The Leavers

Anytime a book makes me gasp out loud as a major revelation becomes clear, I know it's a good one. This novel was beautifully written, often heartbreaking, and so very honest in its depiction of difficult relationships. The Leavers is a standout from start to finish.

tw: racism, deportation, graphic mentions of animal slaughter, vomit, microaggressions, the mention of the r-word.

i loved this book so much. I adored the writing and getting to see the world through the eyes of Deming. Deming wasn't a perfect character he's far from it. His life was a whole theme park of roller coasters. His mom disappears one day with no warning nothing but his memories of her. He ends up resenting her as his life moves forward without her as he's adopted by a white couple. This books follows him and his mom throughout the span of 20 ish year in an nonlinear timeline.

I loved that this was a character study of two shitty and morally gray characters. Deming and Polly are both lowkey selfish and they don't change much by the end of the story. I actually like that this left off with a kind of open ending with enough of a happy-ish ending. This was just all around a great book and wow i'm so glad that i was right in my high rating predictions. I cant wait to read whatever else Lisa Ko releases.

tw: racism, deportation, graphic mentions of animal slaughter, vomit, microaggressions, the mention of the r-word.

i loved this book so much. I adored the writing and getting to see the world through the eyes of Deming. Deming wasn't a perfect character he's far from it. His life was a whole theme park of roller coasters. His mom disappears one day with no warning nothing but his memories of her. He ends up resenting her as his life moves forward without her as he's adopted by a white couple. This books follows him and his mom throughout the span of 20 ish year in an nonlinear timeline.

I loved that this was a character study of two shitty and morally gray characters. Deming and Polly are both lowkey selfish and they don't change much by the end of the story. I actually like that this left off with a kind of open ending with enough of a happy-ish ending. This was just all around a great book and wow i'm so glad that i was right in my high rating predictions. I cant wait to read whatever else Lisa Ko releases.

3.5

perhaps it's simply because i read this immediately following a little life, but something about it felt incomplete — like there was so much to the story that could have continued, but it was ended short. other than the main plot of the novel, nothing really felt solved in deming/daniel's life. perhaps that is the point of stories, to just plonk you into the most important point of someone's life and leave the rest of it up to your imagination.

but i did love the way the book portrayed how white couples exoticise the adoption of chinese kids they feel need to be “saved.” peter and kay weren't exactly likeable, but they were earnest.

Deming Guo is 11 years old when his mother leaves him. It's not the first time. Making the trip to the United States Deming's mother Polly finds she's too late to have an abortion. Still an infant, Polly briefly leaves Deming in a stiff plastic bag on the pavement under a bench in New York but returns to him. Deming gets sent to China to live with his grandfather for a time before returning to live with his mother, her boyfriend Leon, Leon's sister and her son Michael.

At 11 Deming's mother disappears without a trace. Deming soon finds himself in upstate New York with Peter and Kay, two well meaning liberal arts professors. Deming Guo becomes Daniel Wilkinson - perennial f**k up. Directionless, Daniel has racked up a sizeable gambling debt, dropped out of college and can't find a path that fits him.

Both characters seem less than sympathetic but Lisa Ko builds them out so that while you may not agree with their choices, you can certainly empathize. It's a tough look at the immigrant experience, struggling to fit in while trying to integrate between warring cultures and identities, finding your place in an indifferent world and living with the choices you've made to live within it.

A novel about the 1st and 2nd generation immigration experience in America. Through the eyes of illegal immigrant mother Polly, and her son Deming/Daniel, who ends up in adoption and is torn between two cultures. This is well written, consistent in content and quality, it managed to make me emotional at least once (the skype conversation at his birthday), so all in all solid, but not overly exciting.

3.5 stars

4.5 stars. I picked this book randomly for Book of the Month in May, and I'm so glad I did. This book will break your hear about a thousand times, but in the best possible way. The narration switching moved the story along and I felt anxious about what was going to happen next. I also hope you'll find the ending as satisfying as I did.