Welcome to Litsy!

Interconnected stories, titled for items on Western Chinese restaurant menus; a funny, thoughtful novel that looks at family relationships & many aspects of the immigrant Chinese experience. The Lees are a family of 6 in a northern #Canadian city; we meet them & their friends at various time periods. The writing style is somewhat impressionistic—vignettes with tangents that aren‘t chronological—much the way memory works. Sweet & sour.

We don‘t put oranges, or incense sticks, booze or Chinese fake Monopoly money out for Uncle Louie. On account of God. We don‘t do ancestor worship, Mumma says, because we believe in God. But what about graves where there‘s oranges and incense AND flowers and chiselled-in words about God? Mumma would say that‘s called dealing from both ends of the deck.
(Internet photo)

Tom rubs his cheeks with both hands, his feet swing back and forth. He has already folded one Order of Service paper airplane, and if he hadn‘t kicked Jane and got the pencil taken away, they could have played Hangman, even though he‘s a terrible speller and she can‘t read.

The parking space behind the flatiron building is best for the fast getaway onto Jasper Avenue & for giving the kids a look at the woman taking a bath: Lizzie wonders what makes a bath a Turkish bath, is it the tub or the bubbles, is it deep like a swimming pool or shallow like the fish hatchery; Pen has warm panty thoughts, she‘s bathing nude on Jasper Ave where everyone can see her; Tom wishes you didn‘t have to be from Turkey to go in there …

Mumma & Dad‘s conversation at the table becomes budget dinner theatre for the kids—no dessert bar, but what a show. While the anglophone kids would benefit from English subtitles, that service would never be provided. The kids are not the intended audience, but they enjoy the body language, moving their heads back & forth to whoever speaks. In tonight‘s drama, one character, Mystery Language, is a charismatic magnet, ⤵️

In her author photo at the back of her book, it looks like Lauralyn Chow is holding the same doll that I‘ve had since I was three. (My doll Betty is still dressed in clothes my mom made for a larger doll, but I never warmed up to that one, and put the clothes on Betty instead.)

My two sets of houseguests have left and now I have time to catch up on reading library books (and Litsy). A new set of book flags—a gift from my recent Japanese guest—is at the ready.