Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Blurb from Goodreads
This is an original take on a classic story – how a child of immigrants moves between two cultures. In place of piety and predictability, however, Unpolished Gem offers a vivid and ironic sense of both worlds. It combines the story of Pung’s life growing up in suburban Footscray with the inherited stories of the women in her family – stories of madness, survival and heartbreak. Original and brave, this is a girl’s own story that introduces an unforgettable voice and captures the experience of Asian immigrants to Australia.
My review
First, a bit of background to my reading of this book. I grew up in a part of Sydney where there were many people of Asian descent. Those who were my age had often either been born in Australia to parents who were recent immigrants, or had come to Australia as children. Many of my friends were of Asian descent, from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I tended to see the similarities between my friends and me – they were, after all, my friends – and I often did not understand why they reacted to certain things so differently, especially in relation to their interactions and relationships with their families.
In the years since high school, I have grown to understand much more. Unpolished Gem allowed me to take another leap in my understanding of some of my friends. At the very least, this means that if Ms Pung is writing for the wider Australian audience, to give them an insight into the life of a certain section of the Australian community, she has nailed it. (I am quite curious to know if she has nailed the audience within the section of the Australian community she is writing about.)
Ms Pung’s writing is impeccable. By this I mean not that her sentences and paragraphs are well-structured and grammatically correct, although they are that, too, but that Ms Pung’s narrative allows the reader to step inside the book and, to a significant extent, empathise with her. The reader is, accordingly, able to understand Ms Pung’s emotional reactions to the situations she describes. It was this which allowed me to come to a much better understanding about my friends than I had before. It is not that I think all – or, even, any – of my friends had precisely the same experiences as Ms Pung, but that, by understanding the background in Ms Pung’s story, I was able to better imagine what might have been happening for my friends in similar situations.
Such an understanding is important to me personally, and may be important personally to many others. It is also important socially. Ms Pung’s family has much in common, in terms of experiences and background, with many other Australians and their families – not only those who came to Australia at around the same time as, and in similar circumstances to, Ms Pung’s family, but those who are coming to Australia now. In order to ensure that we can be an Australian community, as many of us as possible from as many parts of Australian society need to have some insight into other parts of our society. Unpolished Gem will help to increase the level of insight between communities.
Finally, this book is also an excellent story, rather than merely a piece of writing about what happened. As a result, this book is likely to be quite an enjoyable read for those who, like me, do not normally enjoy non-fiction and memoir writing as much as fiction.
This is a review for the 2012 Australian Women Writers Challenge. You can see my full list of books here. You can find a full list of my reviews, and other posts relevant to the challenge, here.
Thanks for this very thoughtful review of Alice’s book. Being of Asian Australian descent (Chinese-Malaysian), I read the novel with some trepidation, expecting the cliches about Asian families, etc, that I’d read over + over again. Her voice, though, was very different from what I’d already read (I did my PhD on Asian Australian literature), and her writing was evocative + considered. It’s a very impressive ‘first novel’ – have you read her 2nd one, My Father’s Daughter? It’s on my shelf + may be a book I read for the AWW 2012 Challenge. :)
Thanks Tseen. I haven’t read Her Father’s Daughter, but I do want to, since I enjoyed this one so much.
[...] review of Alice Pung’s memoir UNPOLISHED GEM at a blog called Wallaby has inspired me to add the book to my own wishlist. It deals with [...]
am so very excited to read writings and comments by Asian Australian writers. I can be considered the older generation I guess..one of the first Asian Australian writers and now with one foot in the grave i see the young ones and my heart opens up with gratitude that i live to see this…i love to contact Tseen Khoo …Tseen can you add me as your friend on facebook please. My mother was a Khoo from Penang. I went from Ipoh to Melb in 1964. My first novella is Notes to My Sisters (pub Times Editions, Singapore)
cheers
Aunty Moni
Nice review. The problem with the AWW challenge is I keep adding books to my “to be read” list – this will be another one.
Thanks – good luck with your reading list :)
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