Monkey King

I just finished Monkey King and I have to say it's one of the best and most original books I've ever read. Patricia Chao has an incredible talent of bringing the reader along on the protagonist's journey so that you feel like you're experiencing every emotion, sound and touch first-hand. I think this was particularly important since the protagonist, Sally, is an artist and her senses are naturally acute. I was impressed that Chao did not make Sally paralyzed by her depression. Rather, I perceived Sally as emotionally stunted by her childhood trauma, but through intense self-analysis was finally able to play "emotional catch-up." I also really appreciated how Chao captured Sally's hunger for parental approval, a theme that most people can identify with regardless of their age or station in life.

One of the most difficult things to portray in fiction has to be the disintegration of the self, as occurs in mental illness. Patricia Chao succeeds in telling a story through the eyes of one suffering a lengthy nervous breakdown, while at the same time rendering wonderful characterizations of the protagonist's Chinese-American family. While most of the writing is fairly straightforward, there are some really beautiful passages that verge on the poetic, without overdoing it.Unlike much of the new wave of Asian-American literature, this book transcends the simple new-immigrant-in-America ground that can make this genre one-dimensional. And despite the grim subject matter, the book rises above the usual "downer" mood of most novels discussing mental illness, child abuse, etc. -- it is not sociology, it is art.When incest and other tragedies occur, it is very easy to point the finger at someone. This book to me was ultimately compassionate and uplifting because it presented the problem within a portrait of full human complexity. I won't give away the ending but I will say it was very moving. I would love to see this story as a film.

In the book Monkey King we are not only treated to the relationship of sisters, mother and daughter, but also at the crossing of one culture to another. The writing is good, the main character is very real, and overall I enjoyed the book very much. It is not often that a person with a certain mental inbalance can bounce back and live a so called normal life with her family. I do recommend it.

This book is immersive. I picked it up and didn't put it down for the six hours it took me to read it. It's well-written, in a sort of matter-of-fact style that lets you inside the narrator's head with the saccharine melodrama that tends to be enemy number one in this genre. The characters are extremely well fleshed out, and you end up really caring about (and being somewhat exasperated with) the narrator.It just generally kicks butt.

This is one of the two most powerful "first novels" I've ever read (the other one being David Leavitt's "Family Dancing"), by an author amazingly wise and insightful for her years.This is, in my perception, a fictionalized account of Ms. Chao's own life. That was my sense, in any case. As painful as the material is, I found her approach to be incredibly non-self-pitying, and amazingly non-melodramatic. The power of the experiences in this novel are woven brilliantly with language that has exceptional clarity.This incredibly gifted author spins word images so well and so effortlessly that I hardly noticed I was reading. It was as if I were watching the story unfold before my eyes. There is not one character in this novel who is not fully developed; I felt I knew each one intimately.I am aware of how maudlin this type of book could potentially be, but Chao never, not once, lets herself slip into that. I admire the fact that Chao lets the ambiguity of where, precisely, Sally's life will go after the book ends, exist....she doesn't need to have a tidy "happy ending." And in life, how many of us do have a neatly-wrapped happy ending? Most of us are a work in progress, just as Chao so brilliantly portrays Sally.Rarely has a book had so much impact for me. I was entranced and hook on the first sentence.