Debut Novel: Seeing Emily
Joyce Lee Wong Shows How a Teen Solves Conflict Using Art and Poetry
May 5, 2008
Seeing Emily
By Joyce Lee Wong
New York: Amulet Books, 2005
ISBN: 978-0-8109-9258-0
US $6.95/Can. $8.95
Culture Clash between First- and Second-Generation Americans
Emily Wu, sixteen years old, confronts the obstacle of being an American with Chinese parents while she struggles with developing her own independence. Working with her parents in their Chinese restaurant presents a strong contrast to her social life in high school.
Seeing Emily begins as a couple eating at the restaurant distract Emily from her work as she focuses on the young man’s eyes. Emily’s mother seeing her hesitation, embarrasses Emily by interrupting her and sending her back to the kitchen. Although angry, Emily’s upbringing prevents her from expressing her feelings.
Conflict with Parents in Seeing Emily
As the story progresses, the conflict between Emily and her mother and the conflict within Emily grows. She thinks about the times her mother nurtured her and her father worked hard to support her. But these aspects of her life reveal a widening gulf between her parents’ cultural heritage and the American values Emily shares with her friends.
Part of being a teenager involves developing the maturity to transform childlike self-centered attitudes into a more adult-oriented view. Her two friends, Nina and Liz have struggles of their own, and Emily sees them only in one dimension as she struggles with her own issues.
Strong Visual Descriptions
Emily shows the reader her many challenges through poetry and artistic visual descriptions as she relates her struggles with dating without telling her parents, lying rather than complying with a request, innocently being confronted by ethnic slurs, and managing her relationship with Alex, a new boy in school, who is also Chinese.
Joyce Lee Wong shows Emily’s artistic temperament by describing Emily’s feelings as she experiences guilt, sadness, joy, and pain. In the chapter, “Kissed by Nick,” she says,
When Nick puts his arms
around me,
I feel a tingling,
as if I were
a musical instrument tuning,
with pegs loosening
and strings tightening,
until my skin feels
supple and taut,
shivering
in anticipation
of the notes
to play.
Whole Novel Written in Verse
Writing in verse moves the story along by making each chapter a glimpse into a teenager’s life using brief episodes that contribute to the whole experience. Interweaving art, relationships, dating, conservative parents, liberal friends, and insensitivity, Emily shows how she negotiates life with maturity as she develops into a full, three-dimensional person with wisdom and insight.
About the Author
Joyce Lee Wong, like Emily, has lived in Richmond and spent time in Taiwan, where she took Chinese classes and taught English. A graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, she has worked as a lawyer and teacher, and now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. This is her first book.
