Rate this book

Listen To The Squawking Chicken: When Mother Knows Best, What's A Daughter To Do? A Memoir (Sort Of) (2014)

by Elaine Lui(Favorite Author)

3.5 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0399166793 (ISBN13: 9780399166792)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Putnam Adult

review 1: I...did not like this book. I tend to like the episodic/musing memoir style, but not when it's used to keep the self at bay rather than tunneling in. The character's mother comes across as absurd and demanding, but never quite funny, and I did not feel any love or affection between them to counteract the criticism and humiliations that she grew up with (because childhood shame is such a powerful force, even when we realize after the fact that it was merited or unreasonable). I expect this book will be fairly forgettable as well, however.
review 2: I'm more than half way through and I have to say, so far it's basically a bunch of generalisations. 'chinese people do this, western people do this.' In fact I started getting annoyed and thus went around asking all m... morey Chinese friends if they did anything that was mentioned, half of which (like the foreheads have 3 flames concept) they hadn't even heard of. I don't doubt many Chinese families believe and follow the ideas in the book, but there seems to be this Western/Chinese dichotomy Elaine Lui creates that I resent. While the relationship between her and her mother is really interesting, she consistently compares her mother's style of parenting against the so-called Western 'special snowflake' parenting philosophy. It's great that she grew up stronger because of her mother's style, but that kind of shaming technique can just as easily lead to hopelessness where the child becomes paralysed and convinced they can't achieve anything so they don't. It's the same with encouragement- you can either set up your child for failure, or make them confidence, self-assured people. I really like the little anecdotes in this book and discovering the mother/daughter relationship, but the constant generalisations about a) chinese families and b) parenting styles are really starting to grate.Also as a side note it seems really unhealthy for a 40 year old woman to be calling her mother when she enters and leaves a taxi. Hope she has a good phone plan! less

Download links for: Listen to the Squawking Chicken: When Mother Knows Best, What's a Daughter To Do? A Memoir (Sort Of)

Advertising