Book Review: “The Many Daughters of Afong Moy” by Jamie Ford
Family Drama
Jamie Ford’s The Many Daughters of Afong Moy was published this past summer and has been around for a while at the time that I write this (December 2022). However, I’ve always said that if a book is new to you as a reader, it might as well be a new book and not something consigned to the publisher’s backlist. In my case, I think I was happy to read the novel when I did because I think I wouldn’t have appreciated this as much as if I had read it when it originally came out. (I was cranky as the pandemic progressed, and I’ve now come down off that perch — or so I think. I hope so, at least.) This is a book that could be categorized as being “Chick Lit,” but the strange thing is that Jamie Ford is a man (and a Van Halen fan to boot, as it would turn out). The book would be a part of said genre because just about all the major characters in it are women. However, the really strange thing is that Ford really must be on very intimate terms with the women and girls in his life because he writes three-dimensional, realistic characters in a way that makes the prose pop off the page. Essentially, The Many Daughters of Afong Moy is a book that could be categorized as being an intergenerational family drama that spans well over 200 years. However, it is literary without being pretentious. It doesn’t hurt that Ford has a generous heart, too, which makes him an astute chronicler of the human condition. (The acknowledgments section of this book must be one of the lengthiest I’ve ever read if you need any proof of the author’s sense of generosity.)
The book’s framing story takes place in Seattle in 2045, but — aside from a sentient elevator that talks — there’s very little that’s speculative or science-fiction-y about this book. (In fact, it is something I could imagine my mother wanting to read, and I mention this because my mom doesn’t like SF books.) The character in this timeline is a woman named Dorothy. Her husband is a bit of a lout, she suffers from a mental illness and her daughter is a bit disaffected. Looking for something of a cure for her malaise, Dorothy checks in with a treatment center that seeks to uncover traumatic memories passed down from generation to generation through genetics. (Apparently a true science of discovery at the moment.) Well, Dorothy gets more than she bargained for. She begins to have visions of many women in her family, starting with its head matriarch (if that’s the appropriate term) and the titular character of the book — a Chinese woman who was the first to immigrate to America in the early 1800s only to be sold as a sort of sideshow attraction as her feet were bound and that was unique to audiences. (This character is based on a real-life individual who has been written about in other works of fiction as well as non-fiction.) Other women in Dorothy’s family tree include a nurse serving in China in 1942 who tries to save an American flying ace, a girl in the late 1800s who is sent away from San Francisco during a cholera epidemic (shades of the current reality there), a young woman in 1920s England who falls in love with her female teacher at a private art school and the developer of a killer dating app in 2014 whose life is upended by two men in her life.
As you can tell, a lot is going on in this novel. However, Ford manages to balance the delicate highwire act of keeping these narratives straight; they all come together satisfactorily at the end of the work. This is a long, engrossing novel that recalls the tone of some of Jonathan Franzen’s books, just set in a much wider universe and timeline and one that could perhaps be considered to be more feminist. This is a book that has a light, airy feel to it, which means that it’s probably not going to win any major literary awards, but that’s okay. This is the type of book that readers will want to unwind with at the end of a long day if they want to escape from the world for a bit and live in the shoes of someone else’s problems. The characters are all likable, even if they are troubled. And Ford deftly showcases the mistreatment of Asian women at the hands of the white patriarchy of American society. It is, in short, a compelling and breathtaking novel about the daily abuses women of colour endure.
The book isn’t quite perfect. Ford tends to write descriptive sentences, which means that you find out what each character has to eat at a buffet of sorts every time they sit down to dinner — which will either leave your mouth watering (I know mine was) but also might have you playing a bit of a drinking game (for those prone to that sort of thing) every time food is served. (Take a swig every time you see a paragraph full of menu items). That’s a minor fault though, if it even is one, and I don’t want to carp too much. However, the point is that sometimes you wanted Ford to get out of the way with his narration and just get on with the juicy dialogue. In that sense, Ford can sometimes tell and not show. Still, this is a minor flaw because he has created characters that are so likable and appealing that you will be rooting for them, even if you can suspect from a million miles away that their hearts are about to be broken in two. All in all, though, The May Daughters of Afong Moy is a delectable piece of writing, even when the author is being wordy. There’s a reason why this book was an instant New York Times bestseller. This is an excellent read and a commanding statement on femininity from, who knew?, a man. Chick Lit may not quite be my thing, but if you were to ask me based on my limited knowledge of the genre, I’d have to say that this work is a superlative example of the best it has to offer. Read it, women.
Jamie Ford’s The Many Daughters of Afong Moy was published by Simon & Shuster / Atria Books on August 2, 2022.
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