Docile

Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl

De: Hyeseung Song

Narrado por: Hyeseung Song

For listeners of Crying in H Mart and Minor Feelings as well as lovers of the film Minari comes a searing coming-of-age memoir about the daughter of ambitious Asian American immigrants and her search for self-worth.

A daughter of Korean immigrants, Hyeseung Song spends her earliest years in the cane fields of Texas where her loyalties are divided between a restless father in search of Big Money, and a beautiful yet domineering mother whose resentments about her own life compromises her relationship with her daughter. With her parents at constant odds, Song learns more words in Korean for hatred than for love. When the family’s fake Gucci business lands them in bankruptcy, Song moves to a new elementary school. On her first day, a girl asks the teacher: “Can she speak English?”

Neither rich nor white, Song does what is necessary to be visible: she internalizes the model minority myth as well as her beloved mother’s dreams to see her on a secure path. Song meets these expectations by attending the best Ivy League universities in the country. But when she wavers, in search of an artistic life on her own terms, her mother warns, “Happiness is what unexceptional people tell themselves when they don’t have the talent and drive to go after real success.” Years of self-erasure take a toll and Song experiences recurring episodes of depression and mania. A thought repeats: I want to die. I want to die. Song enters a psychiatric hospital where she meets patients with similar struggles. So begins her sweeping journey to heal herself by losing everything.

Unflinching and lyrical, Docile is one woman’s story of subverting the model minority myth, contending with mental illness, and finding her self-worth by looking within.

©2024 Hyeseung Song (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Great memoir.

The author is open, honest about her life and by doing so the reader learns. Its beautifully written

The fine and complicated line between devotion and sacrifice

This memoir captures the varied thoughts and emotions of striving to be a devoted daughter or partner while learning not to sacrifice one’s own self, dreams and ambitions. It makes readers, Korean-American or not, consider how much to give of ourselves to those we love. I couldn’t put it down and finished in a day.

Brilliant!

She is honest and accessible. It all makes sense. Thus, her experience is tragic, vibrant, and exhilarating as we cheer her on to herself. Must read.