Title: The End of East
Author: Jen Sookfong Lee
# of pages: 245

Review:

The first member of the Chan family to arrive in Vancouver was Seid Quan, a poor man from a Chinese village who looked toward a job in Canada as a great opportunity. With his passage being paid for by the village, he set off in 1913, determined that he will pay back his debt, send enough money back to China to feed his family there, and save up so that his wife and children can settle in the city with him.

Two generations later, his granddaughter Sammy is looking back on her family's history, uncovering Seid Quan's mementos hidden in an old crate and an aged cigarette tin. She has been assigned the task of taking care of her outrageous mother now that all of her elder sisters have moved away to live with their husbands.

While The End of East did not have the format of typical historical fiction, I found Lee's style to be very entertaining. We learn about the difficulties Seid Quan faced for most of his time in Canada, especially the racial discrimination that was prominent in society at that time. The characters are given real personalities, and it almost seems as though the reader knows them in person. The events that occurred could have easily happened in real life.

I would highly recommend this novel to everyone with an interest in historical affairs, or simply anyone who enjoys reading novels.

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