Book Review- Jen Sookfong Lee's SuperFan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart

Thank you to Libro FM for the audio arc of Jen Sookfong Lee’s memoir, Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart.

In her essay collection, Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart, Jen Sookfong Lee relates her love of pop culture with aspects of her own life. Lee was the youngest of five girls born in Canada to Chinese immigrants who settled in Vancouver. As first generation Canadians, Lee and her sisters struggled with a cultural identity that was different from their parents, yet also not reflected in white dominant mainstream pop culture. Lee’s essays capture this aspect of being caught in the middle and not quite knowing where she fit in.

When Lee was a child, her beloved father passed away from cancer. His death dramatically changed their family dynamics with Lee’s mother becoming increasingly distant and her older sisters starting to leave the home. Lee and her sisters struggled to connect with their mother, who could be quite critical and hostile towards her daughters. Lee also is the daughter who bucks against traditions and expectations, adding to the conflict with her mother.

The essay that stood out to me the most was Lee explaining her negative reaction to The Joy Luck Club when it was released in the 90’s. A reaction, that was not shared with her fellow Asian-Canadian friends, as they watched the movie in theaters as a teenager. I’m just a year younger than Lee and I remember watching this movie with my friend in the theatre, I am white and she is Chinese-American. I don’t remember her reaction to it, but now I’m inclined to share Lee’s essay and hear my friend’s thoughts. I didn’t really think of it at the time, but Lee is right when mentioning that Amy Tan’s writing was one of the few Chinese-American authors that broke through to mainstream pop culture. Even now, as pop culture becomes increasingly diverse, it’s still white dominated.

SuperFan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart is an outstanding essay collection that covers several issues. Lee shares many intimate details of her family and adult relationships, making this a very personal essay collection. My background may be very different from Lee’s, but I related to her push to forge her own path, even if it wasn’t what her family expected or wanted. I highly recommend Superfan, especially if you’re a Gen-X kid.

Book Review- M. Rickert's Lucky Girl

In a quiet diner four strangers meet as the restaurant is closing, they decide to spend Christmas together, rather than alone. Ro, a struggling writer, invites the group back to her house and as their evening progresses, they pass the time telling ghost stories. Although they do not keep in close contact throughout the year, they plan to meet up for the following holiday, only to learn that a tragedy has befallen a member of their little group. Could the horrors from the stories they told be impacting their real lives?

A friend loaned this quirky, creepy book to me over the winter. The full title is the best, Lucky Girl: How I Became a Horror Writer. A Krampus Story. There is so much to unpack with the title and spoiler alert, Krampus does come into play. Oddly enough, I think the most unsettling part of the story was the beginning, when the strangers are meeting at the diner. The tone was immediately set for “something bad is going to happen.” I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be open to connecting with strangers or helping lonely people during the holidays, but this is an odd bunch.

If you like a little horror with your Christmas, M. Rickerts’s Lucky Girl is a great choice. It’s a tension filled, spine-chilling ride.

Book Review- Cecilia Rabess' Everything's Fine

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me a physical arc of Cecilia Rabbis’ debut novel, Everything’s Fine.

Jess is a recent graduate working as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. Although brilliant, Jess is a new employee and the only black woman in her department. She is struggling to be taken seriously. She reconnects with Josh, a college acquaintance and semi-nemesis, who is also working on her floor. Josh is brash, conservative, and argumentative, also white. Although the two seem to have little in common, their debates shift in tone to an unlikely attraction. They discover that the other person is more nuanced and caring than the labels that they had assigned to them. However, this is 2016 and a historic election is about to impact their fragile relationship.

Everything’s Fine is a whirlwind of a book. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a female character working as an analyst and inhabiting this world. Rabess comes from his background and undoubtedly this influenced her writing and choosing this particular setting, but as a reader, I was fascinated. It’s not my world and I won’t pretend to understand all of the technical aspects, but Rabess’ writing is accessible and I understood enough of Jess’ career to not only follow the story, but to be intrigued. As a woman, I connected with Jess’s struggles in a male dominated profession. As a white woman, I listened to her struggles as a black woman in her work, but also dating Josh and life in general. The story was very eye-opening.

One aspect of Jess that will likely resonate with many readers is that she is young and struggling to define herself. This is her first major job and first adult relationship. She’s at that point in life, where she is transitioning from college to being an adult on her own, yet she does not have everything figured out. She struggles with people labeling her, even when she does not quite know where her life is headed. It is a time of figuring things out and lots of uncertainty. I’m in my mid-forties now, but Rabess took me right back to my twenties and all of the emotions associated with that time in my life.

I rooted for Jess and Josh. Their relationship is passionate and complicated, but also between two people who are essentially good, even if they have fundamental differences. There are also some steamy sex scenes!

At the heart of Everything’s Fine is the message that labels are destructive and that people can, and often do, change throughout their lives. Individuals are so much more complicated and diverse than society allows us to believe. I loved this book and can’t wait to read Rabess’ next novel. She’s a fabulous storyteller!