Bitter Melon

by Cara Chow

Genre: Realistic/historical fiction, but it does take place in the 1980s. It could potentially still happen today, though, I suppose. Or maybe not.

Age group: 12/13+

Frances' mother has her whole life planned out for her: She's going to ace school, go to a prestigious university, and become a successful doctor. Then Frances will be able to support her mother, and her mother's work will finally have paid off. But then Frances is accidentally registered in Speech class instead of Calculus, which is a non-negotiable class in her mother's eyes. Frances knows her mother will be upset if she doesn't switch out of Speech, but the thing is, she's actually enjoying it. She's good at speech.
Frances decides to stay in Speech class, secretly defying her mother's strict regime, and this is only the first step towards becoming her own person and doing the things that she wants to do: not the things that her mother convinced her she wanted to do.

I read this book as part of a book group. We all vote on what book we're going to read next, and we came dangerously close to not reading this book. I'm really, really glad that we did.
This book is one of the saddest ones I've ever read. I know, I'm probably being melodramatic, but it just felt so real: I could relate to Frances, even though I've never been in her situation. The characters really came alive for me, so I couldn't just think of them as little paper people in the book. They had feelings too. This thought was very present in my mind whenever anyone made a decision that affected other people in the book.
The choice Frances had to eventually make... It's not sad, exactly, but I was thinking about what I might do if I were in her shoes, and no matter which way I decided to go, I still felt really bad, either for Frances or for her mother. At the end, I felt especially bad for Frances' mother. She did some very bad things, and she should be punished, but her punishment was harsh. She's still a human being, and I think she still needs to be shown at least a little compassion.
I really, really enjoyed reading this book. It made me think a lot about issues that I don't always think about.

Some questions from the book group about this book:
1) What would you have done in Frances' situation: Done your own thing or try to please your mother?
2) Do you agree with Frances' mother about how eating lots of bitter melon will make you like, or at least tolerate, it? Do you agree that the strong endure suffering and eat the bitterness? Why/why not?
3) Do you think Frances' mom was really a bad person? Why/why not?
4) Was Derek a good thing for Frances or a bad thing?
5) Do you think that because of this bitterness, Frances will be a stronger person later on? Why/why not?
6) Do you think it was right of Frances to do everything behind her mom's back? Do you think things would have turned out differently if she had told?