150 pages. Published May 14, 2024 by A Strange Object. Memoir.
Wei Tchou’s tender, angry, searching, and wounded account of her childhood and transition to adulthood comes in the form of an unusual memoir: the book is half a field guide to ferns, arising from her (minor) obsession—she sought them out, learnt their taxonomy, and they came to stand for various things in and phases of her life. Little Seed (from the name she was given as a child at home) is therefore also a memoir.
Wei Tchou is first-generation Chinese American—her parents moved there from China—and here she wrestles with the complexity of being Chinese at home, while learning to move through the world as some fantasy her parents have of being American (and while also, of course, being actually American). Added to this is her natural struggle, exacerbated by her family’s culture, to follow her big brother’s example as she looks up to him and to him for protection. He is, in turn, being crushed by the burden of his family’s expectations of him—he must be a doctor as his father is—and this leads him to a psychotic break, which Little Seed witnesses. Because of culture, and the family’s tendency not to confront this difficulty head-on, as well as a failed relationship and other complicated dynamics, Little Seed has something of a breakdown herself, eventually finding her way to Mexico in an attempt to free herself from the tangles of her life.
Little Seed is verdant, melancholy, and beautiful. I did find an affinity with Little Seed: I, too, have grappled with complicated relationships, and have tended to seek solace in nature, in plants, animals, and landscapes. Her life and experiences were sufficiently removed from mine that I was able to immerse myself without too many empathetic triggers, and simply for the joy of reading. Little Seed is sometimes wry, eventually hopeful, fascinating, and very readable.
Highly recommended. Thanks to A Strange Object and to Edelweiss for access to a DRC.
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Harare Review of Books 
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