Reviews for Homesick My Own Story

The average rating for Homesick My Own Story based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-05-27 00:00:00 Tony Smith Homesick: My Own Story is an autobiographical account of her childhood memories in China, by Jean Fritz, written in 1982. She explains frankly in her short introduction, that for the sake of authenticity, she has to term this book "fiction", as her memories "came out in lumps" and she does not trust that they are entirely accurate or complete. It is very much a child's view of the events taking place during 1925 to 1927, at the beginning of what we know as the first Chinese Civil War. Jean Fritz was born Jean Guttery in 1915, in Hankow in China. Here she narrates her memories of that ten year old child, attempting to recollect and convey how she felt at that time. Her parents are Christian missionaries from America, she attends a British school, and speaks fluent Chinese. Even at such a young age, Jean knows that she wants to be a writer, just as knows she wants to live in America, and wants to be called Marjorie. (She was to accomplish two of these.) The young Jean has a strong sense of identity, and a feeling that she lives on the wrong side of the world. She loathes being called a "foreign devil" by the local children, she loathes her school, and most of all she loathes the fact that the culture she is taught is British. Most of the other children at the school are British. In one early episode, she is expected to sing the British National Anthem "God Save The King", but refuses. It does not seem right to her; she is not a British citizen. Only when her father tells her a nifty way of getting out of it, mouthing different words while appearing to join in, does she manage to square this with her conscience. The book has many such humorous moments. "The trouble with living on the wrong side of the world was that I didn't feel like a real American. For instance. I could never be president of the United States. I didn't want to be president; I wanted to be a writer. Still, why should there be a law saying that only a person born in the United States could be president? It was as if I wouldn't be American enough." Jean feels American through and through, and desperately wants to be with her grandmother in America. She loves her parents, wishing she had a sister to talk to, and loves her Chinese nanny, Lin Nai-Nai, too. She does enjoy various aspects of Chinese culture, but constantly feels out of place and conflicted. The only other thing she really loves, apart from her books, is the Yangtse River. Hankow is a small rural town, next to the river, and Jean loves the atmosphere there; the energy, activity and everything about the river and the junks floating upon it. The book takes place over just two years, and there are significant changes in how the people of China behave towards foreigners during those two years, and also towards each other. There are not just two sides but many factions. There is a surge in Communist feeling and support. More and more Chinese people are becoming convinced that many of the country's ills have been caused by foreign meddling and interference in their governance. There is increasing violence and unrest, and more than once the family are in real danger, particularly Jean's father, who works for the Y.M.C.A., and refuses to leave if there are any wounded to look after. Jean is an intelligent girl, but she is still a child, and does not fully understand the concept of a Communist revolution, or the importance of the historical events happening around her. She is totally focused on going to America, as she has been promised, resenting any interference or threat to these plans. Just as any small child, she cannot see the larger picture. Her parents try to explain the enormity of the situation to her, "In history books war seemed to be a simple matter of two sides fighting, the right side against the wrong, so I didn't see how this Chinese war was ever going to make it into history. In the first place, there weren't just two sides. There were warlords scattered around, each with his own army, and there was the Nationalist Army (under General Chiang Kai-shek) which was trying to conquer the warlords and unify the country. Both the Communists and the Nationalists wanted to make things better in China, he explained, but both did terrible things to people who opposed them. If a man was an enemy, sometimes they'd cut off his head and stick it up on a pole as a warning to others. My father had seen this with his own eyes." Of course eventually foreigners are not tolerated with kindness any longer, and Jean's family have to try to leave the country. How they do this, and whether they succeed, is covered in the story, which is told over seven chapters. Throughout the text, the author never takes sides politically, and shows great empathy for the ordinary people involved in these turbulent times, despite viewing the period through a child's eyes. She never forget that the servants who work for the family are human beings with their own feelings and rights, although her parents do seem to fall into an acceptance of the different roles, which Jean objects to. Her parents do not adapt very much to the Chinese way of life, but instead try to recreate their own little bit of America, and live American lives in a different country. Jean considers that there are aspects of Chinese life which she prefers to the life of her parents, and as the time gets closer to her hopefully moving to America, she realises what she will have left behind. The story is followed by a brief summary of the background of Chinese history between 1913 and 1927 at the end. This is very helpful. The reasons behind the ordinary Chinese people's dislike and distrust of foreigners are made clear to anyone not conversant with this period of Chinese history, in these final notes. The book also has several sketchy illustrations by Margot Tomes insterspersed in the text, perhaps as it has a young focus and could be classed as Juvenile Literature. However I do not feel they add anything. They feel rather too caricatured. The book is an interesting read, with an ususual focus, during a period of history and place outsiders do not hear much about. Many details of a past Chinese culture are there; the long fingernails of the family's chef, used to create magnificent sculptured centrepieces for the table out of butter; Lin Nai-Nai's poor tiny bound feet, meaning that she has to hobble, and preventing her from walking any distance. There are the rickshaws drawn through the streets by men desperate for a few coins, or the social mores she was taught, "I never saw anyone give money to a beggar. You couldn't, my father explained, or you'd be mobbed by beggars. They'd follow you every place; they'd never leave you alone. I had learned not to look at them when I passed and yet I saw. The running sores, the twisted legs, the mangled faces." These details are what make this book fascinating. It is worth a look. The author eventually succeeded in her dream of becoming an author and living in America. She has won many awards for her work, including the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1886, at that time a three-yearly award, for making "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children". She specialises in children's literature, writing American biographies and history. Homesick: My Own Story was the runner-up for the Newbery Medal in 1983. Jean Fritz is now one hundred years old!

Review # 2 was written on 2012-10-08 00:00:00 William Cottengim I remember finding this book when I volunteered at the Lebanon Public Library. I could not put it down, and re-read it many times. As an adult, I had a short career as a middle school language arts teacher, and I ended every class by reading to my students. I chose this book for one of my classes, and they were mesmerized. It was a group of children who had trouble paying attention and staying on task, but they could not hear enough of this story. I had moved across the country to take this job, and when I read the part where Jean's mother is reunited with my sister, I had to fight through reading, and not cry in front of my students. It was such a moving moment, and it touched my poor homesick heart. My students left the room nearly silent. The next day, one of my students told me she never knew a book could do that to you.