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Aunty Lee's Delights: (2013)

by Ovidia Yu(Favorite Author)

3.43 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0062227157 (ISBN13: 9780062227157)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

William Morrow Paperbacks

series

Singaporean Mystery

review 1: I'm not a foodie and so I approached this book with a little trepidation. However, I was immediately won over with Ovidia Yu's portrayal of both Aunty Lee, who has a wonderful way of ignoring things she wants to ignore, and of her stepdaughter-in-law, Selina. Selena perfectly exemplifies the breed of Asian women who view everything as a commodity, or in terms of social position, power, or opportunity. Aunty Lee is nonplussed as she, with her accent, calls Selena "Silly-Nah." I loved the characterizations of the woman in this book, and how the customs were worked into the mystery. Non-foodie me also appreciated Aunty Lee's philosophical view towards cooking. The mystery (the clues and the logic) felt a bit loosey goosey to me and the first half was a bit slow in ingra... moretiating Aunty Lee into the mystery. The characterizations of the men also felt a bit one-dimensional. However, it was such a pleasure to read a mystery steeped in a different, yet modern culture, and I will carry certain tidbits of Aunty Lee wisdom with me always (favorite bit of wisdom: if you want to know what humans taste like, eat pork...read the book to find out why this is so).
review 2: I feel so bad giving this book, or any book, only 1 star but I just couldn't get into it. I loved the cover, the synopsis sounded good, and everyone gave it good reviews but it just didn't live up to my expectations. The writing was short & choppy and the narrative was constantly changing between the characters without any indication. I wanted to like this book but I found myself skipping entire chapters just to get through it faster. less

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