wonderful job setting,..

"With cash in hand, he walked a few blocks west on Hastings street to Woodward's Department Store, a four story brick building plastered with advertising: CARPETS! OIL SKINS! FURNITURE! HARDWARE! GROCERIES! His only previous visit had been the year his mother had taken him at Chirstmastime, the storefront windows glittering with lights. She had walked him through every floor, delighting in his look of astonishment and shielding him from those of others. No avoiding those looks tonight, though, especially when he vented into the ladies' section.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this book incredibly interesting the author really kept me hooked until the end. very well written I highly recommend.

This was a first short stories type book for me. Honestly, this book isn’t for me. A lot of the stories seemed incomplete or were hard to follow.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

A series of short stories all connected to discuss the Chinese integration experience. The characters within each story vary in age, location, dreams, and livelihoods. There are 7 stories in total, spanning 5 continents, with 1 story (the last one - We Two Alone) comprising a large chunk of the book, following a couple trying to make it first in LA and then in New York all while trying to balance marriage and the desire to start a family.

In general, I find like short stories are hard to get into. They always seem to cut themselves short and I struggle to engage and get in to the characters. Unfortunately, that’s how I felt here (minus maybe the last story). I thought they were fine… but they didn’t blow me away. I would have loved to dig deeper into each story and into each character.

*Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review!*

This is a beautiful collection of short stories that focus on Chinese-American and immigrant life. If anything it is an uneven collection. Some stories shine, others are dull. It is not a joyful collection, it is rather melancholic, but the writing is beautiful and most characters are fully conceived.

We Two Alone review

Disclaimer: I received an e-proof of this book in exchange for an honest review.

We Two Alone focuses on stories about the Chinese diaspora through history, like in “The Nature of Things,” a story about married Chinese-Canadian couple Frank and Alice, who move to Shanghai and are separated by the Second Sino-Japanese War. During their separation, Alice finds a book Frank packed for her in her suitcase, and learns more about him through the passages he underlined. Many of the stories involve the Chinese diaspora experience in Canada, Germany, South Africa, and other countries, and I enjoyed the historical details in these stories and learning more about the discrimination the families faced.

“I was born on one continent; I will die on another. This is the story of many. It’s everything in between that’s different. Who would I have become if we had landed in Perth? If my parents had chosen Toronto, London, San Francisco? And what if friction and gravity had been kinder the year I was eight? What country, then, might have been ours?”

So I kind of forgot what this one was about when I downloaded it, since I’m smart like that. I didn’t remember the synopsis at all, so I went in blind.

Turns out that “We Two Alone” is a book composed of short stories about the mistreatment of Chinese people throughout Western history, ending with a story of the same name.

The Valkyries:
this story was amazing at addressing the struggles of Asian people in the West. The main character, Nelson, is a young Chinese man living in 1920s Vancouver. He wants to play hockey as a career and has always loved it, but due to his race, he can’t even be considered for tryouts.

So what does he do? He joins the newly-pitched women’s team by wearing women’s clothes and putting on some makeup (think reverse Mulan with hockey).

This story did an amazing job of addressing Asian discrimination and sexism, I’m not going to deny this. I loved how gritty and raw the narrative was in exposing the discrimination. But I have to point out how problematic Nelson and Tessa were.

Tessa was a closeted lesbian. Nelson was a guy. But Tessa kissed Nelson (or “Nellie,” as he introduced himself to the Valkyries) while thinking he was also a lesbian girl. I understand that this was to address the treatment of LGBTQ+ people back then, but this just came across as problematic for me.

This story was realistic and addressed discrimination very well, so I shouldn’t be complaining, but I just couldn’t enjoy the plot from then on.

The Nature of Things:
Frank and Alice are a Chinese couple who have struggled against racism and exclusion in America and Canada. They’ve sustained their relationship through years of long-distance while Frank practiced to become a doctor.

They hope things will become better when they move to Shanghai, but World War Two rolls around, along with the Japanese invasion of China.

A pregnant Alice has to leave Frank in Shanghai, as he insists on staying to continue helping at the hospital. As she and Frank’s parents flee to different homes, she waits for him to catch up to them, the way he said he would.

This story conveyed the tense war atmosphere and complications of a relationship really well. The characterization was done better than I expected, and the culture of the different environments shown came across pretty strong. I could understand what was going on. This one was probably my favorite of the stories.

The Night of Broken Glass:
I vaguely remember this one? It was a bit hard to understand, though.

It’s told from the perspective of a young Chinese boy living in Vienna whose father is a consul general. He does his best to save as many people as possible from the Nazis.

The storytelling of this one felt kind of weak. While the core of this story seems like it was intended to be the war and the war effort, the focus was mostly on the main character’s white stepmother. I didn’t like her at all. She was racist and ignorant and spoiled. She didn’t try to learn Chinese, despite it being her husband’s primary language. She didn’t try to care for her stepson. She cheated on her husband without seeming to even care about the war.

The fact that I can describe her so well but can’t remember the details of the story is a problem.

The climax of this story was Kristallnacht (as you can guess from the name), but there wasn’t a lot of emphasis placed on that event. It didn’t feel nearly as important as the stepmother’s antics with some German man. I think this was supposed to be the event that opens the main character’s eyes to brutality and the reality of the war, but again, all the focus was on that awful bitch.

Everything In Between:
this one was a bit hard to follow for me. The way the story was told was very broken up and didn’t leave a lot of explanation. I had to Google a few things to understand what was going on.

The story was told from a present-tense narrative, a Chinese woman reminiscing on her childhood growing up in Port Elizabeth. More specifically, about the racism she and her family faced trying to move into a new house. This one had really good insight regarding white colonialism, but it wasn’t enough for me to care about the story or even really follow it. The one thing I liked was that it addressed how ridiculous it was for white people living in Africa to be racist...toward African people. Literally what did they expect when they came over in their boats?

Belsize Park:
this one was very bittersweet, even though I couldn’t really bring myself to care about the characters. The main character, a Chinese-English graduate, plans to introduce his white (and rich) girlfriend to his parents. The whole class and race stigma concept was powerful with this story.

The thing is, I didn’t really care about it. The detail thrown into the story might have made it richer for some other readers, and it probably should have for me considering how much I love atmosphere and visuals. But it just made it feel heavy and detached, since there wasn’t as much emphasis on the character struggles.

And what emphasis there was came across too strong. It felt like the narrative was bouncing between description of the outer world and description of the inner world, and it didn’t click with me.

This story could have been a lot stronger with its character depictions and depiction of internal struggle, but the way it was written felt kind of aimless and didn’t do a great job of explaining where it was going.

Allhallows:
this one was probably my least favorite, since I didn’t really see the meaning of the story. I didn’t even remember what happened. I remember not liking the character, since he was a bit of an asshole.

What I do remember of the plot from searching it up online: a deadbeat dad forgets to visit his kids on Halloween to take them trick-or-treating, and comes the next day hoping to make up for it. Somehow he ends up sleeping with some random lady whose kid is a racist little shit.

I’m sorry, that was not a good synopsis, but it shows you how little I cared for this one.

We Two Alone:
this one was really long, and I got kind of frustrated at how long it took me to read. I had other books I wanted to read, I wanted to finish the ARC, and I wasn’t really enjoying the anthology that much. But I cared too much to DNF.

This story follows Leonard Xiao and his navigation of life as an Asian-American actor, past forty and still struggling to land roles. I felt really sympathetic for Leonard and his constant struggle to do what he wanted to do without the racism, but I also didn’t care for his character decisions that much. The way he kept brushing off his wife Emily whenever she tried to talk to him, but then getting mad when she seemed not to care about his pursuits, was borderline hypocritical.

I liked how well he was portrayed as being someone blinded by determination, and how this was shown to impact his relationships and his life. It was a little bit reassuring to read about someone older than my parents who still feels lost in life, because as a fifteen-year-old, I’m really hoping I’ll have my adult life together.

Some of the story felt unnecessary, because it kept flashing back to some instances that didn’t really contribute to the plot, but the narration and direction made it pretty clear how things were going.

Overall, this anthology was really insightful toward acts of Asian (Chinese, specifically) hate and the experiences of Asian people throughout history, all across the world. It delivered its statement powerfully and undeniably.

Does that mean it was an enjoyable read? Not really. As you can tell, I didn’t really care about the plot lines all that much. It was a valuable read, but not in terms of entertainment or enjoyment.

Read it if you want more insight on Asian experiences throughout history, but I wouldn’t recommend it in terms of storytelling.

Unfortunately, this collection took a lot longer for me to make it through than I was expecting. While there were a couple of stories I absolutely loved - The Nature of Things was my favorite, but I also really loved The Night of Broken Glass. Overwhelmingly though, I didn’t enjoy most of this collection and found myself skipping a couple of the stories.

“I was born on one continent; I will die on another. This is the story of many. It’s everything in between that’s different.”

We Two Alone is a collection of short stories that reflects on the causes and challenges of the Chinese Diaspora along with the impact it had on subsequent generations. The stories offer differing points of view - the old and young, male and female, privileged and impoverished - during different eras in various countries. There are themes of racism, xenophobia, injustice, discrimination, segregation, maltreatment that are constants throughout the stories as anyone labeled “other” or perceived as “alien,” “exotic,” or “foreign,’ may have experienced in varying degrees at some point. In each of the stories, we often see dreams deferred but buoyed by hopes and prayers for them to manifest for their children and/or children’s children.

The stories are well-conceived, well-written, and although considered works of fiction, I can easily imagine each of them reflecting a bit of semblance of someone’s truth or experiences.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher to allow me to read/review in exchange for an honest review.

This astonishing book of short stories by wonderful writer Jack Wang is heartbreaking and heart affirming. I was delighted and often devastated by every story, The author is inventive, moving and these stories ring absolutely true.

Wow just wow, absolutely judge this book by the cover. Its gorgeous and represents the incredible stories inside perfectly. These stories are powerful and moving, and evoke emotions that are so intense and needed after we've all been cooped up at home. If you're looking for human connection without meeting another human in person right now these stories will make you feel like an old friend is visiting.

We Two Alone is a collection of stories that dramatize the Chinese diaspora across the globe over the past hundred years, The stories are set on five continents and span decades of time, In one story, a young laundry boy risks his life by pretending to be a girl to play organized hockey in Canada. In another story, a family attempts to buy a home in South Africa in the early years of apartheid. These stories are very truthful and raw and display the horrible things that Chinese immigrants had to live through.

We Two Alone is a collection of short stories regarding the Chinese diaspora experience on five continents in the 20th century (the last and longest story occurs from the mid-90s through the 2010s). It is a heavy hitting book that brings home the destructive realities experienced by Chinese immigrants and other minorities (gender is a heavy hitter) and brings real awareness to the myth of the model minority.

During a year in which difficult conversations are finally happening in popular discourse surrounding the trauma of the Chinese Exclusion Act, racial violence, and outright bigotry long experienced by Asians in the United States as well as the rest of the world, this was a thought provoking and beautifully written set of stories I will be thinking about for some time to come.

Thank you to HarperVia for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book.

We Two Alone, is a few short stories that talks about life journey and focuses on family in different time periods and its hardships. Its emotional pull at the heart strings for one particular one where I felt was a tribute to the " Chinese Schindler. "

Sometimes I didn't know what time period I was in but It didn't matter. The focus was always on the characters and surrounding of that particular story. Where there was some that left you wanting more. Always wanting more, thats definitely the Hook.

Anyways since isn't the most important fact about life the Journey? The people we meet on the way? The things that happen? The emotions we get from it?

Publish Date Jun 08 2021

Arc Was given to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

An absolutely beautiful book. I love that Jack was able to make me feel as if I was in each story. The struggles of Chinese immigrants were highlighted wonderfully and it made me check myself as a white woman. I would absolutely recommend this any and everyone.

Jack Wang’s We Two Alone is a striking collection of stories depicting a wide range of historical experiences and the diversity of Chinese immigration. These character-driven narratives dramatize some of the subtle complexities of love and loss, while depicting people struggling to find their identity and acceptance in systems, organizations, and cultures that are actively pushing against them. As a whole, We Two Alone is an exploration of love and desire whether it’s romantic, achieving goals, or finding belonging.
The collection opens with “The Valkyries,” where we meet Nelson, a laundry boy living in early 20th century Canada who desperately wants to join a hockey team. After being rejected by the boy’s team, Nelson disguises himself as a girl to play in the emerging women’s league. While Nelson finds belonging through his team, he knows it’s contingent on maintaining the lie. While the conflicts here are more overt, it sets up the collection by illustrating the intersectional range of issues at play between race, economic status and gender.
While major historical moments are central to the context of the stories in the collection, Wang writes them in the periphery. From a Chinese family trying to buy a home in South Africa under Apartheid to a Canadian couple living in Shanghai during the Second Singo-Japanese war, we see the various conflicts that the characters face on a cultural scale, but Wang often puts his characters at a distance and utilizes the perspectives of the character separated from the direct conflict. This is accomplished through the perspective of children. In “The Night of Broken Glass,” a Chinese diplomat and his family are living in Vienna during the rise of Nazi violence against Jewish people. While this is the cultural conflict, the story is told in hindsight from the perspective of the son who was trying to understand the cultural turmoil, the fracturing of his father’s marriage to his American step-mother, and the complexities of his father’s friendship with a Jewish woman. Following the son’s narration gives the story a powerful nuance as the narrator illustrates the dynamics of his family and surroundings, while trusting the reader to interpret the significance of things left unsaid.
The collection wraps up with the novella “We Two Alone” which follows Leonard, a struggling actor at the decline of his lackluster career and marriage. He’s a middle-aged man who’s dedicated his life to an industry that’s never loved him back, yet he can’t seem to let go of the idea that his big break is just around the corner. One of Leonard’s more notable accomplishments and passion projects is founding an Asian American Shakespeare company. In a conversation with a fellow actor, it is argued that:

“Shakespeare does not represent humanity. He represents the dead white European male notion of what it means to be human… Shakespeare isn’t a mirror held up to nature. He’s a mirror held up to Western ontology.”

Leonard argues that through their performance, they’re “advancing the radical notion that [they’re] Westerners, too.” The conversation triggers his fear that the acting company is more of a novelty act rather than the serious work he’s been longing for. Through the various roles Leonard auditions for or performances he sees of other Asian actors, it’s clear Leonard doesn’t see himself reflected in any of them. In many ways, the roles and Asian representation in media that Leonard wants to see are encapsulated by the characters in this book. They have mundane marital problems, familial obligations, and drudge through day-to-day life while maintaining their own individual, multifaceted complexities, which makes them feel distinctly universal.
While each of the characters shares commonality in their Chinese heritage, they each stand out as Wang masterfully structures his stories around them. From the nuances of desire, longing, and heartbreak and the pitfalls of race and class disparities, Wang creates a realistic, resonating portrait of human conditions.

What a gorgeous collection of short stories. I found it to be surprising and challenging, engaging and well written. Very consistent and a pleasure to read.

Exploring Love and Desire: Identity and Acceptance in Jack Wang’s We
Two Alone

Jack Wang’s We Two Alone is a striking collection of stories depicting a wide range of historical experiences and the diversity of Chinese immigration. These character-driven narratives dramatize some of the subtle complexities of love and loss, while depicting people struggling to find their identity and acceptance in systems, organizations, and cultures that are actively pushing against them. As a whole, We Two Alone is an exploration of love and desire whether it’s romantic, achieving goals, or finding belonging.
The collection opens with “The Valkyries,” where we meet Nelson, a laundry boy living in early 20th century Canada who desperately wants to join a hockey team. After being rejected by the boy’s team, Nelson disguises himself as a girl to play in the emerging women’s league. While Nelson finds belonging through his team, he knows it’s contingent on maintaining the lie. While the conflicts here are more overt, it sets up the collection by illustrating the intersectional range of issues at play between race, economic status and gender.
While major historical moments are central to the context of the stories in the collection, Wang writes them in the periphery. From a Chinese family trying to buy a home in South Africa under Apartheid to a Canadian couple living in Shanghai during the Second Singo-Japanese war, we see the various conflicts that the characters face on a cultural scale, but Wang often puts his characters at a distance and utilizes the perspectives of the character separated from the direct conflict. This is accomplished through the perspective of children. In “The Night of Broken Glass,” a Chinese diplomat and his family are living in Vienna during the rise of Nazi violence against Jewish people. While this is the cultural conflict, the story is told in hindsight from the perspective of the son who was trying to understand the cultural turmoil, the fracturing of his father’s marriage to his American step-mother, and the complexities of his father’s friendship with a Jewish woman. Following the son’s narration gives the story a powerful nuance as the narrator illustrates the dynamics of his family and surroundings, while trusting the reader to interpret the significance of things left unsaid.
The collection wraps up with the novella “We Two Alone” which follows Leonard, a struggling actor at the decline of his lackluster career and marriage. He’s a middle-aged man who’s dedicated his life to an industry that’s never loved him back, yet he can’t seem to let go of the idea that his big break is just around the corner. One of Leonard’s more notable accomplishments and passion projects is founding an Asian American Shakespeare company. In a conversation with a fellow actor, it is argued that:

“Shakespeare does not represent humanity. He represents the dead white European male notion of what it means to be human… Shakespeare isn’t a mirror held up to nature. He’s a mirror held up to Western ontology.”

Leonard argues that through their performance, they’re “advancing the radical notion that [they’re] Westerners, too.” The conversation triggers his fear that the acting company is more of a novelty act rather than the serious work he’s been longing for. Through the various roles Leonard auditions for or performances he sees of other Asian actors, it’s clear Leonard doesn’t see himself reflected in any of them. In many ways, the roles and Asian representation in media that Leonard wants to see are encapsulated by the characters in this book. They have mundane marital problems, familial obligations, and drudge through day-to-day life while maintaining their own individual, multifaceted complexities, which makes them feel distinctly universal.
While each of the characters shares commonality in their Chinese heritage, they each stand out as Wang masterfully structures his stories around them. From the nuances of desire, longing, and heartbreak and the pitfalls of race and class disparities, Wang creates a realistic, resonating portrait of human conditions.

In this collection of short stories, Wang paints eloquent, moving portraits of the Chinese immigrant experience across the decades and around the world. The characters include a hopeful young hockey player who must masquerade as a girl to play, an expectant mother exiled from her distant husband during wartime, a washed-up hockey player trying to resurrect his marriage, a heartbroken theater director living under the shadow of ambition and several others. The stories span the globe yet they are intimate close ups of humanity. They show the universal desires to be loved, to have a family, to belong and to find fulfillment. Studies have shown that reading fiction increases empathy. Here in the U.S. there is an awakening occurring as people begin to realize what kind of racist treatment many people of Asian descent endure. I believe books like this one can be agents of healing and understanding. These characters, with all their flaws and insecurities, represent the commonalities in all of us. I really enjoyed it. It will be out June 1.

I really enjoyed this collection of stories about the varied lives and experiences of Chinese people living all over the world. I appreciated how big a role geography plays in these stories; Wang explores the many ways that place and home affect the lives of those living in diaspora. Some of the stories stood out more than others, but overall this book was a compelling read, full of richly drawn characters across a variety of time periods.