BOOK REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION

Our Missing Hearts

Dystopian Novel by Celeste Ng Will Move You (I Hope)

I am what I read

I recognize that the choices I make for reading material has a lot to do with my inclination to support “my community,” whatever that means at the time. I am not Chinese American, but Japanese/Okinawan American, so I read a lot of Asian American literature. My favorite genre is historical fiction, which this is not, it’s dystopian perhaps. I had read Ng’s previous novel, Little Fires Everywhere, after seeing the miniseries on Hulu at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown. I was surprised that the main characters were not Asian, though the lives of Asians in America is part of the narrative. I remember choosing Our Missing Hearts after reading the back cover that the mother of the main character is a Chinese American poet. This piece of info came at the end of a long, descriptive passage. But I remember going, “Oh Asian”, and brought it to the checkout desk at the library.

The Context is set — It’s Asian Hate

I seem to be an” identity” reader — reading to articulate my identity. There’s something about Ng’s writing that takes a while to resonate with me. The story centers around a twelve-year-old boy, living with a white…