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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9781582431895 ISBN: 1582431892 Label: Counterpoint Manufacturer: Counterpoint Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 336 Publication Date: March 23, 2005 Publisher: Counterpoint Release Date: April 12, 2005 Studio: Counterpoint Editorial Review: Product Description: Set in the 1960s, Judy Fong Bates’s much-talked-about debut novel is the story of a young girl, the daughter of a small Ontario town’s solitary Chinese family, whose life is changed over the course of one summer when she learns the burden of secrets. Through Su-Jen’s eyes, the hard life behind the scenes at the Dragon Café unfolds. As Su-Jen’s father works continually for a better future, her mother, a beautiful but embittered woman, settles uneasily into their new life. Su-Jen feels the weight of her mother’s unhappiness as Su-Jen’s life takes her outside the restaurant and far from the customs of the traditional past. When Su-Jen’s half-brother arrives, smouldering under the responsibilities he must bear as the dutiful Chinese son, he forms an alliance with Su-Jen’s mother, one that will have devastating consequences. Written in spare, intimate prose, Midnight at the Dragon Café is a vivid portrait of a childhood divided by two cultures and touched by unfulfilled longings and unspoken secrets. From the Hardcover edition. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - "Is it possible to forgive ourselves the things we do?"I have mixed feelings about _Midnight athte Dragon Cafe_. I absolutely loved Bates' command of language and her languid, conversational tone as her character, Su-Jen narrates. The moods and emotions were so clearly expressed, I really felt I was with Su-Jen as she wrestled with the challenges and secrets she discovered through the course of the book. While I appreciated the gradual maturation of Su-Jen, her growing awareness of the wider world around her, and the secrets her family ... Read More Rating: - Touching "Midnight at the Dragon Cafe"I am a fourth generation Chinese American living in California. I loved this well written, lyrical and engaging book, and recommend it to all. I have not read much about the Chinese-Canadian immigrant experience, and this book was very rewarding in terms of telling the story of the Chinese in Canada in the background of the main story line. The characters are extremely vivid in the book, and one really cares about Su-Jen (aka Annie) right away. The author does a very good job of sketching the lonely ... Read More Rating: - Loved it. Now what?I recently finished this book and loved the way it was written, the use of language, the lessons of enduring truths of humanity, etc. It was very touching and I loved it. I read it aloud to my 16-year-old son. We have read a lot of books but now I'm stuck and need a recommendation on what to read next. Rating:  - Lack of detailWhat can I say, this book lacked all the details I wanted to read, and was pretty darn predictable to boot. I could tell that it was written by a foreigner because it never contained any "advanced" vocabulary. Always just kept mentioning the same food and the same feelings and the same blah blah blah...Enough. I'm done with this thing! Rating:  - The people behind the faces of the local Chinese-Canadian greasy spoonWith a quiet, unassuming elegance, Canadian-Chinese author Judy Fong-Bates sets the scene for her highly applauded debut novel, 'Midnight at the Dragon Cafe'. Perhaps this story touched me more acutely than most of its readers, as it called to mind what my father and his parents must have experienced during and after their immigration from Hong Kong to a little town in Canada in the mid-1950s. Every word to me was genuine, haunting, compelling... Little Su-Jen Chou (at the tender ... Read More |
