New Jamie Ford novel travels across generations for fascinating read
My first recollection of author Jamie Ford is a dozen or so years ago in the Convention Center in Jefferson, Texas. He is holding a full-size umbrella, not one of those puny fold-up numbers, smiling as he often does, and looking a little overwhelmed by a crowd of lively tiara-wearing readers.
On this evening, he has recently released his debut novel, “Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” just beginning its journey to international bestsellerdom. The umbrella is part of a last-minute costume for a Pulpwood Queen Girlfriends Weekend program, and he’s been introduced to me and others by Kathy L. Murphy, Pulpwood Queen Book Club founder and among the first to champion his first novel.
I am standing at the back of the room when Keithville resident Suzanne Creech comes up to me and raves about his book. She’s so excited that I immediately move it up on my to-read list.
“I couldn’t put it down,” she said in an interview last week. “I’ve highly recommended it to a bunch of people.”Ford became a reader favorite throughout North Louisiana and well beyond. He’s a great writer and thoughtful person who digs deeply into family, history and Chinese-American culture.
I now read anything he writes—and bought a hardback copy of his new novel, “The Many Daughters of Afong Moy,” as soon as it released. My reading socks were blown off by this book, one of the most thought-provoking novels I’ve read in a long time.
I’ll call it historical fiction with a touch of mystical or speculative woven throughout. It’s an epic and yet reads in some ways like a collection of short stories—but turns that observation on its head by becoming a suspense tale where you look for clues as to how intergenerational characters tie together.
As you’ve probably figured out, it’s literary fiction and definitely not cheerful escapism.
The novel’s premise
Ford explores the lives of seven women from 1836 until 2086, through the experiences of Dorothy Moy, Washington state’s former poet laureate, who believes the past haunts her and fears that her young daughter is predestined to endure the same depression that has marked her own life. So, she seeks radical help – experimental treatment designed to mitigate trauma from past generations, therapy that connects her to women and their loves from other time periods.
This is a book filled with immense loss, much of it rooted in true history—and yet it offers hope. A key theme: By coming to peace with the past, future generations can be set free from family tragedies.
Ford’s voice
You won’t pick up one of Ford’s novels and think it was written by another author. To me, his works have a brave feel to them, as though he takes risks because he has to tell a particular story. The tone of his work has gotten darker since “Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” but his novels remain laced with tenderness and filled with characters who have great depth and heart.
“The Many Daughters of Afong Moy” is more than a little heart-breaking and the kind of story that you can’t—don’t want to—shake when you put it down. It’s dotted with poetry and poetic observations, such as how the scent of a flower or a few notes from a song can stir memory, a salute to Ford’s own love of poetry.
Learning from fiction
While reading this book, I recalled something a speaker at a Shreveport writing conference said years ago: Readers want to learn from what they read. A good novel teaches us something.
Wow, did I learn from “The Many Daughters of Afong Moy.”
It is a class in the topic of “epigenetics,” the study of trauma passed down through DNA, a concept I knew next-to-nothing about. Having learned about the health effects of trauma while working with a journalism program and in researching a nonfiction book about adoptees stolen and brokered as orphans, I was fascinated to consider how our ancestors’ traumas might affect who we are.
In addition, I learned that Afong Moy, the real person who Ford reimagines in fictional form, is historically considered to be the first Chinese woman to come to the United States. The novel also teaches about war, plague and typhoons—each part of its tragic realism.
Optioned for a series
Book lovers will notice “The Many Daughters of Afong Moy” popping up everywhere. A New York Times bestseller, it was a recent top pick of independent bookstores, a “Read With Jenna” book club selection on the “Today Show” and optioned by Jenna Bush for a TV series.
More about the author
Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated in 1865 from Hoiping, China, to San Francisco and adopted the western last name of Ford, “thus confusing countless generations.”He grew up in Seattle and now lives in Montana. He has also written “Songs of Willow Frost” and “Love and Other Consolation Prizes.” He will be at the Texas Book Festival in Austin on November 5, if you fancy a road trip. For more, see www.JamieFord.com.Columnist Judy Christie is the author of 18 novels and nonfiction books and is working on a new novel—about a writer. She co-authored “Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society” with NYT bestselling author Lisa Wingate, now available in paperback. For more about Christie, see www.judychristie.com or follow her on Facebook: www.facebook.com/JudyChristieAuthor.
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: New Jamie Ford novel travels across generations for fascinating read
