The Life of a Banana

Received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

“But then it gets weird ‘cos I’m neither here nor there. Like I’m not totally white and I’m not Sinagporean either. I love Sunday roasts and Chinese food too, but I can’t speak fluent Chinese and the only Chinese word I can write is my name.”

There are good books, there are very good books and then there are the sort of books for which you have an all-consuming love for, that resonates with you so much you feel like it was written for you, whose characters you feel like you know.

PP Wong’s The Life Of A Banana is one of those books.

The book is about a young orphan, Xing Li and the struggles she goes through growing up as a British born Chinese in the UK. Throughout the book you meet an assortment of characters from Xing Li’s mad uncle, stern Grandma, rebel brother, best friend Jay, and of course the class bully Shills. Whilst you may not like all of them, they are startlingly real and vivid, and you feel like you know them, or someone like them (who hasn’t met a Shills in their life?).

As a Eurasian (half Chinese/half Caucasian) growing up in London, there was so much I could relate to in this book:

The fact that when people ask you where you are from and you say London they respond with “no, where are you REALLY from?”. Sadly, I got this the most from my university peers when you would really think they were old enough and educated enough not to judge a book by its cover.

The fact that because you look Chinese, they expect you to speak the language.

The racial abuse at school (don’t get me wrong, nothing like having words carved into my leg or being beaten up)

And then there’s all the little quirks I’ve inherited from my Mum and her sisters:

“Aiyah!”

Never taking the plastic wrap off of electronic items

Always carrying a spare plastic bag with you

Wary of hugging

“With Chinese, they offer you to come for dinner after first meeting. With English takes many years before you get past “How is the weather?” conversations.”

And then there’s the more British things that are familiar like the fact I may have consumed a frozen cheesecake from Iceland a time or two in my life!

Anyway enough of me and let’s move onto how much I love Jay. I wish I had a Jay in life! Xing Li/Jay’s friendship is one of my (many) favourite things about the book and I melted at the end when he and his parents got back Meow Meow and the tortoise for Xing Li, and also of course the sweet kiss between them.

Uncle Ho – what a strange and yet tragic figure. You never really feel like you know what exactly happened with him and that’s all part of the intrigue.

Grandma ….. what can I say. She’s not exactly a character you warm to but the final scene of the book? Really touching.

Auntie Mei and Lai Ker are products of their upbringing and the friendships they keep.

There are so many different layers to all the characters you meet. Just as you think you’ve figured out Grandma, Grandfather (who you meet briefly) or even Xing Li herself, something more is revealed that peels back another layer to the characters.

I loved the way the book is written from Xing Li’s point of view, using her British/Chinese ‘talk’ which is so vivid you can hear it being spoken through the page. Combined with the content, the book really feels like you’re reading an autobiography and getting to see what it is really like to grow up as a non-white person in the UK.

I know we are barely halfway through the year but I’m calling it: best book of 2014.

“I’m a Chinese person with a mouth, but I’m a Chinese person with a heart too.”

Book: 5*

Cover: 5*

My heart ached for little Xing Li, a British born girl of Chinese decent, facing racism and deep loss as she comes of age. After the loss of her beloved mother, Xing Li and her brother Lai Ker move in with their 'mean old' Chinese grandmother, strange uncle Ho and starlet beauty Aunt Mei. The reader follows Xing Li as she tries to understand the mystery of her mother's estranged relationship with her grandmother while trying to find her place in her new seemingly unwelcoming home. Worse, Xing Li faces obstacles at school, standing out as the only Chinese British girl in the school. She soon musters all the courage she can to fight off the horrid bully Shills, but just how far will the bullying go? Uncle Ho's strange, often violent behaviors frighten and fascinate her, leading her to uncover family secrets and hopefully a better understanding of them all, including her mysterious grandfather who she was told died long ago.
Beautiful Auntie Mei is troubled and young for her age, and brings out protective instincts in Xing Li much like her mother had. More than anything, this story proves that not all love is demonstrated the same. Sometimes the 'mean' people hardened because they were holding the family on their back, keeping the wheels turning. Maybe Grandma has more fire and strength than young Xing Li understands. The story certainly exposes the vulnerabilities those with a different ethnic background face, from the simplest off-handed race related comments to the downright cruel. It's easy to not think on these things until you see another's perspective. To this day, we see racism in all forms, as the story opens with a joke about being glad her cat, which her grandmother had sent to the RSPCA, wasn't sitting instead in a peasant's belly in Guandong. Sure her own brother laughingly makes the joke, but surely it's because he wants to own such things before other's can.
Wong writes of people asking characters where they were born (remember, they are British born) just because they look Chinese. Later writing how frustrated and insulted her grandmother was when people would speak slowly to her as if she were a child, or just dumb. Also, there are moments when people say go back to China. It smacks of truth even in America, it happens often, even in this 'modern' day world of ours.
Not to say the story is a lecture on racism, it is not. It is a beautiful, sad story about family, love and doing the best we can with what we've got. Uncle Ho was a very important character in the novel, and it is hard to hate Xing Li's grandmother knowing how tenderly she cares for Ho. I stayed up all night reading this novel. What a wonderful title, Xing Li is like a banana- yellow on the outside, white on the inside. It echos my own grandmother in some ways when Xing Li's grandmother sees her own children becoming more 'British' than Chinese. I have had my own grandmother laugh that she never imagined one day her grandchildren would be American. It is said with happiness and sadness, because the old ways (traditions) are altered to fit a new country. I loved it. I loved all the characters, they made me mad, sad and laugh- Xing Li has her silliness. Yes, loved it.

Firstly, thank you to the publishers for sending me a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book has some pretty dark themes for a young adult book, but it is written with such perception and humour it does soften the blow. Bullying, racism, suicide, mental illness, abortion - it's all in there. But it's also a very hopeful story too. I really liked the writer's voice; I feel like the story is influenced by their own personal experiences. I suppose that is quite sad in a way, but that they have written a book like this makes me again feel pretty hopeful.

It's strange to write such a melancholic review, because on the whole the story is an amusing, enjoyable read!