Homeseeking by Karissa Chen
In which I force everyone around me to talk about Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Chiang Kai-shek for a week
I just boo-hooed my way through the end of Karissa Chen’s Homeseeking. I can see why this book has become so beloved so quickly — I hated to say goodbye to these wonderful characters.
As Chen explained on Good Morning America, the initial idea for the book came from a photo she found of her usually-stoic grandfather crying at his mother’s grave. He was part of the two million Chinese citizens who escaped to Taiwan, and were never able to return to their homes in mainland China.
But the book is deep and moving, and I learned so much about the nature of family, as well as the shifting political tides of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Shanghai.
This novel is deftly constructed and beautifully written. I was fascinated by the details, such as the tiny bits of steam that came from Haiwen’s beloved turnip dumplings.
By necessity, Chen’s characters reside within their own memories. Deprived of their hometowns, they catalog the past in a way that swept me right along with it.
After I finished the book, I re-read the first chapter, and I was amazed by the author’s craft, in her construction of this particular moment in time. It wasn’t an easy journey, together with Suchi and Haiwen, over the decades. But I, too, felt my own kind of homecoming by the end.
