(Downloaded from my Kindle for $5.95. Read mostly on my I-phone) I was intrigued by the first story in this collection where a Chinese girl writes a letter to the late president who opened up relations between her country and the US. In the first line she says she's sorry he's in hell while she's in heaven. That's a grabber. What follows is a series of interconnected tales of Chinese people in China, America, and Hong Kong and how they deal with cultural displacement. "No politics, just make money," says Tina Ko whose three daughters each react differently to China's authoritarian regime. That advice reverberates through the stories as the characters' choices have great impact. "Rothko, Rothko" was probably my favorite. As a side hustle, an English Literature professor in NYC commissions an artist to create an imitation Rothko for Tina and her husband Johnson. Meanwhile he has to report a favorite student for using AI on her paper on Middlemarch. When is it best to be totally honest? He tries to help the artist whose mother is sick in China and relies on her daughter for financial help but must report the student who will certainly be suspended. The conflicts are fascinating.
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