River East, River West

River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure
Published by William Morrow & Company
Publication date: January 9, 2024
Genres: Book Clubs, Debut, Fiction, Cultural

Bookshop

In the search for fiction that takes me out of my own experiences Aube Rey Lescure’s River East, River West was just what I wanted. Alva and her mother Sloan have always been partners, the two of them against the world. A daunting task made even more so by the fact that they live in Shanghai. Sloan is white and Alva is bi-racial from a long-gone Chinese father. While her mother is happy living in China Alva’s dream is to escape to America. A dream that crumbles when her mother marries a Chinese businessman.

From the beginning 15-year-old Alva’s teen angst is on full display, but the usual wanting-to-fit-in-at-all-costs is amplified by her mixed ethnicity. Instead of her mother’s stereotypical California blond, Alva looks Chinese. At school she blends in physically, but her flawless English marks her as foreign. All she wants to do is move to America and live the life she should be having, thanks to her mother’s status as an actress. But her mother now considers China to be her home and refuses to entertain any discussions of leaving. Instead, she seems to be happy teaching English classes even while she uses her good looks to find a wealthy husband.

Sloan succeeds with their landlord, Lu Fang, an older man Alva finds revolting. Her camaraderie with her mother disappears and Alva redirects her energy into making Lu Fang feel as unwelcome as possible. She changes tactics only when she realizes he’s willing to pay for the private international school she wants to attend, something her mother would never consider. Once there, she launches herself into a new world where she is the exotic commodity—a chameleon who whose ethnicity allows her to move through the world as either a bored ex-pat or a shrewd native.

The narrative in River East is bifurcated between the present with Alva and the past with Lu Fang, allowing him to become more than the voiceless interloper Alva sees. A university student in the late 1960s, he and all other ‘intellectuals’ were forced by the Cultural Revolution to leave school and go work on a farm to fulfill Mao’s ambition for a true communist nation. His hopes for a professional life are ended until he sells out his personal life. As his chapters pass, the waters of his character deepen while Alva’s remain the fast-moving but shallow stream of a young girl looking to define herself through superficialities.

Through the two, River East finds a welcome balance between plot and character. Alva seems to be getting everything she’d hoped for, right up until the realities of the adult world puncture her belief in her own power. Lu Fang works beautifully as a counterpoint to the Americanness of both Sloan and Alva. His chapters give unexpected insight into the mindset of both a different culture, but gender as well. His mistakes and choices are egregious at times, but in an odd way, he’s the novel’s humanity. In contrast, Sloan’s persona deflates slowly but dramatically throughout the novel. Rey Lescure’s ability to balance these wildly different identities with compassion all while piloting a plot that ends up including the 2008 economic crisis makes her an author I’ll want to read again.

 

This post contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org and Amazon.com 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).

 

 

Related Posts