A Quitter's Paradise

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Many described this book "hilarious": I don't agree with this, the main character is quite unique and quirky at times, but I would never say that she is funny or the book hilarious. But it could be because I preferred the past timeline over the present one, so I was more interested in how that played out. Narisa was a wild child who mostly did as she pleased, even if it meant hurting others in the process (especially Eleanor, whom she bullied and ridiculed relentlessly). In this novel by Elysha Chang, a young woman does everything she can to avoid the reality of her mother’s recent death and family’s estrangement, even as it becomes increasingly clear that her own story is inextricable from theirs. I was confused as to what the story was really about - there seemed to be no plot - and the jumps between the present day and the past made it even harder to figure out.

Overall, I did enjoy this one, even though I felt parts of the story were uneven and the characters could’ve been better developed. A bittersweet family saga about a young woman from a second generation immigrant family coping with her mother’s death. The author uses the same things I've seen in other books -- the children assume their family debt, parents pressure them to pay as well show respect with dignity while paying these bills; don't complain or bring shame -- not further shame, just shame to the family.Our soon-to-be orphaned narrator’s mother is a substance-abusing teenage single mom who checks out via OD on his 11th birthday, and Demon’s cynical, wised-up voice is light-years removed from David Copperfield’s earnest tone. A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism.

At once disarmingly provocative and compulsively readable, A Quitter's Paradise is an unexpectedly funny study of the beauty and contradictions of grief, family bonds, and self-knowledge, exploring the ways we unwittingly guard the secrets of our loved ones, even from ourselves. Penny, Eleanor’s former supervisor, disapproves of the arrangement because she believes Eleanor is a good scientist who’s not living up to her potential. The story resides at the muddled intersection of grief, disillusionment, and complacency with surprising clarity. It is this personality trait of Eleanor’s that shapes much of the story in the present timeline, which ends up affecting her relationships with everyone around her. Rather than confront her grief and the ways she’s complicated her own life, she allows her actions to put her job and relationship in jeopardy.The story switches and jumps rather abruptly back and forth between timeline ; the present, Eleanor's childhood and her parents' migration. A riveting, wise, and singular novel about grief, love, longing, and the mysteries of family, A Quitter’s Paradise will linger in your heart and mind. Exploring the intersections of love and obligation, duty and commitment, the independence of new lifestyles and the appeal of old traditions, Chang's novel will appeal to fans of Helen Fisher's Faye Faraway and Tracey Lien's All That's Left Unsaid.

In A Quitter's Paradise, the darkly humorous debut by bold, new voice Elysha Chang, a young woman does everything she can to ignore her mother's death, even as unearthed family secrets become increasingly inextricable from her own.A masterful portrayal of grief, depression, and the skeletons of your familial role showing up in adulthood.