Rina Ayuyang

It's 1929, and a Filipino migrant worker in rural California finds a letter that says the wife he left behind in the Philippines has come to San Francisco and is danger, so he rushes to save her wearing a stolen suit. An unnecessarily convoluted and unlikely noirish plot unfolds in a way that left me slightly frustrated but still had its moments and left me happy for some of the characters and curious to see what comes next. Here's hoping the "To be continued" bullet at the end doesn't leave me hanging for too long.

(Best of 2023 Project: I'm reading all the graphic novels that made it onto one or more of these lists:
• Washington Post 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2023
• Publishers Weekly 2023 Graphic Novel Critics Poll
• NPR's Books We Love 2023: Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels

This book made the PW list.)… (mere)

Rina Ayuyang tells stories from her life in a bright, energetic style. The first half of the book is the strongest portion, a traditional memoir, telling how she and her siblings, the children of Filipino immigrants, assimilated into a Pittsburgh suburb through a love of pop culture. There is not a lot of drama as Ayuyang delivers a light and breezy portrait of life in the '70s and '80s.

The second half of the book has shorter selections about motherhood and the author's obsession with "Dancing with the Stars." The DWTS material was much less interesting to me, as I've never watched the show, and in these sections the artwork sometimes crossed the line from kinetic to frenetic.… (mere)