There are some decisions that one should not overthink. Then there others that absolutely require long deliberation. Ong Seok Koon’s mistake at the beginning of Bury What We Cannot Take, by Kirstin Chen, is that she makes a very important decision without any thought at all. She and her family pay for that mistake for months. It’s only through the sheerest luck that they manage to survive that one bad decision.
Though they don’t know it, 1957 is a year for getting out of mainland China. The Ong family of Drum Wave Islet in Fujian are still fairly well off, thanks to the family’s factories. But 1957 is the beginning of what will become the Anti-Rightist Campaign and impulsive acts like Ong Bee Kim’s smashing of a portrait of Chairman Mao could condemn the entire family. Just after Bee Kim smashes the portrait and her grandson denounces her in an application to the Youth League, Seok Koon puts her plan to get the family to Hong Kong into action. She pulls every string she can reach, but only manages to secure exit papers for herself, her mother-in-law, and one of her children. When pressed to choose which child to take to Hong Kong, she blurts out the first name to pop into her head: her son’s name. Her daughter, San San, is left behind.
The rest of the book follows San San’s efforts to not get caught by Party officials in Fujian; Seok Koon’s increasingly frantic efforts to get her daughter back; her son, Ah Liam’s, stubborn clinging to Party thought and hoping to return to the mainland; and her husband’s efforts to support Seok Koon’s quest as well as his mistress while his business fails. Because the book is mostly told in dialogue, there isn’t as much character development as I would have liked. This is definitely not another Sophie’s Choice in spite of the superficial similarities. The lack of exposition also meant that I didn’t think the setting was given enough attention.
What bothered me most about Bury What We Cannot Take was its miraculous ending. Perhaps I’m not used to books set in China anywhere between 1911 and, say, 1980, that have happy endings. I just couldn’t believe that everything would work out as well as it did in this novel. Between the ending and lack of character development, I found Bury What We Cannot Take unsatisfying, even though it was interesting to read. That said, I might recommend it to someone who wants to broaden their reading horizons, but still wants a happy ending.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration. It will be released 20 March 2018.