This is very much to my taste (ha). But it is. The structure is simple yet interesting. It’s not difficult to follow but builds nicely, even as it digresses into memory or non linear time, it feels exactly as that is what the story needs.

Characters are incredibly vivid on the page. It is grounded. It has specificity. It taps into culture in a respectful and compelling way. It manages to explore trauma and pain and memory through multiple perspectives. All different and all valid. It uses food in a way that Crying in H Mart was similarly attempting, but didn’t quite land for me.

The feeling of cooking and the act of doing so is not as myopic as H Mart and is communicated in such a way as to make it instantly relatable because it is tethered to memory or an emotion being explored, but most profoundly, an externalized method of communication; making it a medium like words on a page. I feel like some people did get that from H Mart and I missed out, so in a way this text might also be a bit cathartic for me. I get it now, yay.

It also manages to expose the underbelly of family dynamics that feel very adult and unlike so many stories around domestic abuse, in all its forms, it manages to depict the hidden surface as humane and complex and less so a seedy underbelly in which evil and blame is easy assigned.

While I feel like almost everything in this should be relatable. But perhaps an additional, more emotional layer was there for me because I am a twin. And my brother and I have also been apart for many years until recently. It’s a relationship dynamic that defies words usually. Especially with how twins are shown in fiction. Usually, some sort of cosmic connection or some other weird, fetishized notions about it occur. I felt like this was again, quite respectful and less sensationalized while also making clear that it is not a typical sibling dynamic either.

I hope it making it to Canada Reads allowed it to find the audience it deserves. I hadn’t heard of it until then, so I am grateful. But not all that surprised, either! Canada Reads has an extraordinary aptitude for picking diverse selections, and almost act as taste makers, for me. If it’s on the list, at this point, I will probably read it. And probably, I will enjoy it immensely. I also found Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club this way, and I think that that may be one of my all time favourite books. Period. Only fitting that this book now joins its ranks.