Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang
Natural Beauty By Ling Ling Huang
This is another book that attracted me based on the cover. I wrote a quick little summary previously about how excited I was for this book's publication. Now that I have a copy in my greasy paws, and I had gotten around to finishing Kunstlers in Paradise I wasn’t so sure this was the next book for me. I looked through the disgustingly growing to ‘be read’ pile and nothing seemed to jump out at me. So I found myself looking back at the first book I thought of reading.
"Don't be so unimaginative. This is America. And not just America, but New York, and Helistik. I can be whoever I want to be."
The book begins with learning that the protagonist is working at a restaurant as a dishwasher. A Chinese 2nd generation immigrant whose parents share their love for music to the protagonist at an early age. Through their direction, and their shared love for music the main character pretty much becomes a prodigy of music, more specifically the piano. The main character attends a conservatory for music education, after one of the recitals the main character’s parents stay a little longer than they should with their daughter. On their way home there is some kind of accident that leaves the parents forever changed. The parents are perhaps in a comatose-like state, and placed in a long-term care facility. One day Saje (a wealthy looking woman) enters the restaurant and recognizes the protagonist. Saje states that she recognizes the protagonist as a pianist that she saw some time prior. Saje asks if the main character would like to come and see Saje at work some time, and to wear long sleeves (which I thought was a little odd request).
When the protagonist visits Saje at her work at Holistic, Sage offers her a job to work with them at a business named Holistic.
This storyline flows through the first exploration into the surface of this strange cult-like system found within the beauty industry. This book pokes fun at the exclusiveness of working for higher end beauty chains, something akin to Sephora, or Ulta. How the job is sought after, and the perks of working for such companies are usually quite glamorous. Working at Holistic gets the main characters a whole slew of custom products and emotional readings.
"Not a rock exactly, but a room consisting of only myself and a piano, for the better part of my twenty-three years. Ma and Ba were both pianists, poised for success until the Cultural Revolution disrupted their lives. They were among the fortunate who were sent to labor camps instead of being executed or harassed to commit suicide."
Just shy of halfway through, this story got really weird. Not quite what I was expecting. The oddities in the book made the story line quite quirky and interesting. Dabbling a little on the science fiction boarder. From the assimilation of immigrants into North American culture, this story really captures the slow progression of changing values and individual historical beliefs through the progression of the character growth.
What I liked: I liked the oddity of the story. They left me guessing as to what all of these procedures and products do, as there were some mishaps later on in the story of mishapeness, and some physical oddities that develop.
What I wasn't a fan of: I wasn't particularly a fan of the sexualization of the characters. Usually when there's an over description/focus on the characters falling in love, or having sex, I find myself slowly losing interest.
The further I went into the plot, the more strange this book got. I think once again, this book would be a niche recommendation. Not my usual book, not disappointed, but not overly fired up about it either. I gave this book ⅗ on good reads, which is on par with the 3.81 average rating.
