We have all been obsessed with the story of Titanic at one time or another. So how is it that the amazing 75% survival rate of Chinese passengers never reaches the light of day? Stacey Lee, with her newest release Luck of the Titanic, makes a tribute to the Chinese passengers who did survive one of the largest peacetime maritime disasters in history. Crafting a character that is both stubborn and noble, driven and heroic, Lee's novel is an unforgettable tale of hope and heartache. As much a story about siblinghood as it is about survival, Luck of the Titanic explores the lengths we will go through for ourselves, and for our loved ones, during some of the most principal moments of our lives.
Stacey Lee is the critically acclaimed author of the novels The Downstairs Girl, Under a Painted Sky, and Outrun the Moon, the winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. She is a fourth-generation Chinese American and a founding member of We Need Diverse Books. Born in Southern California, she graduated from UCLA and then got her law degree at UC Davis King Hall. She lives with her family outside San Francisco. You can find Stacey online at staceyhlee.com, or on Twitter and Instagram @staceyleeauthor.
Valora Luck has two things: a ticket for the biggest and most luxurious ocean liner in the world, and a dream of leaving England behind and making a life for herself as a circus performer in New York. Much to her surprise, though, she's turned away at the gangway; apparently, Chinese people aren't allowed into America. But Val has to get on that ship. Her twin brother, Jamie, who has spent two long years at sea, is on board, as is an influential circus owner. Thankfully, there's not much a trained acrobat like Val can't overcome when she puts her mind to it. As a stowaway, Val should keep her head down and stay out of sight. But the clock is ticking and she has just seven days as the ship makes its way across the Atlantic to find Jamie, audition for the circus owner, and convince him to help get them both into America. Then one night, the unthinkable happens, and suddenly Val's dreams of a new life are crushed under the weight of the only thing that matters: survival.
*To talk about this book as fully as I wish, there will be many spoilers below. I highly recommend you read this book, and then come back to my review and see if you agree with me!*
Valora wears many hats throughout her journey on Titanic: stowaway, Mrs. Sloane, disguised male man. But the most important of her identities is her own, as Valora Luck, the stubborn, clever, excited young woman fighting for her future. Valora is an amazing character—from the second you're introduced to her, you want to follow her into the ship and see how she'll survive. To see her already fighting for her life—in the form of her future in America—is an exhilarating way to start the novel. It also does a lot of crucial character development work for the tragedy to come. As Valora makes noble choice after noble choice in the moment of crisis, Lee knows it has to come from a part of Valora that is noble. So, once we see her fight for Olly and Wink to get fruit and bread, it is believable to us that Valora is the kind of girl to push them towards a boat rather than take a seat for herself. Once we note that Valora is willing to be selfless as well as selfish, we know why she'd hang tight to Jamie while simultaneously letting him go. The days leading up to Titanic's sinking allows Lee plenty of room to develop Valora's character this way, so that we would be well and truly stunned by Valora's last choice, while also believing it to the marrow of our bones.
Lee opens this book with: "Of the eight Chinese passengers aboard the Titanic, six survived." Automatically, this gives us hope for the Chinese characters we are introduced to within the first act of the novel. It's such a high survival rate, one that I hadn't heard of until Lee brought it immediately to the forefront of her novel. It is one that is now too hard to ignore. Once you reach the end of the novel, you find out that, in fact, little is known about any of the Chinese passengers, except that they were most likely seamen. Lee states that because of their ethnicity, their stories were "ensured to be written out of history." Stacey says that her novel is "a tribute to the great place these men hold in history" because it seems unlikely that their stories will come to light. Lastly, Lee hopes that her novel "provokes a discussion about which of these characters society considers 'worthy' and which it does not." Lee succeeds at provoking this discussion—there are multiple instances where Valora, Jamie, Olly, Wink, Bo and the others face racist remarks and gross discrimination. Knowing that the Titanic will sink, it lowers our hopes that they will survive. Because, as Valora points out during the novel, how would someone not worthy of some bread for dinner worthy of saving? And yet, despite it all, Lee weaves the 75% survival rate into her fictional characters' stories. However, you can't help but wonder if maybe Valora would have made it at the end if the passengers on the lifeboat would have been willing to accept both of the twins, and not just one. And, even before that, if all of them could have survived if they hadn't been turned away from all of the half-empty lifeboats before Jamie and Valora had to fight to survive on the choppy Atlantic waters.
The sinking of the Titanic is one of the most well-known moments in history, so while Lee does have an abundance of scholarship to pull from to create the setting, she has a lot of world building to do. It was a great idea to include the diagrams of the ship at the front of the book, along with the list of passengers Valora will encounter. This helps ground readers into the setting, while also giving them some reference materials so they can truly comprehend the sheer size of the ship. And while of course the ship is large, Lee has a very small setting to work with; the constraints of a ship could take away a lot of creative freedom, especially now that she's also working within the constraints of a well-documented historical event. All that being said, Lee does a phenomenal job building the main tensions of Valora's story. Lee simultaneously makes Valora's world seem large and like she's a woman adrift, while also connecting Valora to Jamie as she's trying to set her future plans in motion. Once the boat starts sinking, the stakes are heightened as Valora's and the other characters' lives are suddenly on the line—Lee does a great job balancing the fear of the moment with descriptions of what, physically, is going on around Valora so readers can visualize the tragedy. This work as a piece of historical fiction is stellar, and is definitely has earned a spot on everyone's shelves.
Stacey Lee has a poet inside of her, because this novel is full of gorgeous lines, resonating moments, and statements that will make you lose your breath. The thread of life as the balancing act is one of my absolute favorites, because it allows for an evolution and arc of Valora's character—the realization that life requires juggling different things, which means holding on sometimes and letting go other times, builds up perfectly to Valora's decision at the very end of the novel. Another poetic decision that helps create the peace of that moment is including the poem/sea shanty at the beginning, and throughout to explain the origins of Valora's name. In fact, it allowed for this "aha" moment for the readers, especially at the end. I know for me, as I was reading one of the last parts where Valora was reciting that poem, I realized that Valora was literally a character that embodied the "valor" truly is. As Valora is struggling to stay awake and alive on the ocean and she has this moment where she seems something, there is another moment for Lee's poetic language to shine. I had to go back and read that twice, and I will admit I still don't truly understand exactly what Valora is seeing—but it is written so beautifully, I can convince myself I know exactly what this moment would have been like for Valora, so close to death. That is why the ending was just so stunning, because it was written so beautifully. There are so many lovely lines throughout this novel, and I wish I had written them down—but I do have one that I noted, that I would like to share here, one that made my heart stop briefly: "Thoughts of you float across my mind like lotus petals on the pond." This is on page 259, and by the last page of the book, you'll realize why this line is both heartbreaking and beautiful—exactly like the novel itself.
Luckily for us all, Stacey Lee already has a plethora of published books to choose from for upcoming reads. For more Stacey Lee, head to her website at staceyhlee.com, or on Twitter and Instagram @staceyleeuathor, or stay tuned on this blog for potential future reviews of her works!
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
Comments
Post a Comment