Victor Chin's life is turned upside down at the age of 15. Diagnosed with Hansen's disease, known as leprosy, he's forced to leave his father's laundry business in the Bronx - the only home he's known since emigrating from China - to quarantine alongside patients from all over the country at a federal institution in Carville.
Lambent and poignant ... Chin-Tanner portrays the soul-withering routines of institutionalization and the bonding of the damned with elegiac strokes ... In the last third, the narrative becomes somewhat schematic and too concerned with setting up a conclusion through the major events at home in the Bronx ... The more gripping and tenderly executed drama, however, remains internal for Victor.
Chin-Tanner’s exacting details render little-known medical history, deftly interwoven with the Chinese American experience, from paper sons to debilitating racism to bifurcated identity, to create a satisfying, polyphonic narrative about the intricate relationships within families by birth and circumstance.
Poignant if somewhat mechanical ... Though the plotlines feel a bit rote, Chin-Tanner shines in her depictions of loyalty and familial obligation, Ruth’s in particular. Though clunky at times, the multicultural elements add an appealing layer to this drama.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
