It's such a refreshing change to read an Asian-American's work that is so angry and expressive and needy and emotional. Especially because it's her own personal story, and not something she's making up about a fictional character. To put yourself out there, to talk about your faults and desires and mistakes, takes immense courage and boldness and also a strong ego. I don't think I've seen many Asian people do something like that.

This book was truly so intense. At times cathartic, at others maddening or sickening, and still at others funny. I was on a rollercoaster ride through most of it. She adds a lot of really painful and shocking history (recent and old) in the book, I think those parts were the hardest to read.

She also phrased some things about racism and feelings of racism as an Asian-American so well, and those were the parts I felt catharsis from. For example, how we feel about our parents as less and less of heroes and more as people we need to protect in this country because of their inability to fit in perfectly or fight against racism. There were so many points made that had me feeling like I needed to read it over and over and reflect on it for longer.

I want to recommend this book to everyone, but at the same time it was so heartbreaking, infuriating, and shocking, that I need to disclose trigger warnings with the recommendation. If you have not read this book yet, please know that it’s been a life-changing book for many many people, and is truly an important work of modern American literary history.

• I liked the chapters about Cathy's experience with counseling therapy and the relationship with her mother. 

• The chapters lack cohesion and were confusing in terms of time progression. 
• The book is marketed as an Asian American memoir, but a big portion of the book is neither memoir nor about the Asian American experience. 
• I got the feeling that Cathy is avoiding telling her own story and reverting to the story of others.
• One chapter about Cathy's college years shows that a friend abused Cathy, but there is never an acknowledgement of the abuse. It is rather dismissed as a character flaw.