Review of Christina Chiu’s Book Beauty

The novel Beauty by Christina Chiu is about the (love) life of a woman from teenage age to being a grandma.

Disclosure: Ad. The book is a sample sent to me by Kelly and Hall Book Publicity. They and the book’s author did not endorse the post. I wrote it entirely myself and it represents my own 100% honest opinion.

Who is Christina Chiu?

It’s my great honor to introduce you to Christina Chiu. She is an author who graduated from Columbia University with a MFA in writing. The author published award-winning stories and received honorable mentioning in literary contests such as El Dorado Writers’ Guild, Explorations, Glimmer Train, New Millennium, New York Stories, Playboy, and World Wide Writers. She also penned  Troublemaker and Other Saints, for which she won the Asian American Literary Award.

Christina Chiu‘s newest novel, Arc of Beauty, is the grand-prize winner of the James Alan McPherson Award. I feel so honored to be asked to write a review about this book.

BEAUTY by Christina Chiu

Christina Chiu writes the book in first voice telling the life story of the heroine, Amy Wong, a first generation Asian American. Each chapter is like a snapshot of an important phase in Amy’s life like being a high schooler, college student, in love for the first time, getting engaged and signing prenuptials, her wedding, having child(ren), her first job, divorce, career, loss of a parent, empty nester, grandchild’s engagement. You know, these life events that seem to be engraved as images or stored like movies in our head.

What makes this novel interesting are the intelligently inserted burdens of inherited and educated traumas, obsessions, perceptions of immigrants in both the old and new home country, little dirty secrets and societal as well as family peer-pressure. Not to mention the clash and conflicts of cultural behavioral structures caused by being rooted in two worlds (Believe me, they exists; I am an immigrant myself.).

These under-layers make the reader aware that in life, often what we think is true it is not true. We often  see ourselves quite differently from how others see us. How often are our mental triggers our worst enemy and hold us back and captured? Not to mention that we often do wear pink glasses. Despite we often know better we hold onto something, while sometimes we don’t know better or we (think we) have no alternative.

Amy’s dream is to become a great star in the fashion industry, but follows the fate of her mom partly due to lack of self-confidence, insecurity and living in between worlds. Thanks to a job shift of her long-term college friend Ben she becomes the strong woman it takes to succeed in the very competitive field of fashion and beauty. The book makes you think about yourself. Order it now.

What the Fashionista Will Love About This Novel

Amy’s and her mother’s clothes of course! Just imagine a pair of Chloe lace boots, a Givenchy party dress, a Chanel quilted bag with the double C logo, just to mention a few. Who of us wouldn’t love to wear them?

Verdict: A Must-read!

I read the 276 pages in one stretch. Loved it! I especially loved how Christina closed the cycle from Amy’s teenage experience to her granddaughter’s wedding. When you love fashion, women power and short sentences, this book is a Must on your summer reading list. You’ll love it.

Men will love to read it too!

Where to get the book

Fiction, 2040 Books printed Christina Chiu’s new novel Beauty. The novel has the ISBN-13: 978-1-7337777-5-9. The price is just $15.95, i.e. cheaper than a movie ticket. Get your copy now.

Update

In December 2020, Beauty won the Best Books of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews. Congrats, Christina!

Further Book Reviews of Similar Subjects

Sex, A Love Story (Book Review)

Finding Grace – Review of Grace Liang’s book

Photo: Courtesy to C. Chiu

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