Aisling Juanjuan Shen
Many thanks to guest reviewer, Susan Blumberg-Kason for today’s book review:
If your parents physically and emotionally tormented you when they weren’t plain ignoring you, how far would you go to escape and live on your own terms? The author’s honest and eye-opening memoir takes the reader on a highly emotional journey starting from when she’s born to a poor peasant family in rural China. As if frigid winters with no heat and long days with little food weren’t bad enough, Juanjuan’s mother at one point dares her daughter to kill herself. When she’s lucky enough to attend school, she finally finds something that keeps her going. Staying late to finish her homework and avoid her dysfunctional family, Juanjuan dreams of something no one else in her hamlet has ever done–to go to college. The book takes us through the many incarnations of Juanjuan, as she goes from working as a middle school teacher, to being a secretary, an Amway saleswoman, a translator and finally a businesswoman for a knitting machine factory.
