How Much of these Hills is Gold?

How Much of These Hills is Gold?

By C. Pam Zhang

This is a version of the Western told from the point of view of Chinese laborers. The book opens with the
two central characters, Lucy and Sam, trying to figure out how to bury their Ba, Mandarin for father. He'd taken to drink since their mother died, and did not last long after that. They try to follow their mother's directives about burial, searching and searching for a "home" in which to bury him. But they can't find one, or at least not one to Sam's liking. So the best they can do is mummify him, and carry him around as they search the hills.

Which is pretty much what the book is about: There is no "home" for people "like" Lucy and Sam in America. They are constantly othered, despite the fact that Ba, no matter the assumptions made about him, was actually born in this land. And so for Lucy and Sam, and their mother, it is a different west that holds their dreams -- a west beyond the Pacific Ocean, back in China.

Meanwhile, in the United States, nothing is as it seems. In fact, the US is never mentioned, perhaps a commentary on the fact that the land actually belongs to someone, or something, else. Sam is, in fact, Samantha. Ma is not dead -- she took off in the dead of night. Friends are not friends. There is no happy ending in this land of gold and golden dreams.

I loved the writing in this book. It was enthralling. The plot, too, kept you reading. But it was pretty clear from the outset that there would be no happy ending. We know at the outset, for instance, that Ba will die. So when we read of the family's good fortune to find some gold, enough to get them back to China, there is no joy in it. We know it will eventually taken from them. And when Lucy and Sam seem poised to head back to China, together, we wait for the other shoe to drop, and it does.