White Ivy

White Ivy is both a coming-of-age and coming to America story.  When I bought this book I knew it was about a Chinese family from the back cover blurb. The title is typical for a Chinese family saga.  However, I did not expect it to be about race and didn't figure that out until some point after the middle of the story. I was surprised to say the least. 

The story opens with some background information on the Ivy Lin character.  She was born in China and her parents  emigrated to America when she was two, leaving Ivy behind. Ivy was raised by her grandmother Meifeng who taught her to be clever by stealing. Stealing becomes second nature to her.  At the age of 5 her parents, Nan and Shen Lin, send for her and she moves to Boston. Ivy does not know them. They are strangers to her as is her newborn brother Austin. She does not get along with her parents and wishes to be with her grandmother in China.  Meifeng had been affectionate but her parents were distant. Ivy quickly learns English and becomes friends with Roux, a Romanian immigrant, and Gideon, a boy from a patrician New England family whose father is a senator.  However, she continues to steal. 

As Ivy grows she begins to receive party invitations from classmates. One weekend Gideon invites her to an overnight at his home. Ivy knows her mother would not approve and tells her parents she will be staying overnight at a girlfriend's house. The next morning when they find out she is at a boy's house, they go and pick her up, heavily embarrassing Ivy. In a few days her parents pack her up and send her back to China for the summer in order to learn to be Chinese.  Ivy spends the first 2 weeks with a cousin she never met but she loves being with. Sunrin Zhao is Western and loves to shop for expensive designer clothes. Ivy feels like she can be herself with Sunrin.  Ivy then is dropped off with her grandmother in a poor village where Ivy cannot stand to be. Ivy no longer likes living with her grandmother and is excited to travel home at the end of the summer. However, when her plane lands in Boston, her parents tell her that they moved to New Jersey. Ivy has to start over in a new city, losing all of her friends in Boston. 

When I figured out this novel was about race I was disappointed. We hear so much about race relations in the news. It's depressing. I want my reading material to be relaxing, nothing serious. I am looking for escape. While the story was well written this realization affected how I feel about it.  It seems the author is saying that stealing is a Chinese thing to do and winning at all costs is white. Ivy definitely wants to win and be successful in that white, patrician world.  She is what white Americans call a "model minority." I am sure there's much, much more the author intended but this is the main idea I got. 

4 out of 5 stars.