Fiona is already teetering on the edge but it’s her reunion with Sean that is the final push into a devious world. The writing is dark, the humour dry, and the characters sarcastic. This is not your typical story and Fiona is not your typical protagonist, but the book is all the much better for it. It was the cross over from modern day America and traditional Chinese values that made this book stand out for me here and in other developments and the author’s background (an Oriental lawyer living in San Francisco with her pet bird…) added to the authenticity of it, even allowing for artistic license. That said this book is not really about sex after the first couple of chapters but I’m glad it started the way it did because I loved her dry take on matters, like how her cultural instinct to boil all things influenced the type of dildo she purchased.
Instead she has a penchant for the stories of serial killers and their victims, likes the way Cantonese allows her to swear subtly at her father without him realising, and would rather take her own virginity that give it away to an undesirable. Fi is not the nice, polite girl her parents want her to be, nodding along in an accommodating way. This is not a book about searching for Mr Right, it’s more about freeing yourself and sometimes your city of Mr Wrong. An appointment at a doctor’s office with a view to sorting out the aforementioned missing hymen leads to a chance reunion with a criminally-minded old school friend (last seen setting another pupil on fire), and then the fun really begins. She’d rather hang out with her pet parakeet than nice Asian boys, but since her parents are desperate to get her married off to one of the latter, she doesn’t always get her own way. Successful, self assured but still living at home thanks to her Chinese roots and her over protective parents. Fiona Wu is a 28 year old lawyer living in San Francisco.
If you think that’s an odd way to start a review, bear in mind that’s exactly how this book starts. Summary: A disturbing but at times hilarious book about an Asian-American lawyer trying to mesh two cultures into one, with a bit of crime on the side for kicks.
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