BOOK REPORT: Midnight at the Dragon Cafe ~ by Judy Fong Bates

I love when I find a new writer whose work is so outstanding that I'm going to go back and look for their previous works. Judy Fong Bates' wonderful novel MIDNIGHT AT THE DRAGON CAFE' is the catalyst in this case. Written in the first-person in the voice of 6-year-old Su-Jen (later renamed Annie), the novel begins with her and her mother emigrating from Communist China to Canada in 1957. There Su-Jen at last meets her father, who fled to Canada just prior to her birth. He owns the Dragon Cafe' and his earnings have finally allowed him to "bring them over". For Annie, life in Canada is an opportunity. For her mother, it is death and isolation; death of her old way of life: the absense of friends and family, a complete amputation of all she once held dear...with the exception of Annie, to whom her life is now devoted. Her intense lonliness and lack of feeling for her older husband eventually lead her down an unexpected and dangerous path which deeply colors Annie's childhood.This is a coming of age story at it's finest, steeped in Chinese familial tradition, cultural prejudices, and breaking free of the bonds loving parents unknowingly wield with the noblest of intentions. One of the very best books I've read lately, Judy Fong Bates gets a perfect 10 for her novel MIDNIGHT AT THE DRAGON CAFE.