Storytelling

Storytelling operates throughout the novel as a means by which power and self-definition are negotiated. From the opening pages, the contrast between the narrator’s bedtime stories and Sam’s establishes storytelling as a site of relational imbalance. Sam’s stories are improvised and original and position him as an imaginative authority within the family. The narrator’s stories, by contrast, are read from books written by other people. This difference reflects the broader dynamics of the marriage, in which Sam appears more comfortable shaping shared meanings while the narrator occupies a more responsive role. Storytelling thus becomes an early indicator of who is permitted narrative control and whose voice is treated as secondary.

As the novel progresses, the narrator’s approach to bedtime stories undergoes a marked shift. She begins retelling Chinese myths from memory, stories that were passed down to her by her mother...