This novel is set in Canada, which I was excited to read. Add to that, the fact it is about a Canadian Chinese young man in search of his uncle in China, I thought for sure this would be a read I would enjoy.

The story line, and the characters did however fall short of my enjoyment.

After preparing some lessons, and dumping his girlfriend, he sets off to China in search of this look-alike uncle that disappeared some 20 years ago.

Add to that the idea that the novel is set during the Y2K time period, it just didn't seem to connect and settle well with me. The references which should have added a little drama to the story line were just sprinkled through, and I struggled to connect with him as a character, and his search for the long-lost uncle.

If you enjoy novels that search for missing relatives, involve Y2K, then you may enjoy this novel more than I did.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I just couldn't get into this one. It seemed like something that I would enjoy, but it was very disjointed when reading. There wasn't a smooth flow for the reader. I just couldn't enjoy it.

The heavy rhythm and melody of what seemed to me as a maybe book at first slowly moved me to complete it. What I had read, and I know, might be a reflection of a story that had accidentally drifted in or a complete illusion. In our world of uncertain light, there are more illusions than realities. This is why my eyes were on this book and could not wait to arrive at the very ending – Hadi Atallah, author of "Rosemary Bluebell."

I quite liked this novel. It blended some subtle character-driven and plot-driven techniques to step outside the box and deliver an enjoyable reading experience. The protagonist, Jason Lavoie, is a mixed-race young composer, who comes over at first as a level-headed, albeit passive individual. Jason is doubly assimilated - half-Franco-Albertan, he cannot speak French; half-Chinese, he knows nothing about China or its language. In a quest to understand at least his Asian side, he embarks on a journey to find an uncle lost decades before in China. But this journey only begins at the mid-point of the novel. Before then, Jason is a floater -- having no sense of clear direction or purpose, and parentless, he is easily drawn to two women who show affection and interest in him. When these relationships cross and implode, he is pretty much left with nothing. So, he strikes out on an adventure promising some meaning to his life. The two-part story may be somewhat off-putting for readers who look for better structure and coherence in a narrative. Admittedly, the first half of the novel does drag on compared to the faster pace of the second where Jason's journey offers some finely crafted encounters with the people and landscapes of little known regions in China. Bathing in the exoticism of the new milieu and the unfolding of the mysterious disappearance of his uncle, Jason gradually strengthens his persona as a "seeker." In a classically aesthetic quest for the truth, Jason leaves by the wayside his material possessions and braves the elements to find his metaphorical uncle. A relaxing and memorable story, this novel is a solid 4.5 star read.

This was the winner of the best unpublished manuscript prize by Guernica. I’m not even familiar with that specific accolade, but it nevertheless does set one’s expectations up. And yet…in the end the book didn’t really end up doing it (you know, that it one expects from a really good read) for me. There was much about it to appreciate, the competent writing, the multiracial aspect, the rediscovery of one’s ethnicity, the quest to locate a family member, but nothing about the book stood out in any way. The first person narration was a fairly subdued affair of…well, of a not so subdued affair mostly, and then due to this indiscretion the protagonist ends up dumped by his girlfriend and alone and spiraling into a sort of depression that ends up with a quest to find a lookalike uncle who went to China some two decades ago during some very heavy political turbulence and disappeared. So the protagonist, Canadian Chinese heavy on Canadian, arms himself with some sociohistorical and language lessons and goes to China to play detective. The entire thing is set during the Y2K lunacy to (presumably) amp up the drama and uncertainty. The novel read easily enough and was admirably succinct, but the narrator never really becomes engaging or compelling enough to care about and the last (hallucinatory, quite literally) act was didn’t really work for me. So essentially it was a well intentioned nicely written story that didn’t really wow to begin with and disappointed at the end. Maybe I’m too tough on it. It’s possible. It wasn’t terrible in any way, it just kinda was. It went by quickly enough, but outside of some interesting Chinese cultural and historical facts and observations, it didn’t offer much in return for the time. Thoroughly underwhelming read. User mileage may vary. Thanks Netgalley.