'The Fortunes of Jaded Women' Review

The Fortunes of Jaded Women

By Carolyn Huynh, narrated by VyVy Nguyen

Genre: adult, magic realism

Content Warnings: discussion of war, imperialism, colonization, racism, depression, grief, miscarriage, death

Description: “A multi-narrative novel brimming with levity and candor, The Fortunes of Jaded Women is about mourning, meddling, celebrating, and healing together as a family. It shows how Vietnamese women emerge victorious, even if the world is against them.”

The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a quick and amusing read that tackles topics of grief, loss, joy, and healing. While I do have some critiques of how this book handles certain matters, overall, I found this book to be an entertaining listen.

What I enjoyed:

-The book is incredible with voice! Huynh fits a record number of main character perspectives, ensuring each character feels fresh and animated. While listening, I never felt confused about which character was in focus. Special kudos to the narrator, VyVy Nguyen, for her terrific acting!

-On a related note, I loved the author's sensitivity to each character's choices and feelings. It’s always a difficult task when writing generational stories to showcase trauma as an explanation and not an excuse. As I mentioned, the book provides each character a unique voice, allowing readers to understand or at least sympathize with each of their choices. The particular attention to gender was impactful and handled thoughtfully. The women are allowed to be flawed in this novel, creating a richer narrative that speaks true to real life while providing hope for reconciliation.

-I appreciated how the novel tackles painful subjects of war, discrimination, colonization, and grief while also holding space for healing and joy. This book exhibits the myriad of human emotions while acknowledging systematic injustices and cycles of abuse, and you can feel the love Huynh has for her fellow Vietnamese American community. While this book has some moments that require a bit of suspension of disbelief, the magic realism elements of the story balance these features out.

What I thought could be better:

-The novel does walk the fine line between attempting to critique stereotypes and potentially perpetuating them accidentally. While the humorous nature of the book does somewhat emphasize to readers that these stereotypes are trying to be mocked, it’s a fine line, especially when the book will call out directly the problems and effects of American imperialism, the fetishization of East and Southeast Asian women, and racism within Asian communities in some parts of the narrative and then immediately after showcase a character’s classism for comedic effect. While I do love morally complicated characters and stories, I do wish these topics were handled in the novel with a bit more nuance.

-On that note, while not unacknowledged, the novel struggles to fully wrestle with the implications of assimilation and the privileges of some of its characters. This feels like a lost opportunity, particularly when the book does emphasize the impact American imperialism and intervention had on the women’s families. The book becomes very wrapped up in the family reconciliation side of the story by the end, which is sweet, but feels like a missed chance to go even deeper into exploring the characters’ and story’s messiness.

Overall, The Fortunes of Jaded Women was a fun listen that kept me itching to hear more. The strength of this novel is its attention to its characters. While the book toes a fine line with its critiquing of stereotypes and misses opportunities to delve even deeper into certain complexities, the novel is still an enjoyable read/listen for anyone looking for a quick, entertaining story about family drama.