Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with China Gone Wrong

(Paperback)

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In her eye-opening memoir, Susan recounts her struggle to be the perfect "Chinese" wife to her increasingly controlling and abusive husband. At first, she dismisses her own values to save the marriage. But when Li threatens to take their son, Jake, back to China for good, Susan must find the courage to stand up for herself, her son, and her future.

Reviews

"I found this book to be heartbreaking at times. Susan evolves into a much stronger person and the ending is a happy one. This was a great memoir and a real page turner for me." - Patty's Paperbacks
"Good Chinese Wife is a moving and impressing memoir about a woman who is under the thumb of her abusive husband...I also liked the different backdrops of the book that the author described very vividly, especially Hong Kong. Overall, I was very impressed by Susan's story and I truly recommend this book to everyone interested in Asia. " - Marjolein Reads
"A harrowing story of abuse and terror. Susan Blumberg shares her story with women and shows that domestic violence, sadly, pervades every culture. A must read." - Cayocosta72
"Susan's story was fascinating! And while many of us may not have the same experience of navigating multi-cultural relationships, I'm sure most of us can relate to Susan's struggles with trying to make a relationship work and the feelings of hope versus reality." - Leah's Thoughts
"This book is a good reminder to be aware at all times of who you are and what you expect out of life and to make sure that the person you choose to marry is on the same wavelength that you are. Hopefully, this story will help the next women before she ends up in a place she doesn't really want to be in." - Mary's Cup of Tea
"For those who are looking to better understand the nuances of modern day Chinese life and delve a little deeper into the many subtleties of Chinese culture, The Good Chinese Wife will not disappoint. " - Asian Cha
"An American freelance journalist's painful account of how a hasty marriage to a Chinese man turned her life upside down...it is the author's courage to face her mistakes that makes the book worthwhile." - Kirkus Reviews
"Good Chinese Wife is a story that will remain with you for a long, long time. The kind of tale you find yourself thinking about long after you've finished it, because you feel that this person telling you her story was right there beside you, confiding in you, and you feel awed by this confidence and the level of honesty bared to you. " - Zee Monodee
"Susan Blumberg-Kason's Good Chinese Wife is a stark and honest interrogation of her young marriage to a Chinese man. Blumberg-Kason explores...how we choose our life partners, and to what extent human beings are willing and able to communicate with and love each other over the vast differences that can define and divide us. This is a thoughtful memoir about how to take valuable lessons from even our most painful adventures." - Rachel DeWoskin, author of Foreign Babes in Beijing
"A fascinating, poignant and brutally honest memoir that you won't be able to put down. Good Chinese Wife is riveting." - Wendy Tokunaga, author of Midori by Moonlight and His Wife and Daughters
"Susan Blumberg-Kason is a masterful storyteller, turning the harrowing details of her own experience into a compulsively readable account of a marriage gone wrong. Readers who pick up GOOD CHINESE WIFE out of curiosity about cross-cultural relationships will find plenty to ponder on that subject, but Blumberg-Kason's story is, more importantly, a universal tale of love, disillusionment, and the courage it takes to move on." - Dana Sachs, author of The Secret of the Nightingale Palace
"Told in a very frank and honest way, this book is a road map for all things that can go wrong when two people who are wayyyyy too different in every way get married." - Bookshipper
"Absorbing, calm and wise, Good Chinese Wife was a memoir I devoured in just a few hours. I felt Susan's all-encompassing love for her family and often wanted to simultaneously hug and shake her. Though readers may question her decisions (sometimes I did, too), Susan bravely shares her story in the hope, I think, of inspiring others to stand up for themselves and their families. It's a thought-provoking memoir, and one I recommend." - Write Meg
"This book gives the reader an unflinching look at how someone can be drawn and really paralyzed by the fear of leaving an abuser. We get a first row seat to see how the author stayed for so long. I think that she really captured her helplessness in a clear cut way. This memoir was often hard to read at times because of the subject matter but I really think that it would be a good pick for those who don't mind hard subjects who really want to understand more about why it is so difficult for people to get out of abusive relationships!" - A Bookish Affair
"This was a beautifully written book which told the story of a young girls life from being a post graduate student studying in Hong Kong to being a mother who leaves her marriage because her Chinese husband isn't being supportive, which is why I would give it 5 stars & recommend it to other people." - Catherine Hunt
"Blumberg-Kason's writing takes the form of a thriller and readers will find themselves crossing their fingers as she makes her escape. Despite the tension and dramatic qualities, however, the story never feels false or embellished." - Sunday Post - Hong Kong
"Falling in love with a foreign culture can be a tempting love affair: one that gives you a chance to escape yourself and the constraints of your own upbringing. But when it goes wrong, it goes really wrong, as Susan Blumberg-Kason's gripping memoir amply illustrates. GOOD CHINESE WIFE is a refreshing, painfully honest look at what happens when the mask of romance, both cultural and personal, is dropped, revealing the stranger beneath." - Lisa Brackmann, author of the New York Times bestselling Ellie McEnroe series
"This eye-opening account of intercultural marriage is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and a mother's love." - Glancer Magazine

Author Bio

SUSAN BLUMBERG-KASON is a freelance journalist in Chicago. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Sun Times, TimeOut Chicago, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, and Chicago Parent magazine. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and three children.