Unpolished Gem cover art

Unpolished Gem

My Mother, My Grandmother, and Me

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Unpolished Gem

By: Alice Pung
Narrated by: Melissa Chambers
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About this listen

"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.

©2006 Alice Pung (P)2012 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Emigration & Immigration Social Sciences Women Witty Heartfelt China

Critic Reviews

"There’s something striking on every page of Unpolished Gem." (Helen Garner)
"Pung has a seductive way with language, an eye for telling detail, and a gift for comic dialogue." ( Australian Book Review)
"... an intelligent and touching insight into the culture-hopping that so many first-generation Australians undertake." ( The Herald Sun)
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Yet another excellent book dealing with the issues faced by the second generation of Chinese immigrants as they live across two cultures.

Cross cultural heritage

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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.

Good story, not sure about the accents...

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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.

A poignant story of growing up

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unpleasant listening to the narrator, she makes the book sound mean. will try the book instead

narrator sounds so sarcastic

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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.

Entertaining memoir by Melbourne-born migrant

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.