Searching for Sylvie Lee

I was really looking forward to reading this, based on some reviews I saw online, and it being included in the Modern Mrs. Darcy summer reading guide, and I wasn't disappointed! This story is about family relationships and expectations, misunderstandings when too many things are left unsaid, and secrets that come to the surface over time. This is a very well-written book - the author is very talented and reading this was a pleasure. The proverbs referred to had me bookmarking far too many pages; the dialogue written in a voice of a character where English is not the first or even second language, and the plot development and revelation were done so so well. I would love to see this developed into a film but only if they keep much of the dialogue, because it was one of my favorite parts.

The single thing I truly loved was the cultural portrait the author always excels at. Everything else just didn't talk to me.

The more I think about this book the more irritated I become.

The crux of the novel is discovering that the missing Sylvie commits suicide, which is not exactly a surprise considering that her disappearance is fueling the entire plot. Narratively the options are either one of the other characters has murdered her, she runs away to do something else with her life, or she she has decided to end things. However, it is hard to build any suspense when Sylvie herself is one of the main perspectives in the story. We are less searching for Sylvie that she is just flat out telling us what is happening. She's discovered that her husband had an affair with a 16 year old, loses her job, and her grandmother passed away. All of which might understandably cause grief, anxiety and depression. However, the impetus for suicide was just so weird, it felt like the novel took a hard turn into soap opera territory. Her love interest is revealed to be her half brother, because he notices that she has birth mark that matches his father's? (I actually started googling whether birthmarks can be inherited.) I thought it was a real stretch for both of them to realize “Oh! Look at this funny birthmark, it must mean we have the same dad! Let's not have sex.” I did not understand at all why her reaction was to get in the car and drive into a canal. Why didn't she go confront her parents? Why didn't she use her ample credentials (it was hammered home many, many times about her Ivy League and MIT degrees,) to go find an awesome new job, divorce her husband, and live in a cool new city?

Also, what was the point of the grandmother's “treasure?” Which as described, seemed to be some old gold and jade jewelry? I kept wondering if this was like how my grandma collected china figurines that were probably an extravagance when she bought them, but were really just cute little trinkets? It was such a random plot point that didn't go anywhere. It seemed like the set up was leading towards Sylvie's grandma giving her this jewelry, and telling her to run away and go live her life, but instead....they fake a break in and hide the jewelry so that their aunt can't take it.

I also found some of the character's observations to be really strange. At one point Amy has just landed in the Netherlands, her first flight, customs and airport experience, which I understand can be stressful and novel in a lot of ways. But, she's grown up in New York City, she's not exactly coming from an insular, sheltered location. But she goes to the bathroom and notices that everyone else is so much taller than her, and in fact the sinks are so high she can't even see into the mirror over the sink. What? How tall is she exactly? Are sinks in the Dutch airport dramatically taller than those in New York? Every airport I have ever been in has full length mirrors. This was super minor but I kept finding weird little things that made it seem a bit like the characters were aliens.

This book certainly had my attention but what ultimately was revealed felt like a letdown. The tragic aspects were too overwrought and a bit too late.

The parts I appreciated touch on the experiences of children and grandchildren of immigrants in Europe. The socialisation of dehumanisation—with a quick sampling in racist children's songs, the German version of rock-paper-scissors (if you point it out to them they say, ‘What? That's what Chinese sounds like'), television fare in France—remains a current.