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YEH YEH'S HOUSE by Evelina ChaoPublisher Diane Reverand/Saint Martin, December 2004 Throughout Evelina’s childhood, blue aerogramme would arrive from China, addressed to her. These letters were from her grandfather, Yeh Yeh, a formidable scholar, poet and English professor. They often ended with invitations to her to come visit him, and over the years, these invitations developed urgency, asking her to “come before it is too late.” Yet she never found the time away from her music to take the long trip to Beijing. And one day it was too late; her grandfather died at ninety, leaving behind three scrolls, one for each grandchild. Her aunt and uncle urge her to come to collect his final gift. When she finally makes the journey, she asks her mother to come along.
"Evelina Chao's quest for her family's past--and present--is a
rare addition to the classic American story of immigration and its
discontents. Chao manages to capture the paradox of attraction and
repulsion, comedy and heartbreak in the dislocation of cultures. She
illuminates the astonishing refusal of time to erase memory even as it
destroys a whole world and makes family foreigners to each other. YEH
YEH'S HOUSE is radiant, intensely moving, the fat of sentimentality
utterly burned away." |
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