything she could to expunge her past and the people in it.Ah, but the past can’t be erased, can it? And it will always haunt us no matter how far or how often we run away or how cleverly we try to bury it. The past is real. It’s the future that is only in our imaginations. “Do you believe in time?” asks Su Lan.The novel’s strange structure is a bit cumbersome and awkward at first—the first chapter is titled “The End” and the last chapter is titled “The Beginning”—but it’s relatively easy to fall into the unusual rhythm. This book is so laser-focused on the characters that what little there is of a plot is only used to further the ubiquitous themes of time, space, and memory.Bonus: There are several articulate and quite understandable descriptions of the second law of thermodynamics and the property of entropy. Go ahead! Google it. If you don’t have a scientific bent, you’ll probably be a bit confused (or totally confused). Then read this book for an understandable explanation.
I had expected this book to be better that it actually was. I meandered without making a point. There was no resolution to the book. It just I stopped. The main characters seemed to appear and disappear without continuing to explore their stories and/or character/personality. There are better books that have explored the same themes in a more interesting and satisfying manner.
This story of a mother and daughter’s relationship, and the latter’s cogent journey through the rediscovery of the former, through stories, information and wisdom imparted by others, is both magnificent and captivating. I particularly liked the complex facets of Su Lan’s history, as relayed by her neighbor, friends and ultimately her daughter, Liya. Meng Jin’s use of multiple characters rounded out a rich, fulsome narrative. This debut novel had me wishing for more from Meng Jin, and SOON. Highly recommend.
A novel which doesn’t get as much praise as it deserves for this year!A bold and insightful journey in discovering about a driven physicist who also faces the realities of motherhood. Not only are we able to unravel Su Lan from the narrator’s perspective but from other significant characters throughout the novel. A balanced and well-structured novel, especially in using multiple voices/ points of views. A highly appreciated novel.
Little Gods was an ok read. It was difficult to discern at the beginning since there were several story lines introduced. I didn’t care for any of the characters. I didn’t really understand the ending so I guess I missed something. The synopsis sounded so promising, but for me the book didn’t deliver. Thanks to Edelweiss and Custom House Publisher for the ARC in exchange for my review.
I do not consider myself to be a highly intelligent person when it comes to theoretical anything, however, I found myself completely drawn in and immersed in this story.Little Gods is a story about a woman running FROM her past, trying recreate herself and by doing so, her own daughter had to travel to her past TO figure out exactly who her mother was. I LOVED the way the story is told from different times throughout the book in the voices of 3 main characters, all of who crossed paths and lost each other along the way.I had to go back and re read the final chapter, but I THINK I fully comprehend what the author was doing, especially in the past few paragraphs.I did not realize that this is the authors first novel, I’m very excited to see what comes next from her!
Told in multiple voices, this story of Su Lan, a physicist and mother with mental health issues, is at times a challenge to read but worth the effort. Her daughter Liya, who has never understood her mother or known her father, brings her ashes back to China. Yongzong, Liya’s father, has a different take on events than does Zhu Wen, who knew Su Lan in Beijing. It’s not a straight line narrative but more a pastiche character study. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction. |
18 reviews