Memory Piece

Ko focuses on three friends who met in the 1980s as part of a network of Asian American families. Raised in New Jersey, Giselle eventually finds international success as a performance artist. Jackie, a computer wiz, enters the dot-com world, makes a fortune, and ends up disenchanted. In her role as a community activist and publisher of zines, Ellen organizes the takeover and rehabilitation of an empty building on the Lower East Side. The novel moves from the 1980s through the early 2000s to a dystopian police state in 2040, which limits access to food, housing, and travel. Throughout the decades, the three women’s enduring friendship sustains them as they deal with familial expectations and the pressures of negotiating careers, romantic relationships, and the social and political upheaval around them. Some readers might find that the sections appear disjointed, and historical background occasionally overwhelms the narrative.