Whenever things got really bad during my family's dark years, I dreamed that when I grew up, I would write our stories down so that others like us would know that they were not alone, that they could also survive. And my mother would then remind me that it was all temporary:

"With your writing, Qian Qian, you can do anything.

One day, you will have enough to eat.

One day, you will have everything."

May that resilient hope light the way.

-- Beautiful Country, p.4

Come join a group of enthusiastic readers to discuss great memoirs of relevance to education. It's a refreshing way to enrich learning outside the classroom, meet fellow readers, and share your thoughts and experiences.

Our second book is Beautiful Country: A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood, by Qian Julie Wang (New York: Anchor Books, 2021), a New York Times Bestseller,  about an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world.

"In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to “beautiful country.” Yet when seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity, she is overwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. In China, Qian’s parents were professors; in America, her family is “illegal” and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive.

In Chinatown, Qian’s parents labor in sweatshops. Instead of laughing at her jokes, they fight constantly, taking out the stress of their new life on one another. Shunned by her classmates and teachers for her limited English, Qian takes refuge in the library and masters the language through books, coming to think of The Berenstain Bears as her first American friends. And where there is delight to be found, Qian relishes it: her first bite of gloriously greasy pizza, weekly “shopping days,” when Qian finds small treasures in the trash lining Brooklyn’s streets, and a magical Christmas visit to Rockefeller Center—confirmation that the New York City she saw in movies does exist after all.

But then Qian’s headstrong Ma Ma collapses, revealing an illness that she has kept secret for months for fear of the cost and scrutiny of a doctor’s visit. As Ba Ba retreats further inward, Qian has little to hold onto beyond his constant refrain: Whatever happens, say that you were born here, that you’ve always lived here.

Inhabiting her childhood perspective with exquisite lyric clarity and unforgettable charm and strength, Qian Julie Wang has penned an essential American story about a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility, and a girl coming of age in the shadows, who never stops seeking the light."

- publisher's description

Please come ready to read chapters 1-15 (pp. 1-153). Bring your own lunch, and/or enjoy some light refreshments that will be provided.

Fall Book Club is co-sponsored by the Graduate Writing Center. It meets every other week throughout the semester, with a program for three books, two sessions per book. It is open to all students and staff, and the first 15 people to rsvp will receive a free copy.