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New York Times
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Book Review: ‘The Manor of Dreams,' by Christina Li
THE MANOR OF DREAMS, by Christina Li The children's and young adult author Christina Li's first foray into adult literature, 'The Manor of Dreams,' begins with a contested will. It's 2024, and Vivian Yin, a once-celebrated, Oscar-winning Chinese actress, has died. Her obituaries and tributes are few and brief. After decades spent isolating in her crumbling Los Angeles mansion, Yin Manor, Vivian's legacy has been forgotten. Her husband is dead, and her daughters and granddaughter are estranged. The daughters, Lucille and Rennie, are relying on the inheritance of the decaying but still valuable mansion to help them personally and financially. But, while seated at Vivian's grand dining room table with a lawyer, they learn they will not be the beneficiaries of the estate. Yin Manor has been bequeathed to Elaine Deng, the daughter of the mansion's longtime housekeeper and gardener. Immediately suspecting coercion, or something even more sinister, Lucille, Rennie and Lucille's daughter, Madeline, insist on a week inside Yin Manor to investigate Vivian's final days and find a lawful claim to the mansion. Elaine, anxious not to lose the property, agrees on two conditions: that she and her daughter, Nora, join them in the house and that, once the week is finished, the Yin family 'never contest the will or contact us again.' Rennie and Lucille agree — even though, of course, it is under false pretenses. 'The Manor of Dreams' is ambitious. It's written in dueling timelines, covers three generations and features an ensemble of disparate characters. It explores two forbidden love stories and includes some malevolent supernatural phenomena. Li uses all of these elements to begin a promising conversation about the corrupting power of money, the realities of the American dream, the profound impact of family and the slow poison of secrecy.
Los Angeles Times
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Welcome to Yin Manor, an Altadena estate haunted by Hollywood dreams
Two families, both alike in dignity and each with plenty of suppressed damage, meet in a crumbling Altadena mansion for the reading of Oscar-winner-turned-recluse Vivian Yin's will in Christina Li's adult fiction debut, 'The Manor of Dreams.' On one side of the table are Vivian's daughters, Lucille and Rennie, as well as Lucille's only child, Madeline. On the other side are Elaine Deng, a single mother, and her daughter Nora. Completing the opening tableau is Reid Lyman, Vivian's attorney. It's not entirely clear why the families are meeting in Yin Manor, Vivian's dilapidated mansion, as opposed to in the attorney's office, but as this is a Gothic haunted house novel, the venue, if a tad contrived, is crucial. Vivian Yin's will contains an unpleasant surprise for her daughters. While they inherit her money — disappointing at a mere $40,000, much less than expected — the mansion is given to Elaine. Lucille, herself a lawyer and seemingly spoiling for a fight as soon as she sees the Dengs in her childhood home, immediately challenges this. Why would her mother give Elaine the house when Lucille and Rennie grew up there, and the land belonged to their father's family for generations? Elaine agrees to give the sisters a week to stay in the house and look through Vivian's effects (and to buy themselves time to contest the will), but only on the condition that she and Nora stay in the house too. When Lucille gets a preliminary toxicology report from her mother's autopsy, she learns that the results are 'inconclusive,' and becomes convinced that Elaine must have poisoned Vivian, and sets out to use her week in the house to prove it. That these two women have bad blood between them is obvious, but readers are, at this point, as in the dark as daughters Nora and Madeline. 'The Manor of Dreams' signals early on what it's going to be. As her sister and Elaine argue over the will, Rennie sees her deceased mother standing across the table. 'Rennie was immediately flooded with a childlike burst of relief as she looked upon her mother. She's back; she's here to explain things — And then she remembers that Vivian is dead.' The vision turns spookier: 'Her inky eyes bulged. Mā opened her mouth wide, as if to say something, and dirt spilled out.' The ghostly fun doesn't stop there, although the house affects each of its denizens differently. Some of the women experience earthquakes and see things in the long-dead (or is it?) garden, while others witness their own faces changing in the mirror. But neither Vivian's children nor Elaine are big talkers, and Madeline and Nora suffer for it. Both young women are present because their mothers want them to be, but it's not entirely clear why — only that, as the novel unfolds, it appears that perhaps it's the house's wish that they stay, as it pushes them toward each other, willing them to repeat a history that has never been shared with them. The novel's second part, which is the longest, takes readers back to 1975, when Vivian Yin first met her husband-to-be, Richard Lowell. These historical sections are thrilling, and Vivian is the most fully realized character in the book. Already a mother when she meets Richard, as well as an actress with plenty of experience in Chinese films, Vivian in 1975 is a complex figure, struggling to break into an industry that was rarely writing roles for her, with whitewashing and yellowface still very much a reality. But Vivian is nevertheless on the cusp of a real Hollywood career, and falling in love with and marrying another up-and-coming star seems like it should clinch her future success. But when, a decade into their union, she wins an Oscar and he doesn't, things begin to go downhill fast. Reviewing a novel that relies on reveals for much of its tension can be difficult, as it would be unfair and deleterious to the reading experience to say too much about the twists and turns. Suffice to say that Vivian's secrets — as well as those of Lucille, Rennie and Elaine — come spilling out, changing, at times, the lens through which we see their actions. Nora and Madeline, meanwhile, aren't as well developed, but then again, they're both entirely preoccupied throughout with trying to understand what on earth is going on in this creepy house, what their mothers aren't telling them and why. The book falls short in its attempt to tie Yin Manor's haunted nature to the exploitation of the thousands of Chinese migrants who built the Western half of the first transcontinental railroad, however. It's an evocative through line, to be sure, but it's given short shrift, and doesn't end up having the emotional or political impact that it might have. On the whole, though, 'The Manor of Dreams' is a swift and enjoyable read, increasingly spooky, with a surprising queer romance twining its way through. Masad, a books and culture critic, is the author of the novel 'All My Mother's Lovers' and the forthcoming novel 'Beings.'
Time Magazine
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
The Best New Books to Read in May
The best new books to read in May include historian and best-selling author Ron Chernow 's biography of Mark Twain, United We Dream co-founder Cristina Jiménez 's debut memoir, and poet and novelist Ocean Vuong 's follow-up to his 2019 novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. There's something for everyone this month. Young adult author Christina Li makes her adult literary debut with a gothic ghost story for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Nature writer Robert Macfarlane 's latest is a personal and political look at the legal rights of nature. And New York Times critic at large Amanda Hess dissects what it's like to raise a child in the digital age. Below, the 13 books you should read in May. The Manor of Dreams, Christina Li (May 6) The Manor of Dreams begins with the death of a fictional starlet named Vivian Yin, who has left her crumbling mansion to an unlikely heir: the daughter of her long-deceased former housekeeper. Vivian's children now find themselves in a battle over their mother's broken-down estate against someone they suspect may have had a hand in her demise. In hopes of piecing together Vivian's final days, the warring families move into the dilapidated home together only to discover that it is being haunted by the ghosts of the late actor's complicated past. Jemimah Wei's debut, The Original Daughter, tells the story of an unlikely sisterhood. Genevieve Yang's life is completely upended when, at eight years old, she suddenly gains a de facto younger sister who is actually the daughter of an estranged in Singapore at the turn of the millennium, the unexpected siblings quickly bond over the societal pressure to be the perfect daughter only to have a bitter betrayal tear them apart later in life. When Genevieve's mother gets sick, the two must try and put their differences aside in this decades-spanning saga about ambition, resentment, and forgiveness. With her debut memoir, journalist Amanda Hess uses her own experience as a first-time mom to look at what it's like to have and raise a child in the social media age. But Second Life isn't the new What to Expect When You're Expecting. Hess isn't offering parenting tips to tech-savvy caretakers. Instead, she takes readers on an eye-opening adventure down the parenting internet rabbit hole where she explores, among many things, the personification of pregnancy tracking apps, the surreal network of prenatal genetic tests, and the origins of the growing ' freebirther ' movement. In this follow-up to writer and editor Michele Filgate's acclaimed 2019 anthology, What My Mother and I Don't Talk About, authors, poets, and essayists including Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Susan Muaddi Darraj, and Kelly McMasters unspool their complicated relationships with their dads. Across 16 essays, What My Father and I Don't Talk About tackles difficult topics such as parental estrangement, toxic masculinity, and emotional availability in hopes of encouraging us to consider how we are shaped by our family. Ocean Vuong's second novel begins when an elderly Lithuanian woman with early-stage dementia saves Hai, a troubled 19-year-old, from taking his own life. Hai soon reciprocates this act of kindness by becoming her caregiver. The pair, both living on the fringes of society in their Connecticut town, form an unexpected friendship that leads the teen on a journey of self-discovery. Mark Twain, Ron Chernow (May 13) After tackling the lives of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Ulysses S. Grant with his previous biographies, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow returns with a definitive portrait of another American icon: Mark Twain. Across a whopping 1,200 pages, Chernow takes a comprehensive look at the life of the author born Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The book delves into Twain's early years working odd jobs—steamboat pilot, miner, journalist, just to name a few—before the release of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. From there, Chernow traces Twin's life and career up until his grief-stricken final days marked by undiagnosed madness. The latest novel from Kevin Wilson, the best-selling author of Nothing to See Here, starts with an unusual family reunion that leads to an even crazier family road trip. Twenty years after her father walks out on her and her mom, organic farmer Madeline 'Mad' Hill meets Reuben, a 40-something mystery writer who claims to be her older half-brother. With the help of a private detective, Reuben has tracked down their dad, who, it turns out, has fathered multiple children. Now, Reuben is hitting the road to gather up their siblings and confront their absentee dad, and he wants Mad to come with him. Looking for answers for her dad's disappearance, she agrees, embarking on an adventure to finally understand where she came from. Madeleine Thien's century-spanning fourth novel, The Book of Records, is set in a mysterious shape-shifting enclave for displaced people where the past, present, and future collide. After fleeing their home in southern China, Lina and her ailing father have taken up residence at 'the Sea.' There, they live alongside a diverse group of neighbors including a Jewish scholar from 17th century Amsterdam, a poet of Tang Dynasty China, and a philosopher fleeing Nazi persecution in 1930s Germany. After her dad reveals his role in their family's tragic past, Lina looks to her time traveling community for advice on how to reckon with her devastation. With his twelfth book, best-selling British nature writer Robert Macfarlane argues thatrivers are not just flowing bodies of water, but living beings with legal rights. Inspired by the Rights of Nature movement, the global effort to legally protect nature, Macfarlane visits a cloud-forest in northern Ecuador, the wounded creeks, lagoons, and estuaries of southern India, and a wild river in Quebec at risk of being dammed to show how activists, artists, and lawmakers are putting the concept of environmental personhood to the test. Shamanism, anthropologist Manvir Singh's debut, traces the evolution of the titular spiritual practice. To investigate the origins of the ancient religion, Singh travels to the Mentawai archipelago in Indonesia, a cave in southwest France, and the northwest Amazon. He studies with shamans, healers who are believed to have the power to commune with spirits, in hopes of understanding why their practices have become as popular with Burning Man festival goers as they are with Wall Street traders. Blending memoir, investigative journalism, and anthropological fieldwork, Shamanism is a deep dive into a religious tradition that is as mysterious as it is timeless. With her second memoir, novelist Yiyun Li examines the unbearable pain of losing both her sons to suicide. Things in Nature Merely Grow paints a loving portrait of each of her teenage children, who died nearly seven years apart, and details her own battles with depression and suicidal ideation. (The latter was the focus of her 2017 debut memoir, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life.) Throughout, Li does not shy away from the magnitude of these losses. Instead, she writes of radical acceptance, offering a profound look at how a parent continues to live in a world without her children. When activist Cristina Jiménez was 13, she and her family moved from Ecuador to the United States. Her debut memoir, Dreaming of Home, tells the story of what it was like growing up undocumented in Queens, NY, and how her experience inspired her to become a prominent voice in the fight for immigration justice. Lush, Rochelle Dowden-Lord (May 27) In Rochelle Dowden-Lord's debut, Lush, four wine experts—a wunderkind sommelier, a food writer, a social media influencer, and the owner of a popular, but mediocre wine brand—are invited to a French vineyard for the weekend. While there, they'll get the chance to taste the rarest wine in the world. But in order to achieve this professional milestone, they'll have to confront their personal demons in this intoxicating look at the world of wine and those who love it.
