Orphan Bachelors by Fae Myenne Ng offers a compelling and deeply personal exploration of Chinese-American history through the lens of Ng’s own family experiences. The memoir deftly combines personal narrative with historical context, shedding light on the lives of "orphan bachelors" — Chinese men who immigrated to America but faced discrimination and exclusion.

Ng’s candid recounting of her family’s struggles with racism, immigration policies, and their broader historical implications provides a poignant view into both her own life and the Chinese-American experience. Her ability to weave together multi-generational stories highlights the impact of political and social forces on individual lives.

The memoir is a rich tapestry of personal and historical insights, presenting a balanced and engaging narrative. Ng’s storytelling is both informative and moving, making Orphan Bachelors a significant contribution to the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy for review. All opinions are my own.

An interesting look into Ng's personal and family history,
She's very honest about her family's journey and struggles. She opens up about racism, strict immigration policies and shares her thoughts about Chinese and Asian American history.
I enjoyed the balance of memoir and history, and found her experiences very insightful.

Requested this as editorial background reading for a review on BookBrowse:
https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/ad297920/orphan-bachelors#reviews
https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/btb/index.cfm/ref/ad297920/orphan-bachelors#btb

Happy to highlight this new release in “Global Becomes Local” a round-up of new and notable spring AAPI and Asian Heritage Month reads for the Books section of Zoomer magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

A fascinating and well-written read about the history of the Chinese in America. First off is the whole concept of orphan bachelors--who they were, how they lived and the author's own interactions with them. But wait, there's more. We learn about the author's own family and how she herself grew up. It's really more than a memoir and more than a history; it's a literary feat.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It's quite a good addition to the genre.

I'm not entirely comfortable with rating memoirs but if I had to I would give this 4 stars.

This book is well-constructed and gives you a window into the lives of Chinese-American families through a very personal lens. I appreciated how the author was able to weave together multi-generational stories and emphasize the impact of political policy on their lives. It was impressive how the author was able to still bring all of it together at the end.

I will definitely try to read more of the author's works.

A fascinating and rich book--and I am a fan of Ng's other work--which covers so much ground emotionally and narratively. This book contains so much.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher of Grove/Atlantic Inc, and the author Fae Myenne Ng for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Ng's memoir is illuminating to read. As a fan of her previous work most notably, Bone, readers will be delighted to learn the personal history of the author and her life. Ng writes about how the Chinese Exclusion and the Confession Program affected her family. Ng's memoir manages to accomplish what most memoirs try to do which is humanizing and fleshing out one character within her life. Ng exceeds those expectations by finding a way to characterize the entirety of her whole family within the scope of the memoir. One of my highly anticipated books of the year, and I'm glad I had an ARC of this memoir.

This is a memoir that reads like an excellently crafted novel: there are some very interesting characters in this book and they never fail to delight: at times, I found myself laughing out loud at their antics. But the book is not all comedy as there are some seriously sad occurrences in the book that lend it to be an excellent book club pick or just a book that I will recommend far and wide to patrons and friends alike.