Ibrahim spins a tale that will resonate with immigrants of all generations. It was easy to be swept up into the story and to overlook the few plot machinations that stretch the imagination but seemed necessary to make the plot work. However, the story isn’t enough to fulfill the book’s potential. The author does a nice job of portraying Ming Lei, the paper wife, as a multidimensional character, But the other characters tend to fall more easily Into one-dimensional good or evil templates. The plot flies along until nearly the end, when a truly shocking and unexpected action occurs. Instead of exploring the ethics associated with the action (which is dismissed as having been necessary) or with its long-term impact on the character who committed it, the author seems to expect the reader to also accept it and move on. Although I read the complete text, I could not move on from that act and the lack of introspection and insights led to my disappointment with the novel. There’s a lot to learn in Paper Wife about the practice of assuming names and positions to gain entry to the country, about how immigrants were treated while detained until the immigration process is complete, which by contrast to what we know about today’s practices seem almost benign, and about some of the struggles newly arrived immigrants faced in 1920’s California. Everything falls into place a little too easily, though, and the lake of character development and the lingering ethical issues (there are more than the one represented by the shocking act) make what could have been a very good book only mediocre.