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Gish Jen: The resisters : a novel (Hardcover, 2020, Alfred A. Knopf) 3 stars

interesting premise, poor execution imo

2 stars

I struggled with how every character seemed flat as a sheet and with about as much personality. All the voices sounded the same. I also found the viewpoint character to be an odd choice - wouldn't the daughter have been better to give us interiority instead of the bizarre choice of pigeon grams and bugging? It sounds cool when I type it, but without character depth, it was just another strange choice. All of this made the actual story hard to care about, despite it being a solid plot. Also, no one was queer, which sucked - just saying. I don't know. The whole thing felt upside down and askew, and I had to work to finish it. I recently read a short story of hers that had emotional interiority, so the way she wrote this was clearly a choice and not just her "style."