Call number
FIC WAN
Collection
Genres
Publication
Random House (2022), 224 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML:NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A witty, moving, piercingly insightful new novel about a marvelously complicated woman who can’t be anyone but herself, from the award-winning author of Chemistry LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • “A deeply felt portrait . . . With gimlet-eyed observation laced with darkly biting wit, Weike Wang masterfully probes the existential uncertainty of being other in America.”—Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, NPR, The Washington Post, Vox Joan is a thirtysomething ICU doctor at a busy New York City hospital. The daughter of Chinese parents who came to the United States to secure the American dream for their children, Joan is intensely devoted to her work, happily solitary, successful. She does look up sometimes and wonder where her true roots lie: at the hospital, where her white coat makes her feel needed, or with her family, who try to shape her life by their own cultural and social expectations. Once Joan and her brother, Fang, were established in their careers, her parents moved back to China, hoping to spend the rest of their lives in their homeland. But when Joan’s father suddenly dies and her mother returns to America to reconnect with her children, a series of events sends Joan spiraling out of her comfort zone just as her hospital, her city, and the world are forced to reckon with a health crisis more devastating than anyone could have imagined. Deceptively spare yet quietly powerful, laced with sharp humor, Joan Is Okay touches on matters that feel deeply resonant: being Chinese-American right now; working in medicine at a high-stakes time; finding one’s voice within a dominant culture; being a woman in a male-dominated workplace; and staying independent within a tight-knit family. But above all, it’s a portrait of one remarkable woman so surprising that you can’t get her out of your head.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
Joan loves her job as an attending at a busy teaching hospital in New York. She runs the intensive care units and loves how machines keep people alive, the clarity of the job. She works all the time, cheerfully covering for the other doctors. She lives alone but spends barely any time in her
Weike Wang is the author of the delightful and surprising Chemistry and this new novel is even better. Joan is a wonderful protagonist; relentlessly literal in her interpretations and single-minded in her devotion to her work, she has trouble figuring out what's expected of her when her mother calls to chat or her neighbor drops by with a pie he made. Wang drops the reader into the point in Joan's life when just being very good at her job isn't enough, for others and for Joan herself. This is a book that is set before and during the beginning of the pandemic. I wasn't sure I wanted to read about any of that, but Wang handles it all with subtlety. Weike Wang is an author I am very eager to hear more from.
Show More
apartment. Then a new neighbor moves in across the hall and his overtures of friendship confuse and annoy her. And her father dies and although she took 48 hours off to fly to and from China for the funeral, her boss doesn't find that adequate and insists she take more time. Weike Wang is the author of the delightful and surprising Chemistry and this new novel is even better. Joan is a wonderful protagonist; relentlessly literal in her interpretations and single-minded in her devotion to her work, she has trouble figuring out what's expected of her when her mother calls to chat or her neighbor drops by with a pie he made. Wang drops the reader into the point in Joan's life when just being very good at her job isn't enough, for others and for Joan herself. This is a book that is set before and during the beginning of the pandemic. I wasn't sure I wanted to read about any of that, but Wang handles it all with subtlety. Weike Wang is an author I am very eager to hear more from.
Show Less
LibraryThing member dwcofer
This book is another great example of the more a book is hyped by the media, the worse it is. I was really disappointed in this book and had to force myself to finish reading it. The last hundred pages were pure drudgery. Fortunately, the book is rather short, at a mere 200 pages in length.
The
The characters were totally flat, even the protagonist, Joanna, whom I would have expected to be more well developed, since we are in her head for the 200 pages. I felt as if I barely knew her brother Fang and his wife Tami, despite the fact they occupy a significant portion of the narrative. Joanna’s co-workers, Madeline and Reese, whom we meet a lot, are equally not developed. None of the characters were likeable, especially Joanna.
Joanna come off as clueless, despite the fact she is a highly trained intensive care physician. She lacks any understanding of the situation around her or of other people and their behaviors. Joanna appears to have a martyr complex, always playing the role of the victim, pretending not to understand those around her or why they act the way they do.
What little plot there is, is unrealistic. Her boss praises her work, gives her a raise, and tells her to take more time off work. In what world does that happen? Finally, he forces her to take off six weeks off work. Joanna loves her work, but hates the job that forces her to take off so much time. Sorry, I cannot relate to this.
The only positive I can say for the book is it could have been worse, had it been 300 or more pages. Fortunately, I only wasted a short time reading it. Skip this boring book.
The
Show More
story is told in the first person by Joanna, an American born lady of Chinese descent. The prose is told in a stream of conscious style, which ends up being rambling, distorted, and difficult to follow. It drones on and on without any focus.The characters were totally flat, even the protagonist, Joanna, whom I would have expected to be more well developed, since we are in her head for the 200 pages. I felt as if I barely knew her brother Fang and his wife Tami, despite the fact they occupy a significant portion of the narrative. Joanna’s co-workers, Madeline and Reese, whom we meet a lot, are equally not developed. None of the characters were likeable, especially Joanna.
Joanna come off as clueless, despite the fact she is a highly trained intensive care physician. She lacks any understanding of the situation around her or of other people and their behaviors. Joanna appears to have a martyr complex, always playing the role of the victim, pretending not to understand those around her or why they act the way they do.
What little plot there is, is unrealistic. Her boss praises her work, gives her a raise, and tells her to take more time off work. In what world does that happen? Finally, he forces her to take off six weeks off work. Joanna loves her work, but hates the job that forces her to take off so much time. Sorry, I cannot relate to this.
The only positive I can say for the book is it could have been worse, had it been 300 or more pages. Fortunately, I only wasted a short time reading it. Skip this boring book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member richardderus
The Publisher Says: A witty, moving, piercingly insightful new novel about a marvelously complicated woman who can’t be anyone but herself, from the award-winning author of Chemistry
Joan is a thirtysomething ICU doctor at a busy New York City hospital. The daughter of Chinese parents who came to
Once Joan and her brother, Fang, were established in their careers, her parents moved back to China, hoping to spend the rest of their lives in their homeland. But when Joan’s father suddenly dies and her mother returns to America to reconnect with her children, a series of events sends Joan spiraling out of her comfort zone just as her hospital, her city, and the world are forced to reckon with a health crisis more devastating than anyone could have imagined.
Deceptively spare yet quietly powerful, laced with sharp humor, Joan Is Okay touches on matters that feel deeply resonant: being Chinese-American right now; working in medicine at a high-stakes time; finding one’s voice within a dominant culture; being a woman in a male-dominated workplace; and staying independent within a tight-knit family. But above all, it’s a portrait of one remarkable woman so surprising that you can’t get her out of your head.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: First things first: I think Joan's neurodivergent. There. I said it.
What else is Joan? A disappointing daughter, who isn't going to give her mother the expected grands. An annoying sister, who is resolutely unimpressed with her brother's lavish getting-and-spending lifestyle. A breathtakingly good, effective ICU doctor at the outset of the Plague. A clueless, oblivious object of somewhat diffident romantic interest...utterly unrequited...for her neighbor. And most of all, most satisfyingly and unbreakably, Joan is herself.
If you don't like to read "women's fiction" because it's about men (how to catch), read this book. It's about Others (how to evade), when it's about anyone not Joan. And that was exactly why I enjoyed the read so much. Joan's struggles are typical for an atypical person, and her intelligence isn't a problem but a solution, making her an extra delightful companion for this reader. As everyone around her tries to make her feel she's missing out, lacking something, somehow wanting for something, and until she decides for herself what she thinks, she remains upset and at sea. In her enforced idleness (bereavement leave? for a father she felt little connection to still less affection for, shouting abuser that he was?) she loses the armor of being too busy to deal with all the mishegas of ordinary life.
It is great to read about the woman lead's sense of self being explored and resolved without a boyfriend at the beginning, middle, or end of the process. It is bracing to read the genuinely painful experience of the first-generation American in attempting to come to a happy resolution to a parent's desires when these are rooted in a wildly different world. But then, as the visibly different as well as culturally different as well as neurologically different (this last is not explicit in the text, but its factuality is the hill I'll die on) Joan thinks, "Why try to explain yourself to someone who had no capacity to listen?" She thinks this in a different relationship's context but the truth is, it is Joan all the way. She's not going to do the same thing a dozen...even, I suspect, a pair of...times expecting or hoping for different results. What kept me from giving it all five stars was, however, that very thing: I felt Joan was harshly judgmental from beginning to end, despite questioning herself and her responses as we went through the story. I think that's a bit unbelievable, it seemed to me she would've adjusted some of her private judgments...still, not a fatal flaw since I liked her from giddy-up to whoa.
In fact, in just over 200pp, I fell in love with Joan as she is. I think you might do the same. Give her a few of your hours. She's a good companion.
Joan is a thirtysomething ICU doctor at a busy New York City hospital. The daughter of Chinese parents who came to
Show More
the United States to secure the American dream for their children, Joan is intensely devoted to her work, happily solitary, successful. She does look up sometimes and wonder where her true roots lie: at the hospital, where her white coat makes her feel needed, or with her family, who try to shape her life by their own cultural and social expectations.Once Joan and her brother, Fang, were established in their careers, her parents moved back to China, hoping to spend the rest of their lives in their homeland. But when Joan’s father suddenly dies and her mother returns to America to reconnect with her children, a series of events sends Joan spiraling out of her comfort zone just as her hospital, her city, and the world are forced to reckon with a health crisis more devastating than anyone could have imagined.
Deceptively spare yet quietly powerful, laced with sharp humor, Joan Is Okay touches on matters that feel deeply resonant: being Chinese-American right now; working in medicine at a high-stakes time; finding one’s voice within a dominant culture; being a woman in a male-dominated workplace; and staying independent within a tight-knit family. But above all, it’s a portrait of one remarkable woman so surprising that you can’t get her out of your head.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: First things first: I think Joan's neurodivergent. There. I said it.
What else is Joan? A disappointing daughter, who isn't going to give her mother the expected grands. An annoying sister, who is resolutely unimpressed with her brother's lavish getting-and-spending lifestyle. A breathtakingly good, effective ICU doctor at the outset of the Plague. A clueless, oblivious object of somewhat diffident romantic interest...utterly unrequited...for her neighbor. And most of all, most satisfyingly and unbreakably, Joan is herself.
If you don't like to read "women's fiction" because it's about men (how to catch), read this book. It's about Others (how to evade), when it's about anyone not Joan. And that was exactly why I enjoyed the read so much. Joan's struggles are typical for an atypical person, and her intelligence isn't a problem but a solution, making her an extra delightful companion for this reader. As everyone around her tries to make her feel she's missing out, lacking something, somehow wanting for something, and until she decides for herself what she thinks, she remains upset and at sea. In her enforced idleness (bereavement leave? for a father she felt little connection to still less affection for, shouting abuser that he was?) she loses the armor of being too busy to deal with all the mishegas of ordinary life.
It is great to read about the woman lead's sense of self being explored and resolved without a boyfriend at the beginning, middle, or end of the process. It is bracing to read the genuinely painful experience of the first-generation American in attempting to come to a happy resolution to a parent's desires when these are rooted in a wildly different world. But then, as the visibly different as well as culturally different as well as neurologically different (this last is not explicit in the text, but its factuality is the hill I'll die on) Joan thinks, "Why try to explain yourself to someone who had no capacity to listen?" She thinks this in a different relationship's context but the truth is, it is Joan all the way. She's not going to do the same thing a dozen...even, I suspect, a pair of...times expecting or hoping for different results. What kept me from giving it all five stars was, however, that very thing: I felt Joan was harshly judgmental from beginning to end, despite questioning herself and her responses as we went through the story. I think that's a bit unbelievable, it seemed to me she would've adjusted some of her private judgments...still, not a fatal flaw since I liked her from giddy-up to whoa.
In fact, in just over 200pp, I fell in love with Joan as she is. I think you might do the same. Give her a few of your hours. She's a good companion.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lostinalibrary
Joan is a single Chinese-American doctor who loves her job except, to her, it is more than a job, it is her family. She lives in an almost empty apartment and offers to trade for every shift with her fellow physicians. When her father dies, she flies to China for the funeral but returns after two
We’re only a few days into the new year and I gotta say Joan is Okay by Weike Wang is already on my list of favourite books for 2022. I loved the character of Joan and I, and I’m guessing every other introvert who reads this book, can’t help but empathize with her desire to just live her life the way she wants despite all the well-meaning efforts by family and friends. It’s a whole lot of fun and I finished it on one setting, loving every minute of it. Joan is Okay is definitely more than okay and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
Show More
days. Her hedge-fund brother thinks she should enter private practice and do more socializing; her sister-in-law thinks she should get married, have children and do more socializing; and her new neighbour keeps giving her furniture and books and, yes, thinks she needs to do more socializing. Her mother comes for a visit but, when a strange new disease is reported from Wuhan, her flight is cancelled. And if all this isn’t bad enough, her boss calls her in to discuss all the time she is spending at work and all the vacation time she has accumulated, time that she now must take.We’re only a few days into the new year and I gotta say Joan is Okay by Weike Wang is already on my list of favourite books for 2022. I loved the character of Joan and I, and I’m guessing every other introvert who reads this book, can’t help but empathize with her desire to just live her life the way she wants despite all the well-meaning efforts by family and friends. It’s a whole lot of fun and I finished it on one setting, loving every minute of it. Joan is Okay is definitely more than okay and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
Show Less
LibraryThing member suesbooks
This was a quick read with a lot of information about what it is to be an "other" in many ways. And this woman handles her independent, solitary life well. She makes people contact by her own rules and is pleased that she manages an ICU unit well. She is also a teacher of medicine and cares as she
Show More
accompanies people to their deaths. There is much humor in this book and so many important statements. I did not always feel that I should be laughing at the humor, but the good was good. Her awareness of her father after his death added a lot. And her mother's motives were fulfilled. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cats57
No, Joan is not okay by any means. However, I am not sure exactly what this book is supposed to be about, as it covers many areas. Mainly, I think it is about a very successful Dr. who possibly has Asperger Syndrome and now has to deal with various difficulties. The main problem being the sudden
Think of this book as a spider, with the spider's body being Joan's father's death. The legs will be problems she faces at work, her big brother, her sister-in-law who thinks Joan would be happier married with children (or unmarried with children). Add in her mother, who has come over from China to visit and can't go home, a forced leave from work, a nosy new neighbor, and then to top it all off, Covid 19.
A quote in this book almost sums this novel up for me "...while expressing trivial but inconsistent thoughts." (at 74%). A lot of Joans' problems seemed to be trivial and brought upon herself.
This was a fast read and can be done in about 3-5 hours (only 224 pages), depending on your attention span. Mine was not so great! As far as this book being "witty," no, not really, more depressing than anything else. But I can see in some respect why this book was also described as "insightful".
*ARC supplied by the publisher Random House, the author, and NetGalley.
Show More
death of her father.Think of this book as a spider, with the spider's body being Joan's father's death. The legs will be problems she faces at work, her big brother, her sister-in-law who thinks Joan would be happier married with children (or unmarried with children). Add in her mother, who has come over from China to visit and can't go home, a forced leave from work, a nosy new neighbor, and then to top it all off, Covid 19.
A quote in this book almost sums this novel up for me "...while expressing trivial but inconsistent thoughts." (at 74%). A lot of Joans' problems seemed to be trivial and brought upon herself.
This was a fast read and can be done in about 3-5 hours (only 224 pages), depending on your attention span. Mine was not so great! As far as this book being "witty," no, not really, more depressing than anything else. But I can see in some respect why this book was also described as "insightful".
*ARC supplied by the publisher Random House, the author, and NetGalley.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Tytania
This wasn't quite what I was expecting. What I was expecting from JOAN IS OKAY was something along the lines of ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE. Both are about misfit women. (And both women are either OK or completely fine.) But ELEANOR is played for laughs and sentimentality, while JOAN was
Joan is an ICU doctor who lives inside her work. She enjoys nothing more than being a cog in a machine. She has odd, not-exactly-close yet not-really-distant relationships with her mother and her older brother, and likewise had with her father, whose death back in China opens the novel. Her relationships with her co-workers are also not cold or distant or weird, but odd, in a matter-of-fact kind of way.
Joan gets a new neighbor across the hall who infiltrates her life in a frankly creepy-friendly way. He gives her food, objects, furniture. As this guy noses in more and more, his furniture filling her previously spartan living space, one would be forgiven for thinking: ah, now here is where the fun young guy shows Joan, one piece of furniture at a time, how to live, laugh, and love! But, no. It is not that kind of book at all.
The author is not a medical doctor, but she is a chemist with a doctorate in public health. It's always so refreshing to read about characters who are in STEM. Writers only ever seem to write about other writers, usually thinly disguised as "artists." (I always imagine them thinking, "It'll be way too obvious I'm writing about myself if I make her a writer... I know! I've got it, she'll be an artist." Right, they'll never suspect.)
Show More
completely serious and refused to follow any predictable narrative arc. Joan is an ICU doctor who lives inside her work. She enjoys nothing more than being a cog in a machine. She has odd, not-exactly-close yet not-really-distant relationships with her mother and her older brother, and likewise had with her father, whose death back in China opens the novel. Her relationships with her co-workers are also not cold or distant or weird, but odd, in a matter-of-fact kind of way.
Joan gets a new neighbor across the hall who infiltrates her life in a frankly creepy-friendly way. He gives her food, objects, furniture. As this guy noses in more and more, his furniture filling her previously spartan living space, one would be forgiven for thinking: ah, now here is where the fun young guy shows Joan, one piece of furniture at a time, how to live, laugh, and love! But, no. It is not that kind of book at all.
The author is not a medical doctor, but she is a chemist with a doctorate in public health. It's always so refreshing to read about characters who are in STEM. Writers only ever seem to write about other writers, usually thinly disguised as "artists." (I always imagine them thinking, "It'll be way too obvious I'm writing about myself if I make her a writer... I know! I've got it, she'll be an artist." Right, they'll never suspect.)
Show Less
LibraryThing member quondame
Joan is the born in the US daughter of a couple that spent a couple of decades trying to make it in the US before returning to China. She lives a minimalist life as a dedicated ICU physician and everyone except her boss seems to know how she could improve. Covid sort of puts an end to a mandated
Show More
bereavement leave and she resumes the life she has made for herself. A compact read with good flow, Joan is another of -possibly- on the spectrum characters that has come out of the margins recently, and I found her just too focused to really care about. Show Less
LibraryThing member froxgirl
I adored this sweet story where nothing much happens except that a 36 year old dedicated attending physician takes stock of her life, tries out some changes suggested by well-meaning (or not) friends and family, and essentially remains completely true to herself. There's a lot of gentle humor and
Show More
some complicated family background resulting from immigration and return. It's a very fast read and wholly satisfying, and both women who choose not to have children and mothers will admire Joan and possibly question their own life choices. I'm not sure of what men would think. As the book closes, Joan, who is on a forced sabbatical from the job she loves so much, is faced with the pandemic, and this fictional character represents all the devoted medical staff who became heroic fighters. Show Less
LibraryThing member shazjhb
An interesting book. Difficult because of a lack of knowledge about Chinese immigrants and their families. Interesting characters. Especially liked the bits about the beginning of Covid
LibraryThing member jetangen4571
expats, expectations, family-dynamics, friendship, workaholic, Chinese-culture, Chinese-customs, Chinese-languages, NYC*****
The first half of the story is getting to know workaholic hospitalist called Joan and how she perceives herself and the world. Born in the US to parents who chose to return
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Random House Publishing Group - Random House, Random House via NetGalley. Thank you!
The first half of the story is getting to know workaholic hospitalist called Joan and how she perceives herself and the world. Born in the US to parents who chose to return
Show More
home to China once she was in college and with an older brother who had a diametrically opposed life view, her lifestyle reflects her need to be on the job at all times. Then father dies, she flies to the funeral and back, gets a new neighbor, and is bossed around by yuppie brother. Work goes well until she is forced to take an extended leave by the HR department and she finds another side of herself. While away in Connecticut with family, the Year of the Rat brings The Virus. Everything has changed for everyone. In the meantime we are given lessons in idioms in English and Chinese, Chinese culture, and lots more. The characters are well developed and engaging. There is lots of sly verbal humor that I could relate to. The ending feels as unfinished as our lives are since the virus has changed all of us. Great read!I requested and received a free ebook copy from Random House Publishing Group - Random House, Random House via NetGalley. Thank you!
Show Less
LibraryThing member steve02476
Started out with a lot of humor, got more serious as it went on. Protagonist reminded me a tiny bit of the one in Convenience Store Woman, although quite different too. Maybe 3.5 stars on my rating scale.
LibraryThing member bookczuk
Joan IS okay. She moves through the world in her own way. Good stuff.
LibraryThing member jonerthon
I truly enjoyed and devoured Wang's first novel, Chemistry, and this title went the same way. The protagonist might seem eccentric and even an aspiring hermit at first, but Joan is mostly thriving in her life. The chapters where she has to reconsider actions, and where she shows rare vulnerability,
Show More
make this an original story that I wanted to be longer. Bonus features include treatment of awkward neighbor interactions and relationships with aging parents. Show Less
LibraryThing member bragan
I enjoyed Weike Wang's previous novel, Chemistry, and this one has a lot of similarities to it: it centers on a Chinese-American woman with an unusual (and in Joan's case, almost certainly non-neurotypical) perspective as she deals with her family and career choices, and is written in a similar
I have to say, though, this one just didn't capture me the way Chemistry did, I think because I found the nerdy chemistry student of the previous novel much easier to connect to than the protagonist of this one, a doctor for whom work is life and life is work. I did find I got a bit more into it towards the end, as Joan says some fairly interesting and insightful things about family and the experience of being a woman and the child of immigrants, and so on. But I also felt that it began to strike me as more like the author talking to me than the character. Not in a terrible, clunky way, but it did leave me wondering if I might just rather have read an essay by the author on her own experiences, instead. There is a basic concept that I approve of here, the assertion that Joan is okay doing what she wants to do and doesn't need to fulfill other people's expectations of what she should be. But the execution of that was, well... it was okay. But not quite what I was hoping for.
It's also not quite what I was expecting, as the novel is set at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, and I thought, when I picked it up, that it was going to be a novel about the difficulties of working in the medical field during covid. Turns out, the pandemic and Joan's experiences in it really only get kind of glossed over in the last twenty pages or so. Which may be just as well. The last time I thought I was ready to read a book about covid, I turned out not to be, and I wasn't 100% sure I was ready for it now.
Show More
pared-down style that's more about what's going on in the character's head than anything else.I have to say, though, this one just didn't capture me the way Chemistry did, I think because I found the nerdy chemistry student of the previous novel much easier to connect to than the protagonist of this one, a doctor for whom work is life and life is work. I did find I got a bit more into it towards the end, as Joan says some fairly interesting and insightful things about family and the experience of being a woman and the child of immigrants, and so on. But I also felt that it began to strike me as more like the author talking to me than the character. Not in a terrible, clunky way, but it did leave me wondering if I might just rather have read an essay by the author on her own experiences, instead. There is a basic concept that I approve of here, the assertion that Joan is okay doing what she wants to do and doesn't need to fulfill other people's expectations of what she should be. But the execution of that was, well... it was okay. But not quite what I was hoping for.
It's also not quite what I was expecting, as the novel is set at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, and I thought, when I picked it up, that it was going to be a novel about the difficulties of working in the medical field during covid. Turns out, the pandemic and Joan's experiences in it really only get kind of glossed over in the last twenty pages or so. Which may be just as well. The last time I thought I was ready to read a book about covid, I turned out not to be, and I wasn't 100% sure I was ready for it now.
Show Less
LibraryThing member akblanchard
Joan, the title character in Wieke Wang's novel Joan is Okay, is like Eleanor Oliphant but with Chinese-American heritage and a medical degree. Joan is literal minded and focused on a single topic, intensive care medicine, which she likes because she gets to deal with machines rather than people.
I liked aspects of this novel, especially Joan's biting narrative voice, but the COVID part felt tacked-on. On balance, this novel is better than okay, but not a particular favorite.
Show More
When her hospital's administration forces her to take an extended break from her job, she is all at sea, until the COVID epidemic hits. I liked aspects of this novel, especially Joan's biting narrative voice, but the COVID part felt tacked-on. On balance, this novel is better than okay, but not a particular favorite.
Show Less
LibraryThing member pdebolt
Joan's parents immigrated to the United States from China. As a child, her life was difficult due to their impoverished living conditions. Her parents eventually moved back to China after Joan and her brother, Yang, graduated from Ivy League universities. After her father's death, her mother moves
Show More
to Greenwich, CT to live with Joan's brother. Yang is a high-profile trader in the hedge fund industry, living a life commensurate with his wealth with his wife and two young children. Joan is a workaholic doctor in the ICU, always ready to take on another shift, and living in dread of family holidays at Yang's home. This is very much a character-driven novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member gypsysmom
Well this book was a disappointment. I knew that it involved a doctor practicing in the US during the Covid-19 pandemic and I thought it would give some insight into how health care practitioners coped. It didn't.
Joan is Chinese-American who specializes in respiratory health care in a hospital in
I think "bizarre' is the appropriate word to apply to Joan and this book.
Joan is Chinese-American who specializes in respiratory health care in a hospital in
Show More
New York City. She's a loner, rarely socializing, and in fact made uncomfortable in social settings. The hospital is her home although she does have a sparsely furnished apartment where she goes to sleep and on her days off. She is so comfortable at the hospital that she often volunteers to take other shifts. Even when her father dies in China she only takes two days off. Her elder brother, a rich financier, books them both first class tickets but on her return trip she trades hers in for economy. She has issues with the other family members. She can't remember much physical closeness growing up which may be why she avoids it now. When HR at the hospital realizes that she never took any bereavement leave she is basically ordered to take a month off. Before this time her neighbour, Mark, started giving her things like a chair, books, a TV but when she is on leave he throws a housewarming party in her apartment. Joan is so uncomfortable that she flees to her brother's place in Greenwich, NY. This takes place just before the pandemic comes to the US but Joan is monitoring all the news from abroad. When the cases start in New York City Joan goes back to work. Despite wearing all the recommended PPE she gets Covid and she is alone in her apartment having installed deadbolts to keep Mark out. She notifies her brother of her illness and he makes her promise to text him every morning. Joan doesn't quite understand why so her brother has to explain that he needs to know she is well enough to send a text. As a person who has been assisting patients contact their loved ones from the hospital this seems very bizarre to me. I think "bizarre' is the appropriate word to apply to Joan and this book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Castlelass
This is a story of how difficult it can be to remain true to oneself, especially when the person is outside the mainstream of commonly accepted ideas of expected behavior. Joan is a Chinese American intensive care physician in New York City. She is a woman in her mid-thirties who takes solace in
It is a quiet reflective novel about pressures to live in a way other people view as “normal,” but Joan is content with her life. The story contains both serious topics and gentle humor. It is a story of racism and cultural differences. It is also a story of the generational divide, allowing a parent to return to a world in which she feels comfortable. This situation provides an opportunity to accept her mother’s choices (in a way others have not been able to accept her own).
I think many people will be able to relate to Joan, especially anyone who is seen as atypical or out of the mainstream. I am sure lots of people have had, at some point in life, to endure the comments of judgmental people who know how a life “should” be lived. It also comments, through flashbacks with the school guidance counselor, on how quickly people leap to label introverted studious women as “on the spectrum,” but personal choice to live differently does not require a diagnosis. It is a beautifully written story and one I enjoyed immensely.
Show More
her minimalist lifestyle and her work. It reflects a medical professional’s experiences leading up to and during COVID 19. Joan’s father has recently died, and her Chinese mother wants to leave the US and return to China. Her brother leads the upwardly mobile materialistic life. Their values are much different. Joan has chosen the single life and does not desire children. Many “well-meaning” friends and associates give her unsolicited advice about her choices.It is a quiet reflective novel about pressures to live in a way other people view as “normal,” but Joan is content with her life. The story contains both serious topics and gentle humor. It is a story of racism and cultural differences. It is also a story of the generational divide, allowing a parent to return to a world in which she feels comfortable. This situation provides an opportunity to accept her mother’s choices (in a way others have not been able to accept her own).
I think many people will be able to relate to Joan, especially anyone who is seen as atypical or out of the mainstream. I am sure lots of people have had, at some point in life, to endure the comments of judgmental people who know how a life “should” be lived. It also comments, through flashbacks with the school guidance counselor, on how quickly people leap to label introverted studious women as “on the spectrum,” but personal choice to live differently does not require a diagnosis. It is a beautifully written story and one I enjoyed immensely.
Show Less
LibraryThing member LindaLoretz
I just loved Joan is Okay and Wang’s writing. I immediately felt protective of Joan, the protagonist, an attending ICU physician in a New York hospital. She finds great comfort in her work, and she is good at it. She chooses to live a private life, sees her apartment as utilitarian, and has no
The people in Joan’s life decide that her personal choices are not okay. The author made me wonder whether it is her Chinese heritage, her being female, or her confidence as an Asian female that led to lifelong encounters with people who find her to be atypical, abnormal, or just not okay in some way. But, of course, life experience tells me all of those conditions lead to unsolicited comments, judgments, and preconceived notions. She has a coworker, Madeline, who thinks she should save eggs for future childbearing. Her neighbor thinks she should read his discarded books, have more furniture and socialize more. Her brother insists she should leave NYC and work at a hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut. She also has a mother, sister-in-law, and hospital director who all weigh in on Joan’s best interests. It doesn’t seem to matter what pleases Joan.
Without being didactic, Wang has a poignant way of describing Asian Americans and the alienation they have experienced in our country, both historically and during the current pandemic. She does it through relatable dialog between Joan and the people in her life: her mother, brother, neighbor, colleagues, etc. In addition, the characters’ words and actions convey harrowing feelings as they disregard Joan’s feelings and wishes.
Additionally, themes allow us to consider what the American dream means, especially to immigrants. The lifestyle of Joan’s brother Fang and his wife Tami provides fodder for analyzing materialism and American wealth. Events in the story give pause to philosophical and familial differences between Easterners and Westerners. Finally, the flashbacks to school guidance counselors determined to find a pathological label for Joan’s introverted and studious behaviors would be funny if they didn’t reflect reality so well.
After reading and enjoying Yu’s Interior Chinatown and Salesses’s Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear, I appreciated Joan is Okay for portraying similar themes using everyday relatable characters. I thank NetGalley for providing a copy of this thought-provoking novel.
Show More
desire to date, marry or have children. It is her career that provides her with the comforts of home. She considers the United States home since she was born American even though her parents had been Chinese immigrants who returned to China after Joan and her brother Fang were adults and self-sufficient.The people in Joan’s life decide that her personal choices are not okay. The author made me wonder whether it is her Chinese heritage, her being female, or her confidence as an Asian female that led to lifelong encounters with people who find her to be atypical, abnormal, or just not okay in some way. But, of course, life experience tells me all of those conditions lead to unsolicited comments, judgments, and preconceived notions. She has a coworker, Madeline, who thinks she should save eggs for future childbearing. Her neighbor thinks she should read his discarded books, have more furniture and socialize more. Her brother insists she should leave NYC and work at a hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut. She also has a mother, sister-in-law, and hospital director who all weigh in on Joan’s best interests. It doesn’t seem to matter what pleases Joan.
Without being didactic, Wang has a poignant way of describing Asian Americans and the alienation they have experienced in our country, both historically and during the current pandemic. She does it through relatable dialog between Joan and the people in her life: her mother, brother, neighbor, colleagues, etc. In addition, the characters’ words and actions convey harrowing feelings as they disregard Joan’s feelings and wishes.
Additionally, themes allow us to consider what the American dream means, especially to immigrants. The lifestyle of Joan’s brother Fang and his wife Tami provides fodder for analyzing materialism and American wealth. Events in the story give pause to philosophical and familial differences between Easterners and Westerners. Finally, the flashbacks to school guidance counselors determined to find a pathological label for Joan’s introverted and studious behaviors would be funny if they didn’t reflect reality so well.
After reading and enjoying Yu’s Interior Chinatown and Salesses’s Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear, I appreciated Joan is Okay for portraying similar themes using everyday relatable characters. I thank NetGalley for providing a copy of this thought-provoking novel.
Show Less
LibraryThing member RickGeissal
I love this book. It is fascinating, about a subject and life I had never imagined, very well written, and written knowingly. Ms Wang was born in China, moved with her parents to Australia, then Canada, and finally the US, where she resides. I encourage everyone to read this book.
Awards
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Longlist — Fiction — 2023)
NPR: Books We Love (2022)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction/Poetry — 2022)
Pages
224
ISBN
0525654836 / 9780525654834