Joan Is Okay

A Novel

By: Weike Wang

Narrated by: Catherine Ho

Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A witty, moving, piercingly insightful new novel about a marvelously complicated woman who can’t be anyone but herself, from the award-winning author of Chemistry

LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • “A deeply felt portrait . . . With gimlet-eyed observation laced with darkly biting wit, Weike Wang masterfully probes the existential uncertainty of being other in America.”—Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, NPR, The Washington Post, Vox

Joan is a thirtysomething ICU doctor at a busy New York City hospital. The daughter of Chinese parents who came to the United States to secure the American dream for their children, Joan is intensely devoted to her work, happily solitary, successful. She does look up sometimes and wonder where her true roots lie: at the hospital, where her white coat makes her feel needed, or with her family, who try to shape her life by their own cultural and social expectations.

Once Joan and her brother, Fang, were established in their careers, her parents moved back to China, hoping to spend the rest of their lives in their homeland. But when Joan’s father suddenly dies and her mother returns to America to reconnect with her children, a series of events sends Joan spiraling out of her comfort zone just as her hospital, her city, and the world are forced to reckon with a health crisis more devastating than anyone could have imagined.

Deceptively spare yet quietly powerful, laced with sharp humor, Joan Is Okay touches on matters that feel deeply resonant: being Chinese-American right now; working in medicine at a high-stakes time; finding one’s voice within a dominant culture; being a woman in a male-dominated workplace; and staying independent within a tight-knit family. But above all, it’s a portrait of one remarkable woman so surprising that you can’t get her out of your head.

©2022 Weike Wang (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Downright hilarious, sometimes unintentionally, sometimes as a coping mechanism. Wang masterfully balances the many terrors of [the] provocative questions about motherhood, daughterhood, belonging and the many definitions of ‘home.’”—The New York Times Book Review

“This is the first book I loved this year. . . . It’s smart, heartfelt and insightful, and—I almost hate to say it—I literally laughed and cried.”—Erin Sells, NPR

“Incisive yet tender, written with elegant style and delicious verve. Joan isn’t just okay, she’s wonderful. I could listen to her smart, witty voice forever.”—Sigrid Nunez

Layered message

I enjoyed reading this book. There is so much to unpack here with all the layers of socio-cultural issues built into a seemingly simple story about a complex protagonist heading into the 2020 pandemic. There is the immigrant story, the Asian story, the being female story, the social class story, the education story, the New York story, and more. I’d read it again. I’d read this author some more!

Pandemonium

It's been a long run. Our student from China went home April 2020. We still talk but I miss her. I thought about her a lot while listening.

Interesting but overall sad

Well written and the Narrator left me feeling very Asian. I got a chance to step into the shoes of a person of a different culture than myself to view her outlook on life. The author was very good and expressing that culture to me a culture that I know nothing about.

One of the best books I've ever read

I'm a constant reader and I one as I was reading, this is one of my favorite books, ever. I'm going to re-read it very soon. Wang writes in a simple way, somehow capturing an enormous depth of character in Joan, the protagonist. Joan's family, workplace, and colleagues are also drawn in fantastic detail. Joan is a physician whose family immigrated from China, and issues around home and country are central. Joan is Okay is deep, sometimes sad, and also laugh-out-loud funny. Read it.

Wonderful Story

This book was amazing. it was funny and insightful!! Hopefully there will be another one soon.

Quirky funny

I liked this book. Main character is quirky but funny. Story has multiple layers, some obvious and some not as much.

Great story and narrative; abrupt ending

The depth and nuance of even the tertiary characters that orbit Joan are fantastic. I loved the whole book; until the last 10 mins. Then it just ended. Would have liked 1-2 more scenes or another inserted before.

IT IS okay

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Too short.

Too short on character development and cultural descriptions. It felt like it just scratch the surface.

Plot?

Kept waiting for something to happen! Really just a character study of a doc during early Covid.