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Unpolished Gem
- My Mother, My Grandmother, and Me
- Narrated by: Melissa Chambers
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
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Unpolished Gem
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Publisher's Summary
"This story does not begin on a boat." So commences Alice Pung’s memoir. This is an original take on a classic story - how a child of immigrants moves between two cultures. In place of piety and predictability, however, Unpolished Gem offers a vivid and ironic sense of both worlds. It combines the story of Pung’s life growing up in suburban Footscray with the inherited stories of the women in her family - stories of madness, survival, and heartbreak. Original and brave, this is a girl’s own story that introduces an unforgettable voice and captures the experience of Asian immigrants to Australia.
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Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jill Robertson
- 07-09-2022
Cross cultural heritage
Yet another excellent book dealing with the issues faced by the second generation of Chinese immigrants as they live across two cultures.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 14-08-2021
Good story, not sure about the accents...
Nice, interesting, enlightening tale. Narrator had a nice voice BUT I'm sorry, I just found the accents quite cringey to listen to; not sure they were necessary. By halfway I just wanted the book to be over because it pained me to listen to the accent attempts.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Blossominoz
- 13-08-2021
A poignant story of growing up
Beautifully written memoir of growing up in a migrant family. I loved the eccentricities of each relative. Very funny in parts and sad in others. I enjoyed this book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 02-09-2021
narrator sounds so sarcastic
unpleasant listening to the narrator, she makes the book sound mean. will try the book instead
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Not happy Jan
- 11-07-2021
Entertaining memoir by Melbourne-born migrant
The memoir is well-written and entertaining, with a real sense of the life of the first female child in the family, born in Melbourne to Cambodian migrants. Her experience of the contrast between her upbringing and that of her "Australian" peers is funny and enlightening. She does not pull any punches and is often quite critical of her parents and their friends, whilst still appreciating why they have such strict rules and querky beliefs. However, the Australian-born narrator sounds quite racist when she does the voices of the migrant women in a very exaggerated, caricatured way. It made me feel guilty to be listening to this audiobook as it felt disrespectful to these migrant women with English as a second language.
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