This type of book has a start that makes you wonder if it will pick up.
Then it does in the way you’re least expecting. It has many people who are a part of this sarcastic, smart, and quick-witted cast. It begs the question right off the bat: A cast of thieves or people trying to figure out their own identity?
Each has their own complex story connected to not only the others in the group but intertwined in the deeper message of this novel. In my opinion, the summary on the back does not do this book justice. It says it is a heist novel, which it is, but I wouldn’t water it down to focusing solely on the task at hand: Stealing back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Bejing centuries ago. It also dives into the feeling of being lost, and not knowing your identity, and some insight into Western colonialism and the consequences it brought.
Each chapter is written from multiple points of view which consists of five people.
The leader: Will Chen, a senior at Harvard, majoring in art history and an artist himself.
The con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke can charm her way out of every situation. I love the way the author chose to write each person’s perspective.
The thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with the ability to pick locks with steady hands and brings a grounded presence.
The getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races in her free time.
The hacker: Alex Haung, an MIT dropout turned software engineer.
Will brings this group together after they receive the offer to steal back Chinese sculptures that are all over the world. The payout for each of them could help immensely and so slightly scared of what this could bring and the unknown outcome of this offer they agree. The author’s imagery is gorgeous. It immediately brings you to each of the characters’ environments. Boston, Northern California, and Northern China in the city of Beijing. When reading the way she paints the scene of each place immediately brings you there and into the emotions of each perspective. She talks of the mundane brush of the wind on Lily’s skin, the unsettling quietness of Wills’s Harvard dorm while his head is reeling with thoughts, how Daniel’s shoulders relax when he steps into the bustling streets of Beijing and feels a sense of familiarity, Lily’s adrenaline rush when she races, and the yearning Alex has for New York and the memories she reflects on. You get to know how each of them has their motives, emotions, families, and complex feelings about the heist and their relationship to China.
Ultimately this book gives people who cannot relate a learning experience of the Chinese American experience and how each character is different. How Western colonialism can suppress and steal. It talks about the power of art and the responsibility that comes with creating it but it also allows each reader to find some piece of themselves in the characters which itself is an example of the power of art.
One of my favorite quotes sums up part of the message of this book as well as calling the reader to reflect.
“Art was many things, but in the end, it was a question asked: What do you want to be remembered for?”
