Beautiful Country + Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough

A memoir about an undocumented childhood in NYC, and a decadent, comforting bread

Hello hello! Welcome to Good Book/Good Bread!

You may have noticed I’ve been a bit delinquent in sending these issues out over the last month or so. It’s been a busy fall: I’ve moved, adopted a second husky (his name is Bruce), and helped launch a very exciting shared solar farm at work. Things are starting to settle down a bit, and I’m happy to be baking bread and recommending books again! Below, a bread that made my house smell magical, and a memoir that I couldn’t put down.

Part 1: Good Book

Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang.

In a nutshell

Beautiful Country is Qian Julie Wang’s memoir of an undocumented childhood in the US. When Qian is seven, her and her mother move from China to New York to join her father, who has been there for a few years. The family are in the US illegeally, and her parents let Qian know this is their secret and they need to be fastidious in ensuring no one they encounter finds out their status. Her parents, professors back in China, work a range of difficult cash jobs in the city. The memoir follows Qian’s childhood in New York living in boarding houses, joining her mother after school in a sweatshop, adjusting to life in a new country, and dreaming of belonging.

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Setting the Tone

New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down by LCD Soundsystem

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Why I was drawn to this book

I was interested in learning about someone’s life who existed in the shadows of a city so many move to in order to stand out. I also spent a year living in New York, just a few minutes from the Chinatown neighbourhood Qian lived, and was intrigued to learn what her life was like traversing this area as a child.

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This book in three words:

Heartbreaking, poetic, quiet.

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Three Things I Liked About Beautiful Country

1. The story is told from the point of view of Qian as a child

   Qian narrates based on how she viewed events as a child. I enjoyed how this brought me right into her childhood. I can imagine this was likely a difficult feat to transport herself back to her seven-year-old perspective, now that she knows the significance of events she experienced. Yet it’s done so elegantly, and I ended up caring a lot about Qian as she took us through her days.

2. Her empathy for her parents

   From the very first sentence of this book, Qian shows an empathetic understanding that her parents are a product of their circumstances. “My story starts decades before my birth,” she writes, before sharing the traumatic childhood of her father that shaped many of his decisions. Qian includes several painful anecdotes and scenes about her mother and father, like her father hitting her mother or her parents’ consistently berating their daughter’s appearance during family dinners. She doesn’t just let those scenes stand on their own; the book is peppered with details about what may have driven her parents’ actions.

3. Qian discovering the library

   This can be a difficult read at times, as the poverty Qian experiences is unrelenting. There are some beautiful bright spots though, like when Qian discovers her local public library, and loses herself in books. She uses books to learn English, but also to comfort herself and feel a sense of belonging. As Qian slips into series like Sweet Valley High and The Babysitters Club, she pretends she is like the characters who have so few worries compared to her. “Between each set of covers, I was just another American kid.”

If you like Beautiful Country, read this:

• Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora

• Educated by Tara Westover

• The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

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Part 2: Good Bread

Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough

Why this bread for this book?

I was at a farmer’s market the other day and me and my partner were debating between a loaf of whole wheat bread or cinnamon raisin. “I guess the whole wheat is more practical,” he said. That got me thinking about Qian’s childhood in New York, and how there was never money for things that didn’t provide utility or help them surivive. She didn’t get treats or items that were just for fun. This is well illustrated when Qian pines all year after the Polly Pockets her classmates own. She only comes into possession of Polly Pockets when she finds a bag of them while her and her parents are scavenging. I can see seven-year-old Qian being thrilled to eat this cinnamon swirled, raisin dotted bread, topped with butter: it’s not practical and you’re not going to make sandwiches with it, but it’s damn good.

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Recipe

I used The Kitchn’s sourdough recipe. Before the third fold, I added in one tablespoon of cinnamon and a half cup of raisins. Next time I will soak the raisins for a while beforehand as the ones on the outside got a tiny bit crispy.

Looking forward…

New book I’m looking forward to reading: In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain by Tom Vitale.

Bread I’m looking forward to baking: Everything bagels

New album I’m looking forward to listening to while doing both of the above: Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy by Jeff Parker.

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