I seldom read stories that are what I would call heavy---after all, what does heavy even mean? If you know, then you don't need a definition. But if you want to use the term precisely, you need a definition.
Yesterday, I finished reading Malinda Lo's celebrated novel: Last Night at the Telegraph Club, a complex story about a teenage Chinese girl growing up in San Francisco. I didn't call it a coming-of-age story, because on one hand, it tells you a lot about the story, but it also cues in lots of prejudices on the part of the reader, that might not help my review, because the idea of prejudice, and even racism, is so central to this story. Even those who are sick and tired of prejudice and racism will take something good away from this story, because viewed from where we are today (the spring of 2022), it is so wonderful to take stock of how far we have come, and to brace ourselves to ponder how far we have yet to go.
The main protagonist is a child of Chinese immigrants, a father from Shanghai, and a mother from somewhere else in China, Christians both, who have met in San Francisco, married, and had three children, the eldest of whom is Lily (Li-Li, in Chinese). Unlike her stereotypical fellow Chinese girl classmates, Lily is fascinated by space travel, and to this end, she is avidly reading up on Arthur C. Clarke's The Exploration of Space, one of his earliest non-fiction works.
When Lily meets an American classmate, Kathleen, who isn't scornful of Lily's fascination with space, and who herself is eager to become a pilot, the two girls form a bond based on their common interests. Very soon, the girls discover that their mutual attraction goes beyond mere platonic interests, and they realize---separately---that they are sexually attracted to each other.
Very realistically---remember, this is the 1950's, when homosexual activity was still illegal---the girls do not express their feelings to each other. They even sneak into a lesbian bar (The Telegraph Club) together, under the benign eye of a friendly doorkeeper, to listen to a sexy male impersonator (a woman who dresses like a man, and sings torch songs to the other women in the audience). Male impersonators were all the rage back in that era.
The first person story reveals a great deal about the thoughts of Lily, whereas we have to see Kathleen's feelings only through the mind of Lily, and so we aren't aware that Kathleen has been attracted to Lily for two years.
I can only say that my own heart was wracked with sympathy for the young couple; who knows how anyone else would respond to the same story? There are a couple of friendly adults, who help the girls---or at least, Lily---deal with the dramatic upheaval of the last few months in the story, among them Aunt Judy, Lily's father's sister; and a progressive teacher at their school. Malinda L. draws a pretty detailed picture of what Lily's life is like, and her family, which---though not typical of Chinese life at that time, is at least generally representative---and Ms. Lo is at pains, throughout, to give historical background, in the guise of establishing the chronology of Lily's family's life events. There is a little skipping backwards and forwards in time, exploring the events surrounding the meeting of Lily's parents, which explains their ambitions, and the degree to which they feel betrayed when various horrific things happen to the family, through US government retribution for not cooperating with espionage against their fellow immigrants, who are suspected of being communist sympathizers.
The mix of sexual repression, anti-communist paranoia, gender conformity, distaste for hard science, the intense American patriotism of immigrants, police brutality, and similar forces make this story difficult to palate, but not impossible. In contrast to what we expect in intelligent and strong-minded protagonists, in our times, Lily is painfully submissive to her family's unreasonable demands, especially those of her mother. The use of alcohol and cigarettes to handle apprehension and fear is a constant motif.
Malinda Lo has delivered a complex (did I mention that already?) multi-faceted story, which is almost more than a sensitive soul can handle. The book has won several awards, and one can appreciate why. Highly recommended.
Kay
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