Eureka by Victoria Chang is a historical story with a modern feeling to the text and pacing of things. It is also a story in verse, with the verse reading as a prose novel. You forget the format is poetry, as it just flows as sentences as it would in any book..
The idea is to show how racism affected and what the dangers of the time were for Chinese people in San Francisco and surrounding communities in the mid 1880s. But not only do you get that, you get a relatable story about the strength of knowing who you are, remembering where you came from and how you are free in ways past generations couldn’t be. There are mentions of slavery, kidnapping of girls, and the bounding of children’s feet to show their wealth, “beauty” and the differences of classes. This also comes into play when our main character becomes a servant in a wealthy white family.
While there are these more intense elements, plus Mei Mei, our heroine, being locked in a closet to punish her, there are the tong (gangs) violence and the climax of the riots that would occur to “clean out the city” of the “undesirables” (Chinese), it is all done tastefully and for the at least 10 and up crowd. Though younger readers could read it, some concepts might be a bit much for that reader. An afterwards, author comments and other extras fill in some historical elements not included in the main story.
While this book seems to be Chang’s first novel, she is the author of several award winning books of poetry.
