Friday, January 4, 2019

The Foreigner   Francie Lin
Novel about a Chinese-American man who goes to Taiwan to inter his mother’s ashes and gets involved with local human traffickers. I found the character of Emerson, the protagonist, very dislikable. Not sure if that is intentional, or just a mistake by the author. There is nothing masculine about him, and the one sexual encounter is embarrassingly unconvincing. Also, what progress he makes toward freedom from his past and awakening turns back on itself at the end. Lin’s prose is beautiful, but the preponderance of emotional nuance is completely out of place against the narrative action. Didn’t like it, too bad.

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