The Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford –384 pages
ARC from Atria and Netgalley for an honest review
Book Blurb:
The Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford: Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living. As Washington’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help.
Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family: Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers; Zoe Moy, a student in England at a famous school with no rules; Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic; Greta Moy, a tech executive with a unique dating app; and Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America.
As painful recollections affect her present life, Dorothy discovers that trauma isn’t the only thing she’s inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period. A stranger who’s loved her through all of her genetic memories. Dorothy endeavors to break the cycle of pain and abandonment, to finally find peace for her daughter, and gain the love that has long been waiting, knowing she may pay the ultimate price.
My Review: 4.5 stars
The Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford is the perfect book for pure escapism. Ford tackles such an intriguing concept- that of generational trauma and genetic memories. That’s right, he goes there through a compelling and thought-provoking story of, as the title suggests, the many daughters of Afong Moy.
What made me love this book? For starters the premise is so fresh and different. It’s not a story that’s been rewritten repeatedly. It’s risky and bold, and maybe not for everybody, but it certainly worked for this reader.
This story has you thinking about your own memories, where they came from and why you recall them at certain moments. It makes you question the future and the science that will explain more about epigenetic inheritance.
Everything from mental illness, parenting, historical timelines, future timelines, science, dating, weather patterns, experimental therapy, the Flying Tiger nurses and the first Chinese woman to step on US soil is covered in this story. My advice, just dig in and see where you land with it. I found myself googling, exploring and trying to learn more about everything this book had to offer.
Quotes I liked:
The poetics of poverty, the expressions of servitude, the dialects of desperation, were all languages Afong was well versed in.”
“Everything was poetry that only made sense nehw daer drawkcab.”
“Our insanity is not that we see people who aren’t there, it’s that we ignore the ones who are.”
“Greta had never been in love, more like adjacent to love, or spent a layover in love, but her final destination was always disappointment.”
“Our future is determined by choices we make in the present. But if our present is a collection of routines that were created in the past, by changing how we remember, we will inevitably change future outcomes.”
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