Review by Sminnich -- Mock My Words by Chandra Shekhar

[Sminnich]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Mock My Words" by Chandra Shekhar.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Mock my Words by Chandra Shekhar focuses on the life of David Tan, who grew up in China and speaks English as a second language trying to make a life in America. Even though David is brilliant, he has trouble expressing himself in the English language and people can get the wrong impression by his words at times, which makes for some interesting situations. David is married to an American woman named Laura, who is very abrasive and not very understanding of David. Laura has a stressful job and puts the job before everything else and is frequently mean to David.

David teaches a class at Steinbeck University, he has trouble connecting to his students and gets frustrated by the constant set backs he comes across when trying to connect with them. David also does one-on-one counseling where he meets a student names Melissa. David helps her improve her business proposal for a product she developed. Due to a misunderstanding, contributed by the language barrier, Melissa decides to seek help with another teacher at the university. Throughout the book David runs across many obstacles that David struggles to overcome, mainly due to David’s passive nature. David does meet to other teachers, that like him were born in a different country, and forms a friendship with them.

One of the things I really liked about the book is that the author makes you feel the emotions that the characters go through. When David was sad I felt sad, when he was happy I felt happy and so on. The fact that the author can do that with words makes this a very good book. I also liked that you got information about the Chinese culture through David’s personality that allow you to see why he is how he is. The invention that Melissa made is also another wonderful part of the book. My history is in the Physical Therapy world and Melissa’s invention is very smart and ingenious for the Therapy world.

One of the things that I disliked about the book was how intolerant the Americans of the book were portrayed about David’s difficulty with the English language. I do know that there are people like this out there, but I do wish that not ninety nine percent of the U.S. born people that David encounters is portrayed like this. The only other thing that I disliked was David’s wife. The author does a good job of making the reader truly dislike Laura and when you read the book I think you will agree with me.

For all these reasons I am giving this book 4 out of 4 stars. This book is for everyone, especially if you like to feel the ups and downs that the characters of the book feel the good along with the bad. There is only one grammatical error I could find in the book.

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Mock My Words
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[Jlblawrence]

I like how you mentioned the culture that was present throughout the book. I was very happy to learn a little about Chinese customs and his thought processes that stemmed back to his culture. I thought it was an excellent read! Thank you for the review.