The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • Podcast
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

Joan is Okay

February 2, 2022

joan

Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang
Published by Random House
Publication date: January 18, 2022
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary
three-half-stars
Your Local Book Store, Amazon

Joan is happy with her life. She loves her job as an ICU doctor at a NYC hospital. Her boss thinks she’s amazing. She has a nice apartment in a doorman building. Why then do so many of the people around her think she needs fixing? Her older brother believes there’s something wrong with her because she’s not married with children. Her new neighbor thinks she needs friends and furniture. Her mother thinks she’s too thin. Weike Wang’s new novel, Joan is Okay, is about one woman caught in a pressure cooker of traditional cultural values, racism, entitlement, and gender expectations. With so many people certain they know what is best for her, what does Joan want?

On the surface it seems clear that Joan has what she wants.  She finds her work compelling. The hospital is her home. In the ICU there is no room for interpretation. The data is laid out and the options are clear. There’s a symmetry and completeness to it that soothes her. This insight goes a long way towards showing what Joan is and what she isn’t. She isn’t someone who thinks about her biological clock, office politics, what money can buy, or social niceties. She simply doesn’t care, but it gives the people around her the opportunity to force their interpretations of a good life on her. From her overfriendly White neighbor Mark to her brother who bullies her about being bullied. Wang is sly in how she constructs Joan’s world. The clues are all there, but they’re subtle. As a woman, a Chinese woman in America, Joan is not capable of knowing what she needs.

Joan is Okay will be an emotional respite to anyone who’s been reading a lot of challenging fiction lately, but will seem cold and a bit formal to others. This is not to say Joan is without emotion, she is simply a doctor, first and foremost. That, coupled with a nature that takes the world literally means she’s an odd duck to those around her. But beneath her placidly serious surface she paddles emotions that only the reader gets to see. Such as after her father tells her university is the place to make connections and if she does it right, she could end up being a senator’s wife.

The famed MRS degree, because in practice, a female brain is worth nothing. Fore lobes of the cerebrum, and I have sometimes imagined one of mine is labeled RAGE.

In this way, Joan is Okay shifts from being the singular experience of a Chinese American woman to something larger and a bit more recognizable. The myth of the good daughter, the good employee, the good neighbor. Conforming for conformity’s sake, achieving, but without stepping on anyone’s toes. Joan is Okay is not a novel of action and will be too slow for some, but I welcomed the interplay between the inner and outer Joan.

 

Much like Joan, the narrator in Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata is another Asian woman trying to live life her own way in a culture that values conformity.

 

This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on a link and make a purchase of any kind, I get a small commission (at no cost to you).

 

*I received a free copy of this book from Random House in exchange for an honest review.*

 

three-half-stars

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
  • Same Genre
  • 3.5 Star Books
  • By Weike Wang
commonwealth
Commonwealth: A Novel
days of awe
Days of Awe
come
Come With Me
stager
The Stager by Susan Coll
underrated
2021 Underrated Gems
in sunlight
In Sunlight and In Shadow
diver's
The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty
ill will
Ill Will: A Novel by Dan Chaon
troop
The Troop: A Novel
All Girls: A Novel by Emily Layden
october
October Reading Recap
place
A Place for Us: A Novel
dreamers
The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
dopesick
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
woman
Mothers’ Week: A Woman is No Man
lost
Lost Women: Mini-Reviews

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, literary, women

Comments

  1. Laila says

    February 2, 2022 at 12:49 pm

    I can see how this would be a respite. Sometimes it’s nice to have a protagonist who isn’t terribly angsty even in angst-provoking situations.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      February 3, 2022 at 6:08 pm

      She felt real- competent, content with her life, but being pushed around by all these (mostly) men telling her she wasn’t okay. I appreciated her internal dialogue.

      Are you safe and dry there? This weather is crazy?

      Reply
  2. Susan says

    February 2, 2022 at 5:35 pm

    Yeah I felt similarly to how you reviewed this one. I just reviewed it too. I thought it was about 3.7 stars. Even though I wanted a bit more from the story & Joan … I still felt it was worthwhile… in that she had some good observations … and didn’t feel the need to conform to other expectations of her. She didn’t want to be fixed but liked her life as it was. Hmm.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      February 3, 2022 at 6:09 pm

      It reminded me so much of Convenience Store Woman. The pressure in Asian society to conform is insane. And then to get here and have mediocre white men criticize her work ethic? Grrr.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Indiebound and Amazon. If you click on a link that takes you to any of these sites and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2023

Copyright © 2023 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in