Little Gods by Meng Jin is a novel set at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre, when Su Lan, a brilliant scientist gives birth to a daughter and becomes an ambivalent mother. This is an immigrant story, a story of identity, of trying to escape your past, but never really succeeding.

Although beautifully written, from several different perspectives, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. I never really cared about any of the characters, they simply weren’t likeable, or written in enough depth to fully understand their motivations. The only one that became real to me was the aged professor, the kind best friend who had been in love with Su Lan from the beginning.

That being said, this was a worthwhile debut, and if Jin can flesh out her characters a bit more, I will be the first to read her next book.