O Beautiful: A Novel by Jung Yun
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.5 stars rounded for having a lot of food for thought
This is the story Elinor Hanson, an Asian-American, former model to returns near her hometown of Bakken, North Dakota to write about the oil boom in her town.
The book starts with a scene of Elinor on the airplane and her seat mate bothering her with questions and intrusions and builds from there to something quite disturbing and it pretty much doesn’t let up. She finds that her hometown is almost unrecognizable and is overrun by men.
There are so many issues tackled by this story that it’s almost too numerous to list, especially considering it’s a reasonably small book. Racism, sexism, misogyny, elitism, classism and so much more. Elinor’s discomfort is so palpable and well represented that one cannot help but feel unease and tension the entire book.
Even though it was tough to read this book and feel that discomfort the whole time, there was a lot to think about in this bool, the irony, the prose and the overall tone were well executed.
with gratitude to Macmillan Audio and netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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