Book Review: Joan is Okay (OT)(a good book worth the read?)

 Joan is Okay, by Weike Wang (Random House, 2022, $27, 224 pp)

The Question and the Answer

When I first saw this cover, I thought the title was Joan is A Okay, perhaps because I am more used to the spelling OK than of Okay. 

The question is not "Is This a Good Book?" but "Is Joan Okay?" The answer is for you to determine for yourself (as with all good literature) and you can probably do so well before the end, even as our protagonist, and especially those closest to her, know their answer (especially with the title as a hint). She, however, waffles a bit but those around her never do.

A Different Viewpoint

Joan is Okay has garnered kudos in many prestigious places: The New York Times, The New Yorker, NPR, and The Washington Post, plus it was long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. However, this reviewer begs to differ. 

I have read the kudos and still beg to differ, plus the Amazon 'reviews' are all over the place. I usually give a book at least a 50-page read if I'm not mesmerized by it before then, but Joan was hard to do this for. It was fairly easy reading and fast and because I kept waiting for a plot, I did keep reading until the end. And, actually, the last 40 pages or so did keep my attention. However, it was a long read.

A Plotless Plot

A fascinating premise: a 30-something successful woman physician in a New York City hospital, of Chinese origin, is pressured by her even more financially successful brother (and their mother) to move closer to him, not work so hard, and settle down to raise a family. 

And Another. . . .

Although I was sent Joan is Okay, I was more intrigued by Wang's earlier novel, Chemistry: A Novel because it was written with me in mind a bit more than Joan. However, I think I will check Chemistry out of the library to skim it before deciding to purchase it. What about you?