How Much of These Hills Is Gold

I wish I'd liked this more than I did because there's some merit to its writing style. For some reason, though, [a:C Pam Zhang|15934143|C Pam Zhang|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1617315708p2/15934143.jpg] seems bent on writing gross-out fiction reminiscent of the splatterpunk writing of the early 1990s. The story, which is about two sisters during the late gold rush in mid-nineteenth-century California, is interesting enough but Zhang too often goes for transcendent depth more than it warrants, and her use of cinematic devices confuses and annoys.
There's also a generous sprinkling of Chinese in it, phrases and words I understood because I lived in China for a year but I doubt other general readers would. Their use doesn't prohibit the understanding of the text, but it could frustrate readers as they're not being used for effect.

For the first seven years of Lucy's life, Ba was a prospector. Seven years of life lived as if windblown, drifting from site to site on the rumor of gold.
Ma set her foot down two years back. One night she left Lucy and Sam in the wagon, and for hours she and Ba talked in the open hills. Snatches drifted back, Ma's voice holding forth on hunger and foolishness, pride and luck. Ba was silent. Come morning, the prospecting tools were packed away. Ba nursed sullenness for a month, gambled and drank. It was Ma who first mentioned coal mines.
Since then, Ba's put away most of the gambling, and most of the drinking too. He blusters of fortunes made in coal, as he once blustered of fortunes made from other materials. The forbidden word went unsaid—till now.
Tonight, as ash from a burning mine falls through their window, Ba tells them about the gold.

Solid interesting book told from a unique point of view during the California gold rush of the mid-1800s. Mostly told from Lucy's point of view, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, it is the story of how her and her sister struggle to survive, both from abusive parents and a cold, racist hard world of the mining community.

You really get into Lucy's story, as she mixes Chinese metaphors and language as she struggles to figure out both her parents and her world. You really feel like you are there, in the cold rain, drought and fire of the times.

I was a bit annoyed at the timeline of the novel. For some reason, she decided to start the book about halfway through the story, and then switch back after about 1/3 of the book had gone by. So for the middle third of the book, you know how things are going to end up, but you just don't know why. Maybe the author wanted you to watch, like a traffic accident about to happen, as the bad things come about. I don't know. I wish she had just told the story from beginning to end, at least the main parts. I can understand some of the back stories of her Ma and Ba might be told in flashback fashion, but the main story line would have made me happier if it was just told straight.

But that's a minor point. It took a bit to get going, as the beginning of the book (not the story!) was almost a quest that went on too long, but I really enjoyed the rest of it. It told a story that needs to be told, with an aggressiveness and poetry that was entrancing. Good job!

Added: I should add that I got this Advanced Copy for free after winning it in a drawing here on Goodreads. But I promise the above is my unvarnished opinion!