Reviews with content warning for Racism - Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

i don't read many non-fiction books, but i'm so glad i picked this one up. while i was vaguely aware of the troubles asian-americans had to face, cathy brought so many details and often overlooked experiences to the forefront in such a way that one can't ignore it. will be re-reading and looking for other books by her.

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historicalmaterialgirl's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.75

Minor Feelings is a set of personal essays that contends with Asian American experiences and art. The way this book has been marketed, I thought it was gonna be very liberal #inclusionwillsaveus and this book outright rejects that.

Instead, it offers thoughtful commentary on a range of issues, from language to comedy to whiteness, without coming to any hardline answers. I think she really just wants us to sit and think and feel through many of these problems, which I admire. I diverge with her thinking here and there, but overall I loved this. Especially her turn to activism in the final chapter! It was so hopeful and bright. This is a particularly good book to read with someone else!

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bookcheshirecat's review against another edition

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informative tense fast-paced

3.0

“Patiently educating a clueless white person about race is draining. It takes all your powers of persuasion. Because it’s more than a chat about race. It’s ontological. It’s like explaining to a person why you exist, or why you feel pain, or why your reality is distinct from their reality. Except it’s even trickier than that. Because the person has all of Western history, politics, literature, and mass culture on their side, proving that you don’t exist.”

➽ This is a nonfiction about the Asian American identity! I was interested to learn more about the topic and in Minor Feelings the author offers a collection of essays filled with personal anecdotes. I liked the discussions about the model minority myth, the intersection between race/art and assimilation into American culture. While I liked hearing what Cathy Park had to say, I wish her essays had a bigger connection and that the book felt more cohesive. Some chapters were simply more intriguing to me than others. I struggled the most with the chapters that were focused on her personal life, as it felt a bit invasive and detracted from the points she wanted to make. At one point she talked in-depth about a complicated friendship and her friend's mental health issues. That didn't feel like it had a place in this book and I wonder if her friends consented to having very personal things shared for everyone to read about. The balance between personal anecdotes and her political discussions just felt a bit off at times and made this awkward to read.

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charlieeee's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative slow-paced

4.0

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jcstokes95's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This essay collection is remarkable. I honestly did not feel a single piece missed the mark; each one was thoughtful and a gorgeous mix of personal and informative. Cathy Hong Park really plumbs the depths here, of her communities’ tragedies and its shortcomings. She takes the time to tease out all the complications; she looks at the model minority myth in a way that makes the harm of it all so clear. She delves into racial self-hatred with depth rarely given to it. In retrospect, I wish I’d purchased a physical copy so I could mark this book up to hell. There are so many arresting lines.

Park writes about how white, American culture has imprinted on Asian-Americans brought here specifically because their jobs made them “worthy” or the right to immigrate to a country with historically closed borders. This pressure to maintain status and perfection has kept the model minority stereotype alive. Park rejects the American ideology that immigrants should be “grateful” or “compliant” to a nation that has refused to allow them to come into their own identity separate from a relation to whiteness.

I also loved the section on stand up as abrasive, storytelling that forces the audience into being viewed from the performer’s eyes. I like the idea that audience in this case can be the target and allow a comedian from an underrepresented/oppressed background to put the audience at risk of being on display.

Like many essay collections, there are points where it temporarily loses its thread. It could stand to be pulled tighter here by an editor, but it is a testament to the strength of Park’s writing style that this remains powerful and compelling despite these blips.

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leweylibrary's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.75

There's a lot going on in this book, and I'm glad that I at least read a good half of it as a physical copy rather than the audiobook I finished with. The author is a poet, and that is much clearer when I'm reading a physical copy and can mark parts that stand out to me. I read this for a book club, but I missed the last meeting. In the sessions I did go to, we had really rich discussions that elevated my opinion of the book greatly. The first half dealt a lot more with more abstract concepts and literature, but the second half moves more into talking about herself and her background in art and poetry while delving into deeper issues like her "bad English," internment camps, and the brutal rape and murder of a prominent Asian American artist.

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jaqjak's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

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