When I went hunting for contemporary young adult novels about immigrants' experiences, An Na's name came up everywhere. A Step From Heaven is her first book. I thought I'd start there.
Young Ju is only four when her family leaves her beloved grandmother, their comfortable home, and Young Ju's best friend behind to move to the United States. Young Ju believes the US is heaven, where she will be reunited with her deceased grandfather and there will be no more arguments, but her family's life as immigrants is full of new challenges. Young Ju works hard in school and at home to make her parents proud, but nothing can change her father's stingy praise or violent temper.
This slim novel is incredibly powerful, told by the protagonist in a series of vignettes spanning Young Ju's childhood in Korea to her senior year of high school in the United States. The protagonist's younger years are full of particularly delightful sensory imagery. I was struck by the way in which each scene captured so much in terms of the family dynamic and Young Ju's innermost feelings in just a handful of words.
Ooh, I want to read this... and I'm kind of afraid to, because the vignette structure sounds eerily like something I'm working on right now. ;b Well, the only way to tell is to give it a look! I'll check for the book at my library.
ReplyDeleteI just finished this book last night. Oh, so heartbreakingly beautiful. The writing style and structure *are* rather like what I wanted to do with my project, but better. Hrmm. I'll have to think on this. ;b Thank you for the recommendation!
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