River East; River West by author Aube Rey Lescure. This book was also on the shortlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024. The author is French-Chinese American, so the plot almost feels like an autobiographical account. She is a Yale graduate who has worked in foreign policy and her previous work consists of short stories, essays and some translation work. This is her debut novel.
In River East; River West, there are two POVs one of Alva a teenager, and Lu Fang, who is Alva's stepfather, who her American mother has recently married. The contemporary novel spans one year which is mostly Alva's POV, but it goes at least two decades back and forth for Lu Fang and Sloan, Alva's mother. Sloan is an American who's been in China for decades and worked as an English teacher on and off. She escapes her ordinary, middle-class upbringing in small-town America to live as a novelty who is worshipped in China.
Sloan might have left America and moved to China for the wrong reasons but she sticks to it and once Alva is born she is determined to bring up her daughter in China amidst her Chinese heritage. Alva on the other hand, having never known her father, is frustrated with everyone knowing her as mixed or a half-and-half i.e. Chinese American. Being half American has never been a plus point for her, anyway not in the manner her mother wanted or one which benefitted Alva.
Like a typical teenager, Alva has her rebellious moments and yearns to escape her birth country and head to America. This yearning and a romanticized version of American life comes from the steady lies her mother has fed her and the American films they've seen since Alva was young. Once Lu Fang enters the picture Alva finds new ways to rebel and forges a path that will bring her closer to America.
It is Alva's rebellion, Sloan'a lies and Lu Fang's memories of a previous life which weaves a story filled with illusions, drama and heartbreak. There are also the local political scenarios, culture, societal views and peer pressure which create in otherwise mundane lives, moments of intensity for these characters.
Lu Fang's POV brings us a time and place little heard of in History. His upbringing was near the North Korean border town, and his work takes him to port cities and then later Shanghai. His dreams were cut short due to political unrest. His married life and then his professional success which is why he ends up in Shanghai. He is a simple person whose life goes through various complexities not always of his making.
Sloan is a wannabe till the end, she is always a novelty which she wants especially in China, where while the common crowd seems to worship and adore her, in inner circles she is always the outsider and not welcome. She creates a shallow world for herself and Alva. Only Lu Fang is the one who shows her love and kindness and treats her well.
Alva is mature for her age owing to constant moving around, with a mother like Sloan, she knows what currency to use to ensure she gets what she wants. Something which doesn't always work in her favor and it happens more than once where she ends up getting scarred. In typical teenage fashion, she represses it and moves on with a big fake smile and arrogance.
It's 2008 and once all of Alva's little dramas and rebellions have slowed a bit political and financial crisis brings their little family on the path of immigration once again. It is Sloan's family that comes as a rescue plan for these three. We see how Sloan's dream of settling in the East is now forced to be reversed and sent back to America. Alva too sees how fickle she had been wanting to leave her birth country behind yet when the time comes for it to happen she doesn't want to. Lu Fang is anxious to start again as a 60-year-old in a new country even if it was a youth dream of his.
This novel is a mix of mundane life, political and social effects on lives and some heartbreaking events in the lives of the characters. It is a depiction of how grief, peer pressure, and societal expectations sneak into our lives and affect our decisions. It is not a happy novel, it is a story of life that happens to many of us more commonly than its romanticized version.
Set against the backdrop of developing modern China, this mesmerizing literary debut is part coming-of-age tale, part family and social drama, as it follows two generations searching for belonging and opportunity in a rapidly changing world—perfect for readers of Behold the Dreamers, White Ivy, and The Leavers.
Shanghai, 2007: Fourteen-year-old Alva has always longed for more. Raised by her American expat mother, she’s never known her Chinese father, and is certain a better life awaits them in America. But when her mother announces her engagement to their wealthy Chinese landlord, Lu Fang, Alva’s hopes are dashed, and so she plots for the next best thing: the American School in Shanghai. Upon admission, though, Alva is surprised to discover an institution run by an exclusive community of expats and the ever-wilder thrills of a city where foreigners can ostensibly act as they please.
1985: In the seaside city of Qingdao, Lu Fang is a young, married man and a lowly clerk in a shipping yard. Though he once dreamed of a bright future, he is one of many casualties in his country’s harsh political reforms. So when China opens its doors to the first wave of foreigners in decades, Lu Fang’s world is split wide open after he meets an American woman who makes him confront difficult questions about his current status in life, and how much will ever be enough.
In a stunning reversal of the east-to-west immigrant narrative and set against China’s political history and economic rise, River East, River West is an intimate family drama and a sharp social novel. Alternating between Alva and Lu Fang’s points of view, this is a profoundly moving exploration of race and class, cultural identity and belonging, and the often-false promise of the American Dream.
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