Overall, this is a fantastic memoir. I can't think of any other memoir that I've encountered where the author shares such a vulnerable part of her life - being a young, undocumented Chinese immigrant in New York.

Wang truly showed all of her vulnerabilities that a young child can have. Insecurities in learning a new language while trying to adapt to an entirely different way of life is something that most of us cannot relate to.

This story will stay with me for awhile as I regularly find that stories that about survival, upheaval, and endurance are ones that I find myself thinking about constantly and will usually recommend to everyone.

I would've given this five stars if the pacing would've been a little more consistent. While I understand that Wang was writing this from the perspective of her child self and children that age do not have consistent pacing, tighter pacing would've cleaned it up just a bit more.

I think it is worth mentioning because I've seen many other reviews complaining about it - that this is a memoir, not an autobiography. A memoir covers a chunk of time in someone's life while an autobiography usually covers a person's entire life.

From my blog: Always With a Book

Even though I had a print copy, I knew that I was going to be listening to this one as soon as I saw that the author herself was narrating it. I often find that when an author narrates their memoir, it is such a powerful experience and that was so true here.

Qian Julie Wang moved to “Mei Guo” (‘Beautiful Country’ in Mandarin – the name her family gave America) when she was seven. She recalls their experience, with a child’s frankness and naivety, which is really what makes this book stand out. She watches her parents, who in China were educated and highly regarded, take menial jobs in America because they were undocumented just to make ends meet. And we see her struggle internally in trying to understand where the beauty is in this new country.

As hard as it was to see the struggles that Qian and her family go through, I also loved seeing her persevere. She teaches herself English by watching TV, she realizes that the library can be safe place with free books! And she makes the most out of her education, not worrying about what anyone else thinks.

I was so moved by this book. It reminded me of the work I used to do with immigrants when I volunteered as a literacy tutor. How many of the students I had met that were well regarded and highly educated in their home countries and now were working minimum wage jobs if they had jobs at all because they had to move or wanted to move and needed to start all over again.

This book is a powerful read that really broke my heart. I had so many reactions to it and to me, those are the best types of reads because I know those are the ones that really stick with me.

In this beautifully written memoir, Qian Julie Wang looks back on her childhood through 6th grade years, from her early life in China, to coming to America where her family overstayed their visa and therefore were undocumented immigrants, living in fear of deportation and struggling to survive financially as well. She really hits you emotionally with a child’s eye view of what it is like to be an immigrant, to not speak the language, to have no money, to be in constant fear of deportation, to try to find your place in the world.

I do wish we had heard more about how she ended up the success she is today beyond one last chapter quickly summing up the rest of her life to date, but I understand that she wanted to focus on her early years.

This was a Read With Jenna pick and definitely would make a good book club book; I think it also would be a great book for middle school or high school English teachers to assign.

Qian Julie Wang tells her story, devastating yet ultimately triumphant, bravely and with no holds barred. The plight of undocumented immigrants in America and the underground networks that both support and exploit them is something she and her family have experienced on their journey in Mei Guo (the titular optimistic nickname for the USA) from their home in China. In China, her mother was a respected computer science professor who published scholarly works and texts, and her father was also a gifted professor. Persecuted by memories of the unjust treatment his family received during the Cultural Revolution, he decided to emigrate to New York, followed by Qian and her mother. As undocumented immigrants, without other family or friends from home, life was filled with poverty and hardship. Qian’s story is eye opening and shocking; the degradation and suffering they endured in modern American times a wake up call. The thought of fear of deportation preventing children and adults from getting food, medical care and education, was something I had shamefully never considered. This is a book that should be on every school curriculum & college reading list. Wang keeps things upbeat, with her wry humor, unstoppable nature and her true appreciation for all the things she had, rather than what she lacked. I really enjoyed the parts about her friendships and her descriptions of the people in her life. She is truly an inspiration and a wonderful writer, her incendiary prose searing into the reader’s heart. I eagerly await her future works!

BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY provides a child's eye view of life in NYC as an undocumented immigrant. Wang's mother brought her to the U.S. from China when she was 7 years old, in 1994, to reunite with her father.

From the foreword: “The Chinese refer to being undocumented colloquially as ‘hei’: being in the dark, being blacked out. And aptly so, because we spent those years shrouded in darkness while wrestling with hope and dignity.”

This book took me a long time to read; while the writing is great, the child perspective slowed me down at times (Wang ranges from 7 to 11 or 12 years old). I found the audiobook a much faster read than the text.

To be sure, I won't soon forget her story, or scenes she described.

I'd recommend this one to fans of The Glass Castle and The Sound of Gravel, with the caveat that the largest focus here seemed to be on the relationship between Wang (/her family) and the U.S., rather than intra-familial relationships.

Whenever I hear about or read a story such as this, I always find myself asking the question, if I was uprooted and placed in a foreign country, with nothing, could I make it? Could I thrive? Realty is it is so hard to even begin to imagine this scenario that I have no idea how it would go, but somehow I cannot believe I would find a successful path. Which Is why the story of Qian Wang so remarkable. Told from the first person perspective, a now full grown Qian Wang goes back in time, to tell the story of her 7 year old self traveling to America to make a new life. You just want to reach through the pages and hug this little girl and tell her that everything will be ok. An inspiring story of strength and perseverance. A rounded tale that ranges from humorous to sad. I hope her story serves as an example for all those out there who have taken the chance, and risked it all for a life in this Beautiful Country. Review posted to Amazon, Goodreads, Litsy, LibraryThing, and Facebook.

"Beautiful Country", by Qian Julie Wang, is a powerful memoir seen through the eyes of a seven year old child growing up as an illegal immigrant in the USA, in poverty and constant fear of being discovered and deported. The memoir starts in China, where the author recalls a happy childhood, living with her parents and near her extended family. Her happy childhood starts to crumble when her father becomes determined to emigrate to the US, and does everything in his power to bring his wife and daughter to live in the US too. Once in America, the author experiences a different kind of childhood, where food on the table and a roof over her head are commodities. Her parents, highly educated professors in China, become unskilled workers in the US. She is forced to mature fast, and see weaknesses in her parents that children at that age usually do not.

This memoir was a heartbreaking story to read. While I admit it wasn't a story I haven't come upon before in other memoirs, there will never be a time when reading about a child growing up in fear and hunger will not be heartbreaking for me. It is a well written book, that evokes a lot of emotions. Thank you to NetGalley, Doubleday, and Qian Julie Wang for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review. This book is out now!

This ARC was offered in exchange of an honest and impartial review:
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4,5*
Pros: A detailed and heart-rending portrait of life as an illegal immigrant in the US, from the PoV of a child. Talks about difficult topics in a no-frills way, such as extreme poverty (hunger, poor living conditions, lack of opportunities), constant fear and anxiety over being discovered and deported, losing your community and culture, and carving out a place to be in a land where you are mistreated and looked down upon. A very important read on persistence, strength and the courage to give up, change and adapt when necessary.
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Cons: Would have loved to read more about the "after".

I got an ARC of this book.

There is a lot to love about this book. It is beautifully written and a book that is also memorable.

The story starts with Wang talking about some of her memories of her father and her immigration from China to the United States. Then the story took off with her adventures trying to be a kid in a brand new world. Somethings would never make sense because while so many Americans take money for granted the Wang family couldn’t. This just started the hard topics that this book covered.

The book covers a lot about immigration and class. There is talks about racism and fear. Wang doesn’t make anything sugar coated, at times the racism doesn’t hit hard, but some of the racism didn’t make sense to her when she experienced it. It just showed how cruel people can be when they will even attack children. I was so angry at multiple points of this book. Wang and her family had to hide from the government, live lies to try and survive, and just be in a hostile world for so long.

I love that the book mostly focused on the time when Wang would have been considered undocumented. It raised so many issues that get glossed over by a lot of the people doing the talking about immigration policies. There was no welfare for the Wang family, they could barely get her in school without having to work around a system designed to capture them. There were so many issues that existed to the point that she got used to saying she had always been in America. Her father drilled the phrase into her. Can you imagine relying on a six year old to keep a secret that could destroy a family? This is the reality of the family.

There were plot lines that probably weren’t supposed to be super intense, like Wang getting a cat or getting a gift card to a book store. But even these more typical US kid stories are the hints that her life was anything but what was seen on TV. She refused to go into a bookstore, because she loved them so much, but couldn’t afford books. She learned to sneak food to the cat just to make sure the cat would get enough food, even though she was already skipping one meal a day just to help the family afford things, a decision she made as a incredibly young child.

This is just such an impressive and powerful book. You need to read it.

This book was eye opening to me. I am so fortunate to have read it. I have worked with people in poverty for decades but never the poverty the author and her family endured. Thank you Canada for being the safety net they needed. Thank you Qian Wang for a beautiful memoir.

What a beautifully written memoir! Wang focuses on he life as an undocumented immigrant to the United States from China as a young girl. Much has been written on the disturbing experience of being uprooted from the life one knows and being thrown into an unimagined storm. Yet, I could feel and envision the horrors and disenfranchisement through the evocative prose. To be uprooted from what you've known and thrown headlong into the unknown was so well done.
What was especially interesting was the time frame that the author employed. It only covered a short period of her life and ended there. That added so much to the context of being undocumented. I never doubted that she would emerge stronger and victorious. This is a book that everyone should read to understand this situation.
Superb!

Qian Julie Wang's memoir is a beautiful but simultaneously heartbreaking exploration of the immigrant experience. Told through her child voice, it is raw, captivating and gut-wrenching, while still maintaining a sense of hope for the future. This book should be required reading for everyone; through Wang's words and stories, a world of empathy and understanding opens for the reader as she explores the pains, worries and fears of what it means to be an immigrant in the United States.

I know I am going against popular opinion but I didn't care for this book. In the very first part of the book she makes a derogatory remark about two former presidents. She uses a lot of Chinese phrases in the narrative that I found confusing. Mostly I didn't like Qian. At times she acted like a spoiled brat and was disrespectful. Her parents were both professionals in China and I felt that sometimes her mother's actions didn't line up with what you would expect from a math and computer professor. I never did understand why they left but both were professors in China. I appreciated all the hard work they had to do just to make a living. They had a tiny apartment and had to share a bathroom and kitchen with the apartment next door. Mom took various jobs in sweat shops sewing tags in shirts, working in a sushi factory and Qian would go with her. Qian had dreams but her parents weren't very encouraging and instilled a fear in her that any minute they could be arrested because they were undocumented. Her hunger was an everyday thing. There was never enough money for food and clothes and her search for food was an ongoing theme throughout the book. In the meantime Dad got a job working for a lawyer and was able to buy a car but there was still no food. Finally when Qian was in sixth grade her mother and her move to Toronto where they are welcomed. For all intents and purposes the story ends there. We find that she does move back to New York and becomes a lawyer and I found that confusing. After making derogatory remarks, feeling that she was never welcome in New York why come back?

Without the Chinese thrown in and going on and on about being hungry the book was well written. The descriptions of their poverty was gripping and the NYC that she knew was not one you would normally see.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Doubleday for allowing me to read this.

While it was interesting to hear about an immigrant's experience, I never really connected with this story - it felt like a slog to me. Still, because of the perspective, I am giving it 3 stars.

Qian’s memoir is both heart-braking and hopeful. Although I have read a lot of memoirs, this one evoked a full range of emotion as it is told though the eyes a 7 year old.
Qian’s family are illegal immigrants,leaving China to persue the American dream in New York City.
Their resilience amazed me. Her parents went from being professors in China to labors that struggled to keep their family clothed and feed. Their marriage and health are hanging by a thread.
Qian does such a good job of describing the mistreatment she endured in school as a poor immigrant that it broke my heart.
She also made me smile as she tried to make sense of this world through a child’s mind. I adored her love for books and dedication to her family. Thank you to Netgalley for the free e-arc. All opinions are my own. 4.5 stars

What would you do if you were uprooted from the only life you’d ever known at age 7 and thrust into the shadows of fear in a strange country where culture, customs, and language create a series of never ending obstacles? I had to remind myself that the narrator/author weaves her tale from the perspective of a 7-year old illegal Chinese immigrant. It’s a story of resilience in the face of barriers that as a natural-born US citizen cannot comprehend.

Thank you to Doubleday Publishing and NetGalley for providing this advanced copy. This review is my own opinion.

Beautiful Country was an amazing five star read. I knew it was going to be a good book, but I didn't realize it grasping my heart the way it did.

I just loved the way the memoir was written. Rather than it being from the author's adult perspective, it's written as herself as a child. I think her decision to write this way added to the emotion of the story.

The topic of illegal immigration in the United States often has the rhetoric of criminality, and I think we often lose sight of the *people* in the situation. Wang's memoir really drives home the realistic lives of undocumented immigrants -- people fleeing their own country for a myriad of reasons for the US, where they do all they can to work hard and gain a better life.

This was a lovely story about a young Chinese girl who moves to the US in the early 70s. Leaving her comfortable world and grandparents to move to NYC and become an undocumented person with her parents escaping the communist ways of China. Most of the book is following her earliest years in the US and observing her parents' struggle with finding work and surviving in the undocuments workers "system". It is insightful and eye-opening to learn of the day to day struggles of undocmented immigrants. I love that the author chose to tell these life stories through the eyes of a young child. It highlights the horrible life undocumented people are faced with but juxtaposes it with the rescilliance that childern have in finding happy family moments among all the unfair and unacceptable treatment of human beings. I really enjoyed this book and will be recommending it to others.

I've read more memoirs than usual this year (for me), and one thing that stood out to me about BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY is that it takes place entirely in the author's childhood. I thought it was interesting to read a child's perspective on being an undocumented immigrant in the U.S., which set this one apart from the others. I listened to the audiobook, which the author narrates, and I highly recommend the audio version.

Beautiful Country is a wonderful memoir for Qian Julie Wang. It gave light to what so many undocumented immigrants go through in the United States. Wang discussed the stress and burdens the families endured to avoid being caught and deported from avoiding health issues, poor treatment in sweat shops and being unable to speak up for injustices they face. It also talks about how resilient and hard-working the immigrants are to put food on the table, a roof over their heads, and educate their children.

I really don’t like to give ratings for memoirs. It just seems unfair to pass judgement on how one chooses to tell their story. This book was beautifully written and allowed me to learn more about a group of people in the United States I didn’t know much about.

5 Stars