From the bestselling author of "Girl in Translation," a novel about a young woman torn between her family duties in Chinatown and her escape into the world of ballroom dancing. Twenty-two-year-old Charlie Wong grew up in New York's Chinatown, the older daughter of a Beijing ballerina and a noodle maker. Though an ABC (America-born Chinese), Charlie's entire world has been limited to this small area. Now grown, she lives in the same tiny apartment with her widower father and her eleven-year-old sister, and works--miserably--as a dishwasher. But when she lands a job as a receptionist at a ballroom dance studio, Charlie gains access to a world she hardly knew existed, and everything she once took to be certain turns upside down. Gradually, at the dance studio, awkward Charlie's natural talents begin to emerge. With them, her perspective, expectations, and sense of self are transformed--something...
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2019-07-19
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"I began to see beauty as something that could be unleashed from within a person rather than a set of physical features like a perfect nose or big eyes."
"Mambo in Chinatown" by Jean Kwok is a lighthearted and warm feel-good where we get to follow Charlie, a 22 year old girl with big dreams. Through the book Charlie really evolves and blooms as a person, it's captivating to follow her changes.
Charlie is without a doubt my favorite characters but I also really liked Lisa, Nina, Ryan, Zan, Mo Li and of course everyone at the dance studio.
I picked this book up on a book sale so I didn't know what to expect, but I gotta say that this was a really fun and interesting read. I'm Swedish so I know near to nothing about the Chinese traditions and culture so reading this book thought me quite a lot about their culture, which I really enjoyed.
Kwok's way of writing makes every chapter captivating and as a reader I want to find out if certain things happens so much that it's tempting to go to the last chapters. This is the first book I've read by the author but I will definitely read more of her work in the future.
⭐️ "Mambo in Chinatown" by Jean Kwok gets a strong 3/5 stars from me!
