Girl in Translation

Kimberly Chang and her mother moved from Hong Kong to New York, in search for a better life. Their life however was not as what they expected - living in a vermin-ridden apartment and working in a factory till late night. Life was hard for Kimberly and her mum. 

Kimberly however was an excellent student - she have always had a knack for school. Even though she had to help her mum every day after school at the factory and barely have any energy left to study after she finished working, she was a high-achiever in her school, especially in Mathematics and Science but that wasn't the case for her English.

She was offered a full scholarship to a private middle school and high school - which was extremely rare. Being an Asian, what more a Chinese was hard for her, she was the only one in her school. Due to poverty, she can't even afford panties and was occasionally teased by her rich white friends (it's a private school, remember?). But she has Annete, her best friend by her side. She matured a lot through time and improved her English. 

So, the whole novel is about how she survived those tough moments of being in school, the pain that poverty caused and yes - a story isn't complete without love. As not to spoil the fun of reading this book; the simplified outline of the love story in Girls in Translation would be : Kimberly likes Matt (another Chinese immigrant) since she was eleven. Then she loved him. But Matt felt that the smart Kimberly is too hard for him to chase, so he went out with Vivian. And Kimberly, heartbroken, made out with every single available guy in school (seriously, I respect this gal!) and even the most handsome coolest guy in school, Curt likes her. But the thing about love is, of course when she's with another guy the only guy in her mind was Matt.

Eventually, both Matt and Kimberly realised they couldn't live without each other. So, the went back together and guess what, Kimberly got pregnant! (oh my, whyyy? I was frustrated man!) And Kimberly was offered a full scholarship to Yale! Knowing that Matt will never let her pursue her dreams and wanted to marry her if he knew she had his baby, Kimberly left/dumped Matt.

Kimberly tried to abort the baby, but come on! How can you kill the baby of the man you love? So 12 years later, she met Matt who was married to Vivian (yes, he married her!)with a daughter and a baby on the way.Kimberly is now a surgeon, still raising Matt's son with her mum and she's happy that way.

In my opinion, this story has somewhat a very typical story line, but I like it that way. I'd rate it 7/10 and it really is a good read. After reading it, I felt the sudden urge to study so hard till my head breaks because Kimberly's story is a bang in my head. People like her work so hard to change their lives and why can't we do the same thing? We don't have to work in some factory, we have ample time to study, we have our friends and family to support us - things that Kimberly was not lucky to have and yet she made it. I felt that I've taken things for granted and it's embarrassing. And my very personal liking towards this book is that it portrays how strong single mothers are. Kimberly's mother and Kimberly herself are single mothers trying to raise their kid and the love they had as a mother is fascinating. A plus point was that, the romance in this novel was not very cheesy or cheeky or jiwang or whatever you'd call it. I like the very practical approach of romance in this novel.

For more information, visit Jean Kwok's website. Highly recommended for girls, I don't think guys will enjoy these kind of books, but who am I to say? And remember, "Brains are beautiful" - Kimberly Chang. Apparently I think the same way too, women are way prettier and sexier if they are smart (and the definition of smart varies anyways. Beauty is indeed in the eyes of the beholder).