Little Gods

The story of Su Lan evoked a number of emotions but awe is not one of them. I have mixed feelings about the read. The book starts with a seemingly tight grip on the story. The backdrop of the Tiananmen Square massacre is portentous of characters dealing with the aftermath of that fateful day. That does not really prove to be so.

I did feel though, that the author's craft of writing is excellent . I felt the power of her words in many places and found myself rereading passages a number of times.

For instance, “I never stopped loving my mother. Not exactly. A little pin fell out of the contraption of my love for her; bit by bit it fell apart, until one day I discovered she was my enemy. I never ceased to feel strongly—strongest—about her. Even long after the strength of emotion was no longer adoring, my mother retained an ability to extract, with a word, a glance, a simple tone of voice, the well of everything irrational inside me.”
(Excerpt From
Little Gods
Meng Jin
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The love hate relationship between mother and daughter expressed so eloquently.

The book seemed in my mind to have unconvincing twists and turns. Events did not always seem logical. I felt the need for explanations of things happening in the real world in more than one place. The end of the story seems like it is done in haste and there are loose threads there.

Inspite of these flaws the book is worth reading. Its a good debut novel and I feel one can expect some good writing from this author