What We All Long for

The best book I read in 2005.

***SPOILER ALERT***This novel is about the lives of four friends in Toronto - all coming from different backgrounds all trying to find a certain thing. One of the characters is the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants (a doctor and an engineer) who could not become certified in Canada in their fields. The family is shell-shocked by the loss of a son while coming to Canada - he eventually makes his...more

***SPOILER ALERT***This novel is about the lives of four friends in Toronto - all coming from different backgrounds all trying to find a certain thing. One of the characters is the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants (a doctor and an engineer) who could not become certified in Canada in their fields. The family is shell-shocked by the loss of a son while coming to Canada - he eventually makes his way to Toronto as an adult after becoming a criminal. The daughter is an installation artist in love with the bike courier who lives across the hall. The bike courier is not always reciprocating. She has a story of her own involving a dead parent and a delinquent brother who is in jail throughout the novel until freed on bail at the end. The other two characters come from troubled backgrounds one Haligonian, one Jamaican and are briefly lovers. The character focused on is the artist and her family. Her younger brother goes off in search of the lost brother and is able to perhaps find him. The artist is more skeptical but decides to go along with it to make everyone happy. Tragically the found brother is beaten in a carjacking by the recently released brother of the bike courier. The bike courier has made the decision to abandon him and get on with her life (i.e. stand in line for U2 tickets) whereas the artist has chosen to get back into her family struggle.   hide

I didn't enjoy this book. I love all her other works, but I was highly disappointed with this one. I did appreciate the shared experiences of the different identities that she weaved together, but I found that this book lacked the grace and poeticness of her other works. I was disappointed with her use of language. She didn't work her magic in this one for me.