When she was two-years-old, Ivy Lin was left in the care of her maternal grandmother, Meifeng, because her parents emigrated to the United States. At the age of five, she flew solo to the U.S. where she is reunited with her parents and baby brother, Austin. Her frigid mother, Nan, was incredibly strict and often subjected Ivy to verbal and physical abuse. Meifeng, a petty thief, eventually follows her family and teaches Ivy her tricks—the pair pilfer items from thrift shops and yard sales.
Then Ivy meets Gideon Speyer, a politician's son, and becomes obsessed with him. After Ivy's parents discover that she has been sneaking out and lying about her whereabouts, she is sent to China for the summer. Thinking that she will defy her parents upon her return, Ivy is shocked to find out that the family has moved to New Jersey, dashing her hopes of reconnecting with Gideon.
Ivy, now living in Boston, is teaching grade one and is unfulfilled with her life. After a chance meeting with Gideon's sister, Sylvia, she is welcomed back in the Speyer family's fold and captures Gideon's heart. When Ivy's past collides with her new life, she completes a shocking and desperate act to preserve the happily ever after that she has worked so hard to build
With her razor sharp prose, Yang has crafted a story that rivals that of a seasoned writer—her debut is haunting and mesmerizing. Permeating the narratives is a loneliness, a pathos that follows Ivy into all of her relationships and threatens her success. She is completely disconnected with reality and gets swallowed by her dark side.
Ivy is a highly-developed character that is layered with culture and family. As the daughter of Chinese immigrants, Ivy struggles with finding her place—she is marred by an obsession with the upper echelon and Yang juxtaposes this with her modest Chinese-American upbringing. Ivy feels a sense of shame because of her poor family yet is both repressed and empowered by this, all while exploring her race, class, and identity.
On the whole, White Ivy just didn't work for me and I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps because I can't figure out the main character. What makes her tick? What motivates her? And she is incredibly unlikable. Why did Yang choose to write her this way? Is that the point of the story, that the reader will feel for someone that they also loathe? That being said, I was impressed by Yang's writing—she is a compelling storyteller—and I would definitely read her again.
White Ivy is a coming-of-age story and a comment on race, class, and identity.
SUSIE YANG has a doctorate of pharmacy from Rutgers and launched a tech startup in San Francisco that has taught 20,000 people how to code. She has studied creative writing at Tin House and Sackett Street. White Ivy is her first novel.
Yang was born in China and has lived across the United States, Europe, and Asia. She now resides in the UK.
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