Book I loved: Girl in Translation

I started this book last Thursday and finished it Friday...so you can tell I really enjoyed it.  Heather read this book and posted about it on her blog The One Thing I Regret and I had been interested in it so I had to buy it and read it. I got really sucked into this book- the story of Kimberly "Ah-Kim" and her mother is so foreign to the life I lead, which perhaps make it even more compelling. 

Kimberly and her mother emigrate to New York from Hong Kong.  Their life here is made more difficult by the debt that they owe to Kimberly's aunt and uncle for Kimberly's Mom's tuberculosis treatment and their travel here.  In order to pay off the debt and make a pittance of a living they slave away in the sweatshop under the watchful eye of Aunt Paula.  It is here that Kimberly learns to view life in terms of skirts, as that is what she and her mother do in the sweatshop, they finish the clothing items for shipment.---riding the subway is 100 skirts.   

Kimberly is different from the other children who help their parents in the sweatshop.  She is determined to succeed outside of Chinatown and she is smart enough to make it happen.  She works hard to learn English and do well in school with the small bit of time she has available away from work.  She endures a cockroach infested apartment with no heat and works very hard.  She gets a full scholarshop to an elite prep school, amazes her teachers and endures the jealousy of her Aunt Paula.  She earns a scholarhsip spot at Yale and all the while she teeters between the American way of life and the Chinese. Her choice in the end between escape with her mother from a life of poverty and love seems to be an easy choice as we read it, but in the end I think we see some regret.

I highly recommend this book.  When I read a book like this I am reminded that any hardship that I have endured is not truly a hardship.  I have been given so much and have taken things for granted.  Have I really worked hard? What should I be doing?

The author is telling a tale that must be close to her heart, as she too immigrated from Hong Kong, and this allows her to write a beautiful story.