“Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune” - Roselle Lim

🥟 This is a delicious story about heritage, identity, and community, with special emphasis on the Chinese-American immigrant experience. Attitudes toward mental health in immigrant communities and intergenerational trauma, form key themes.

🥟 Natalie Tan left home after a major falling out with her mother. She returns home only after her mother’s death, to her neighborhood in San Francisco’s Chinatown, that is as battered as her relationship with her mother. Natalie embarks on a journey of self-discovery, in the process, hoping to rebuild her street.

🥟 Magical realism is pronounced in this novel. Tears can be collected in jars as tangible crystals. The Jin Chan in Miss Yu’s garden are actual money toads, not statuary. Lim weaves together a tapestry of birds, spirits, ghosts, and the alchemy of food and its visible effects on people. Lim’s style is dreamy, whimsical, and an homage to Chinese and Buddhist spirituality.

🥟 Natalie’s neighbors in Chinatown become as dear to us as Natalie, her mom, and Laolao. I particularly love the care Lim takes in developing all of her secondary characters. 

🥟 If you love the food-based magical realism of NTBLF, I suggest Chitra Divakaruni’s “The Mistress of Spices”, Laura Esquivel’s “Like Water for Chocolate”, and Sanjena Sathian’s “Gold Diggers”.

🥟 If magical realism isn’t your thing, but you loved Lim’s evocative, cuisine-focused narrative that explores intergenerational trauma, the immigrant experience, and grief, I’d recommend Michelle Zauner’s “Crying in H Mart” (nonfiction).