The Forgotten Garden

Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I bought this book with an expectation of reading about sisters...but at 40% of the book realized that the story was more about regrets, anger, choices, cancer and dying. It's a story about a Korean family that abandoned everything at home to immigrate here, then moved back for Dad's cancer treatment after about 20 years. The story is almost about their everyday life. The organization is a bit loose, jumping back and forth from present to the past and back, telling stories that are real in the life of the family or not. It would have had great potential if the writing is a bit more organized, characters are a bit deeper and consistent, events more believable and the changes in setting more smooth. There was nothing in this story about Asian American conflicts and struggles that one hasn't read of. The characters do not have enough descriptions or self-inspections so we could understand them more, so both the parents and the daughters ended up superficial and will not be retained in my mind after finishing the book. I do have to applaud the aunt, Komo...which is a unique character that stood out for me. I was about to abandon the book near 40 to 50%, where the two unlikeable Korean sisters were constantly fighting and bickering, their personality keep changing... I persisted to give the author a fair evaluation of the book.

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