Diamond Head

February 23, 2015
Wong’s earnest debut novel is a sweeping family saga in the tradition of Amy Tan. Told from multiple points of view and moving back and forth in time over several generations of the Leong family, the story centers on how people remain tied to one another. It opens in Honolulu in 1964 as friends and family gather for Bohai Leong’s funeral. Shocked by Bohai’s unexpected death, his wife, Amy, is still coming to terms with her teenage daughter Theresa’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Capable aunt Hong helps manage the day and watches over Bohai’s emotionally crippled mother, Lin. Most of the characters have secrets rooted in the family’s past in Guangdong, China, where Bohai was born in 1909 to a prosperous businessman, Frank, and his concubine, Hailee. After moving to the titular location (a volcano on the outskirts of Honolulu), wife Lin delivers the son, Kaipo, she had long vowed to give to her husband Frank. When Bohai grows into a virtual recluse, Lin decides to find a wife for him. This is where the tension finally ratchets up. Lin’s choice of the lower-class, strong-minded Amy sets in motion a chain of events, including murder, that threaten the Leongs’ stability. While some of the incidents are a bit predictable, Wong perceptively captures her cast of characters and their setting. Agent: Meredith Kaffel, DeFiore and Company.

February 1, 2015

Spanning the period from the turn of the 20th century to 1964, Wong's debut novel about three generations of Leong women will hook readers from the first page and not let go until the final tragic secret is revealed. This family's journey from China to Hawaii to become island royalty is told through alternating chapters by fully developed female protagonists who Wong brings to life by making the reader actually care about them. Running through this saga is the fable of the red string of fate that binds true love but can also become knotted and frayed, causing hurt and pain. Each woman--Lin, Amy, and Theresa--chooses her fate, either through her heart or her mind, and must pay the cost, sometimes losing all that is important in the long run. VERDICT By skillfully weaving a murder mystery into the story, Wong keeps the pace moving, and the twist ending is a surprise. The only disappointment is the abrupt conclusion that is wrapped up too neatly and quickly, leaving readers wanting more. Reading groups and fans of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club will enjoy exploring Chinese-Hawaiian history and culture with this lovely novel.--Marianne Fitzgerald, Severna Park H.S., MD

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2015
The fate and fortunes of a Sino-Hawaiian family are altered by bad romantic choices.Wong's first novel begins as members of the Leong family, the wealthiest and most influential clan on the island of Oahu, converge for a funeral in 1964. From there, the story, related by various family members, branches out to cover six decades and three generations as the Leong family curse takes shape. In 1900, Hong, a widowed refugee from the Boxer Rebellion, treks miles to find refuge in the home of her brother-in-law, Frank Leong, a shipping magnate. The family migrates to Hawaii, and Leong builds a lavish mansion in the shadow of the volcano Diamond Head for his beloved wife, Lin, and their son, Bohai. Amy Chan, 20-year-old eldest daughter of an impoverished photographer and his harried wife, is working in her father's shop when Pearl Harbor and the advent of World War II improve the family's prospects. Soldiers are clamoring for photo portraits before being shipped out, and Henry, Amy's forgotten childhood sweetheart, is among them. The two become engaged, but all that changes when the Leongs hire the Chans to photograph their family. Lin seizes on the fetching Amy as the solution for her shy, studious son Bohai's confirmed bachelorhood. (He is now 33.) Amy's mother convinces her that marrying Henry would be a mistake: She herself had married for love and now lived in a basement with a feckless husband and Amy's nine siblings. After receiving an ambiguous letter from Henry, who is stationed overseas, Amy is persuaded to marry Bohai. Her decision triggers a series of disasters for the Leong family. The enigmatic Hong and Amy's daughter, Theresa, 18 and pregnant out of wedlock, act as bellwethers and interpreters of the family's downfall. The novel's many diversions and diffuse focus make for an unwieldy structure that cannot support the explosive closing revelations. Nevertheless, Wong's pellucid prose style keeps the pages turning. Although it reaches for an inevitability it doesn't achieve, a promising debut.

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March 1, 2015
On mainland China in the early years of the twentieth century, shipping magnate Frank Leong is attuned to the geopolitical changes about to sweep the globe. A wealthy man with international connections, he is able to move his wife, Lin, young son, Bohai, and widowed sister-in-law, Hong, to Hawaii to build on the success he has already achieved. Born to a concubine, Bohai is not considered Frank's first son, a prestigious title that is awarded to Kaipo, the child Lin bears once they have settled in their new homeland. With time, the differences between the two sons become more pronounced. Bohai is intelligent but withdrawn and socially inept; Kaipo is bright, energetic, and popular. When Lin tries to correct the imbalance by arranging a marriage for Bohai with a poor but beautiful island girl, her meddling catapults the family into ruinous decline. Wong's multigenerational Hawaiian saga of deception and loyalty evocatively captures the tightly controlled worlds of privilege and power.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)