"Bringing to life a story that spans multiple generations, governments, and continents, the comic-strip format feels more immediate than a biographical novel, realistic than a TV mini-series, and honest than a movie could ever be....uncommonly enriching."
"A gem of a book. . . . Yang’s interweaving of her own travails with those of her grandfather in chaotic post-imperial China tugged at this cynical journalist’s heartstrings."
Wall Street Journal - Adam Najberg
"I have long been a fan of Belle Yang’s art and writing, and Forget Sorrow is a wonderful display of her prodigious talents. I am moved by her honesty and humor, mesmerized by the amazing history of her family. While her story is deeply personal, it is also magical, nearly mythic. It reminds us that we all have unknown family histories, which, once revealed, can become the parables that change us profoundly."
"With drawings that remind me of van Gogh’s sketches, Yang tells a heartfelt interwoven story of family and finding oneself."
"[A] most unforgettable feast."
[A] most unforgettable feast.--Terry Hong "Book Dragon" [A] riveting true-life tale of ancestral jealousies and familial woes from her father's recollections of growing up in China...Yang's story, which balances her own struggles with those of her ancestors without clumsily trying to equate them, echoes both with the tragic darkness of King Lear and the clean austerity of classical Chinese poetry.-- "Publishers Weekly" [A] wonderful, beautifully drawn story that shows the pain, joy, and terror of an ancestral tale.--Judith Ellis "Huffington Post" A gem of a book. . . . Yang's interweaving of her own travails with those of her grandfather in chaotic post-imperial China tugged at this cynical journalist's heartstrings.--Adam Najberg "Wall Street Journal" Breathtakingly lyrical and poignant...Forget Sorrow is Yang's first graphic novel--and as it turns out, it's a world she inhabits like the most fluent of natives.--Jeff Yang "San Francisco Chronicle" Bringing to life a story that spans multiple generations, governments, and continents, the comic-strip format feels more immediate than a biographical novel, realistic than a TV mini-series, and honest than a movie could ever be....uncommonly enriching.-- "Giant Robot" Heart-wrenching, but Yang's exorcistic storytelling is ultimately about learning to move forward.-- "Flavorpill" I have long been a fan of Belle Yang's art and writing, and Forget Sorrow is a wonderful display of her prodigious talents. I am moved by her honesty and humor, mesmerized by the amazing history of her family. While her story is deeply personal, it is also magical, nearly mythic. It reminds us that we all have unknown family histories, which, once revealed, can become the parables that change us profoundly.--Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses Starred Review. Occasionally playful yet profoundly moving . . . The narrative seamlessly shifts between present and past, and between America and China, mixing the intimacy of a memoir with the artist's visual allusions to such sources as King Lear and The Scream. A transformational experience for author and reader alike.-- "Kirkus Reviews" There has been plenty of sorrow to forget, in both [Yang's] ancestral history, and in her family's California lives. Forget Sorrow relates those somewhat parallel stories with beauty and truth. It is an uplifting and moving story . . . Deeply touching.--John Orr "The Mercury News" Yang brings her own bold brushstroke drawing to the fore to convey the period's characters and locations...The real revelations here are...her family's survival through tumultuous change, as bonds and ties are stretched sometimes to breaking point... [and] the miracle of Yang herself as she eventually regains her freedom and confidence and chooses the comics medium to express her redemptive journey so evocatively.--Paul Gravett "PaulGravett.com" Yang spins out the story in concentric eddies and whorls, an excellent reverberation of her black-ink style...This is an excellent book for those intrigued by family stories or by the history of twentieth-century China as well as anyone who likes memoirs made more dynamic by incorporating more than just the writer's perspective on events.--Francisca Goldsmith "Booklist" Forget Sorrow is intimate and yet grand in scope. Through Belle Yang's expert weaving of personal memoir and family history, we emerge with new understanding of pre-Communist China, ancestral lore, and father-daughter reconciliation. Yang's drawings--and her heartfelt dialogue--make these long-ago stories feel both present and personal. A compelling addition to the comics memoir form.--Josh Neufeld, writer/illustrator of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge In Belle Yang we have our Isaac Bashevis Singer and Marc Chagall--all in one bright new talent.--Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Woman Warrior With drawings that remind me of van Gogh's sketches, Yang tells a heartfelt interwoven story of family and finding oneself.--Ariel Schrag, author of Potential and Likewise
East meets West in this occasionally playful yet profoundly moving graphic memoir. Though she has drawn from her life in her popular children's books (Foo, the Flying Frog of Washtub Pond, 2009, etc.), Yang has never offered the level of psychological reflection and familial revelation shown here. The subtitle, "An Ancestral Tale," tells only half the story. The author narrates her own story, which encompasses the story of her father, who tells the story of his ancestors that his daughter then mediates through her artistry. The impetus for the project is the stalking of the thoroughly modern and Americanized author-then a recent college graduate-by a former boyfriend referred to throughout as "Rotten Egg." To protect herself from what appears to be the real threat of physical harm, she retreats to the home of her far more traditional parents, who emigrated from China before her birth. She also makes a pilgrimage to her family's homeland, where she attends the Academy of Traditional Chinese Painting and experiences the late 1980s political upheaval and repression firsthand. Returning to her family's house in California, where her parents claim that she has wasted her education because of her bad boyfriend experiences, she coaxes stories from her father on his family, which are filled with tales of familial conflict and oppression that resonate with her own feelings of living in a prison imposed by circumstances. It's a tale of Taoism and Buddhism, with the meditative state wondrously captured by the artist, and of the tension between the seeming passivity that spirituality appears to instill in some and the personal ambitions of others. The narrative seamlessly shifts between present andpast, and between America and China, mixing the intimacy of a memoir with the artist's visual allusions to such sources as King Lear and The Scream. A transformational experience for author and reader alike.
With a lilting voice and a strongly etched fairy tale hand, writer/artist Yang weaves a riveting true-life tale of ancestral jealousies and familial woes from her father's recollections of growing up in China. Her book begins with Yang in her 20s, recently graduated from college but unable to get herself out into the world, wounded by self-doubt and bad memories of an ex-boyfriend turned stalker. Back living with her immigrant parents in Carmel, Calif., Yang listens to her father's stories about his grandfather, a man of wealth and stature whose many feuding sons left the family dismally ill-prepared for the winds of change that WWII and Mao's revolution sent violently whipping through the land. Betrayal and infighting pockmark these stories of woe, though they're buttressed with an appreciation of an uncle's Buddhist disavowal of material possessions or desires. Yang's story, which balances her own struggles with those of her ancestors without clumsily trying to equate them, echoes both with the tragic darkness of King Lear and the clean austerity of classical Chinese poetry. (May)
"In wonderfully dreamy—and often nightmarish—black-and-white images rendered in pen and ink, Yang dips in and out of her ancestors’ past, her kindly father narrating the story. The ravages of famine and the brutality of the Cultural Revolution’s unthinking minions are hauntingly depicted…but the reader also beholds selfless acts of compassion. It is these moments, along with Yang’s tender portrayal of a natural world at peace…that lend her story its ultimate, life-affirming grace."
San Francisco Chronicle - John McMurtie
"In Belle Yang we have our Isaac Bashevis Singer and Marc Chagall—all in one bright new talent."
"Yang spins out the story in concentric eddies and whorls, an excellent reverberation of her black-ink style…This is an excellent book for those intrigued by family stories or by the history of twentieth-century China as well as anyone who likes memoirs made more dynamic by incorporating more than just the writer’s perspective on events."
Booklist - Francisca Goldsmith
"Heart-wrenching, but Yang’s exorcistic storytelling is ultimately about learning to move forward."
"Forget Sorrow is intimate and yet grand in scope. Through Belle Yang’s expert weaving of personal memoir and family history, we emerge with new understanding of pre-Communist China, ancestral lore, and father-daughter reconciliation. Yang’s drawings—and her heartfelt dialogue—make these long-ago stories feel both present and personal. A compelling addition to the comics memoir form."
"A healing portrait drawn in epic ink strokes."
"There has been plenty of sorrow to forget, in both [Yang’s] ancestral history, and in her family’s California lives. Forget Sorrow relates those somewhat parallel stories with beauty and truth. It is an uplifting and moving story . . . Deeply touching."
The Mercury News - John Orr
"Yang brings her own bold brushstroke drawing to the fore to convey the period’s characters and locations…The real revelations here are…her family’s survival through tumultuous change, as bonds and ties are stretched sometimes to breaking point… [and] the miracle of Yang herself as she eventually regains her freedom and confidence and chooses the comics medium to express her redemptive journey so evocatively."
PaulGravett.com - Paul Gravett
"Breathtakingly lyrical and poignant…Forget Sorrow is Yang’s first graphic novel—and as it turns out, it’s a world she inhabits like the most fluent of natives."
San Francisco Chronicle - Jeff Yang
Black-and-white brushwork suggesting etchings dramatizes Yang's family history, translated from her father's memories of growing up in China. Feuding left her grandfather's family unprepared for the changes wrought by World War II and Mao's Cultural Revolution. Yang intercuts her ancestors' misfortunes with her own, evading a stalker ex-boyfriend and fighting self-doubt while coming to honor both her progressive father and herself.
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