What I'm reading: The End of East

I've been wanting to read this book ever since I found out the author, Jen Sookfong Lee, writes for Schema Magazine, like me, so when I saw this on the library shelf the other day I immediately snatched it up.

The End of East is Lee's first novel and I must say it is beautifully written. Lee creates not only pictures, but smells in the mind with detailed passages such as this:

“I walk this city every day, sidestep the garbage, hold my breath through the alleys. But even in the dirtiest of places, where the sidewalk is covered with gum and the hum of traffic and city-noise is so loud that you can’t even hear your own footsteps, you can always look north and see the mountains. And there’s always a breeze, faintly salt-scented, that touches your face as you turn to look west.”

In this ambitious novel, we follow the lives and struggles of three generations of the Chan family, starting with the family patriarch, Seid Quan, as he lives in utter isolation surrounded by the masses of men immigrating to Canada for a new life and future. As the years pass, Seid Quan withdraws into himself until he is an ignored shadow to his own wife, Shew Lin, and son, PonPon Man and his restless wife, Siu Sang; both these characters walk on the edge of collapse with the burdens of obligation and suppressed emotions, feelings which they inadvertently pass onto their five daughters.

For those unfamiliar with the stories of Canada's early immigrants, this book is a revelation of sorts with its topics of racism, cultural and generational gaps, and struggles with loneliness and belonging. If you have read novels like these before, then the story of the Chan family comes off as being all too familiar, but at least it doesn't stray too far into Joy Luck Club territory (which by the way, is one of my favourite books). Lee's greatest strength is her ability to sweep the reader into the lives of her characters and their emotions. Her descriptions of Vancouver's landscape, the city's smells, and sounds, are so accurate in a way that only someone who truly has roots here can depict. Overall, this is a great first novel, not because the story is the most unique, but because it makes me eager to watch what she as an author evolves into.


Final Verdict: check it out!