SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh: https://t.co/iIQO4sUXnN
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) December 13, 2022
Short Review: 8 out of 10 - an often highly amusing story of multiple generations of a Vietnamese-American family cursed to only have women and to not know happiness or love...
1/3
Short Review (cont): ...as destiny is foretold that their curse will break and the youngest generation of the family starts to go through drastic changes. Solid story of generational trauma, but it never really goes too deep, even as its fun and amusing enough to work well
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) December 13, 2022
2/3
The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a story dealing with a family/generations of Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American women who were cursed generations ago to never find love or happiness and to only give birth to daughters, not sons. It's a book that apparently has gotten a bit of mainstream press (the book is listed as a "Good Morning America Book Pick") and is genre in the same sense as Magical Realism (although as a non-LatAm book, it doesn't fit that classification), with the magic being largely in the background and things really proceed much as they would in our own non-magical world. The book thus wanders from character to character, showing their lives as they struggle to try and find meaning and happiness in family and relationships, to finally break the curse once and for all.
And well, I can see why this book was recommended, because the writing and characters - although somewhat shallow due to how little time the book has to spend on the lot of them - are really done well, with the book often being highly amusing and enjoyable in how things play out with its squabbling Vietnamese family of multiple generations. There isn't really much depth here - there's little great revelations, and characters largely figure things out, or don't, on their own, and the coincidences that lead to conflict when characters come together and discover them are very unlikely...but those moments when these coincidences are discovered lead to some of the funniest and most enjoyable parts of the book, even if this is not a comedy (although it's not really a drama either). It's a book that works as a story about a family dealing with generational traumas just well enough to succeed, with a lightish touch that will make it appeal to many, even if it isn't really saying all that much when it comes down to it.
--------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------
Generations ago, the Duong family was cursed by a Vietnamese witch for the simple crime of falling in love with the wrong person: her descendants would never know love or happiness and would only bear daughters no matter how much they wanted sons.
Now, the Duong family lives largely in Orange County California, where multiple generations stil suffer from the curse: Siblings Mai, Minh, Khuyen and their half-sister Kim, as well as their adult children all find themselves largely successful in their lives in various forms, always working their various schemes to get money...but still not happy despite it all, with the family filled with squabbling amongst themselves...and with unhappy relationships among the lower generations, like with a white man who just likes Asians, a poor boyfriend who is almost too nice, or with a playboy who won't ever comeback after a single night together.
But when Mai goes to a psychic who prophecizes that things will suddenly change: with a marriage, a funeral, and the unthinkable: the birth of a son, she begins to take steps to try to prepare by reconciling with her sisters and mother, and reaching out to her daughters for the first time in years, in hopes that the prophecy might come true.....
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The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a story that jumps between a ton of characters, with each chapter titled with the names of all the characters whose perspectives and storylines will be shown in that chapter (usually multiple characters, but sometimes a single one). The Duong family at the present day features one Matriarch with four daughters and eight granddaughters, all of whom feature here. And it's not a long book, so as you might imagine, the book's attempt to deal with all twelve such characters sometimes is a struggle - I found myself midway through the book having to jump back and remember which kid was which, even as they each roughly got well defined character traits (well two of them basically get the character trait of stoners who just want to setout for themselves and laugh at everything else everyone is involved with). The book also incidentally features only cis-hetero relationships among its characters, when you might think such a curse and the modern day might involve you now, at least one character who doesn't follow heteronormative lines.
That said, despite all those drawbacks, The Fortunes of Jaded Women actually works overall, because its characters are very easy to care about, its prose is really well done, and the situations, dialogue, and plotting is often really good and highly amusing. Despite dealing with generational trauma here - as each generation struggles not to repeat the older generation's mistakes of being overbearing towards their kids, of running them ragged or driving them off with their own internal prejudices that might be outdated or just subjective at best, and only make the pressures those younger generations feel worse as they try to find a way to make their own happiness and thrive. And so you have Priscilla who feels lost when it becomes clear that her long-time boyfriend is merely a White boy who loves Asians of all kinds, and not just her, you have Thuy whose boyfriend Andy is so doting and caring but she just wants something more daring even as she's scared she's becoming like the philandering father she hates the thought of, you have Thao the successful businesswoman who wishes the slick boy in the club in Vietnam would be serious instead of a one night stand, etc. etc. etc.
And yet when all these characters come together, and as things develop in the plot, particularly once a little magical help is added to make one mother rediscover the possibility of love, what winds up in the story is something light and charming and appealling - Its kind of hard to describe but I'm doing the best I can here. There's no big climax or major one development to solve the characters' problems, and the book even subverts some expectations while featuring an epilogue that suggests the story of this family isn't quite over even though the novel is (not that this is a cliffhanger at all), but it somehow works in an incredibly satisfying fashion, one that will make you smile and laugh at itmes throughout, and will show these Vietnamese-American women all finding something for each other in their own various ways.
The result is a novel that's pretty enjoyable and largely well done, even if it doesn't say anything or do much with depth to make it truly impactful. Which probably fits the general press the book is getting, but doesn't mean it'd be a bad choice to pick up this book.
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