Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Twitter
  3. Follow us on Instagram
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • About CBR
    • Getting Started
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Event Calendar
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
  • Our Team
    • The CBR Team
    • Leaderboard
    • Recent Comments
    • CBR Interviews
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • How You Can Donate
    • Book Sale
    • CBR Merchandise
    • Supporters and Friends of CBR
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Follow Us
> FAQ Home
> Genre: Mystery > She Used to Meet Me on the (Lower) East Side

She Used to Meet Me on the (Lower) East Side

The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream by Patrick Radden Keefe

Lush Life by Richard Price

December 3, 2020 by Jake Leave a Comment

Read two consecutive books whose geographies bumped up against each other; one set in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the other set partially in it, as well as the adjacent East Village. Both were excellent in their own respective ways.

The Snakehead

How is Patrick Radden Keefe so damn good at writing non-fiction? This doesn’t reach the heights of Say Nothing (really what can?) but it’s a fascinating story in its own right and Keefe tells it well and thoroughly, providing enough detail without larding the narrative. He also takes an eagle’s eye view on economic migration, the plight of Fujianese folk in both China and America, and the complexity of human migration. It was both fascinating and horrifying and I appreciate how he gave Sister Ping the most thorough of examinations to express how while America’s immigration policies are rigged and racist, manipulating them at the cost of human lives doesn’t make you a hero either.

 

Lush Life

After four attempts spread over ten years, I finally powered through this one! I knew I’d be able to do it once I got the sense of Price’s cadence. And I wound up getting hooked, as I thought I would. This is definitely written by someone who has written for The Wire in that it takes a thorough look at crime and law enforcement. You won’t get any grand pronunciations about the War on Drugs or Mass Incarceration but the power is in the way Price tells the story: these feel like real people going through the same motions that those who have come before them in the LES have done.

Filed Under: Mystery, Non-Fiction Tagged With: Chinese-Americans, crime, Human Smuggling, Immigration, lower East Side, Lush Life, Manhattan, mystery, Patrick Radden Keefe, Richard Price, Sister Ping, The Snakehead, true crime

Jake's CBR12 Review No:180 · Genres: Mystery, Non-Fiction · Tags: Chinese-Americans, crime, Human Smuggling, Immigration, lower East Side, Lush Life, Manhattan, mystery, Patrick Radden Keefe, Richard Price, Sister Ping, The Snakehead, true crime ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

About Jake

CBR13 participantCBR12 participantCBR11 participantCBR10 participant

I love reading! View Jake's reviews»

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.



Recent Comments

  • llamareadsbooks on Whales… in… space!I think it's more like a space squid, but I totally had the whole Pinocchio thing in mind, too. Just posted my review of the...
  • lowercasesee on Another roundup (sorry)Thank you!! It was the first of this bunch I'd read so I couldn't remember everything.
  • narfna on Another roundup (sorry)I'm reading Eve Brown right now (so good!), and Jacob explicitly tells Eve he's autistic almost as soon as he meets her, in the job...
  • ingres77 on The Wheel of Time (Part I)I’m sorry. If it helps, I really wish I didn’t know either. I saved all these books so my kids could read them when they...
  • narfna on “I’m dealing with a lot of scary things. I think you have to react to them. And you either laugh at them or you go insane.”I'm enjoying seeing your thoughts on this series so much! Looking forward to your review of six (and seven!)
See More Recent Comments »

Want to Help Out?

CBR has a great crew of volunteers, and we're always looking for more people to help out. If you have a specialty or are willing to learn, drop MsWas a line.

  • How You Can Donate
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo
© 2021 Cannonball Read | Log in