The Paper Wife

I finished this novel about a week ago, and basically regretted finishing it because the next novel I read just couldn’t compare. Paper Wife is a family saga that stretches between a Guangdong village and San Francisco.

The story begins in a tiny Chinese village, where Mei Ling’s family has fallen on hard times. The family worries about paying the matchmaker’s fees for Mei’s older sister, JehJah, and when the matchmaker offers a prosperous widower, with a toddler son and papers for America, it’s the best they could possibly have hoped for. All JehJah has to do is pretend to be Christian for her husband-to-be, and pretend to be his dead first wife for the immigration authorities.  When Jehjah catches a fever immediately before leaving, all Mei Ling has to do is pretend to be her sister… (I was briefly confused because the Chinese names and places weren’t uniformly transliterated into pin yin or Wade-Giles, but I’m pretty sure that Jehjah is 姐姐. )

So Mei leaves for San Francisco… pretending to be her sister, who’s supposed to be pretending to be Kai Li’s dead wife, traveling with a new husband who’s also pretending to be a very different person. On the ship, steerage is separated by gender, so separated from her new husband, and travels with her new stepson.  This reminded me of the Korean picture brides in Honolulu, with all the travel unpleasantness and the completely unknown husband.  But in this case, as soon as Mei arrives, she has to pass an immigration interview, pretending to be someone else.

In San Francisco, Mei and her new husband, plus her new stepson and Siew, a young orphan girl from the boat, have to build new lives. Her husband isn’t as wealthy as he seems, and he’s also keeping his own secrets. Siew’s “uncle” doesn’t seem quite upfront, either.  But hardworking Mei might be strong enough and clever enough to make a new and better life, for them all. There is one thing that Mei does that just seemed wildly out of character, but it’s a major spoiler. (Seriously, don’t click if you’re going to read the book.)

Overall, I enjoyed the layers of secrets and overlapping identities. I also really enjoyed the descriptions of San Francisco life, especially things I didn’t know much about, like the English schools or Mei’s time on Angel Island.