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ebook Details
  • B08N6ZKC3T
  • 207 pages
  • $9.99
Generation Zero
Two pants. Two T-shirts. The socks and shoes he wore. His life savings of one thousand dollars. That is what Sukhvir brought to America at the age of twenty-three. Together, he and his wife started from nothing. They struggled in blue-collar jobs and poured their souls into two American-born children. They were Generation Zero. For most of her life, Sabreet searched to find meaning in her family’s immigration story. She read books about extraordinary immigrants’ triumphs and everyday tales of hardship, but the stories of her family—and other Generation Zero families—often felt invisible. If you’re a first- or second-generation American, you know how hard it is to understand your reality. But you also know there is a great deal of beauty and strength to come from an immigrant family. Maybe your working-class family sacrificed. Maybe you’ve strived to accomplish your parents’ abandoned dreams. Or maybe you’re living a hyphenated identity, trying to make sense of the unique experiences that make you American. You are not alone.

Finalist

Plot/Idea: 9 out of 10
Originality: 10 out of 10
Prose: 10 out of 10
Character/Execution: 10 out of 10
Overall: 9.75 out of 10

Assessment:

Idea: In Generation Zero, Sabreet Kang Rajeev relates the archetypal American Experience of coming to these shores and raising American-born children, in the hope that they'll fulfill the promise of the American Dream and the prayer that they'll continue to honor and respect the culture of their ancestry. A magnificent tribute to the spirit that embodies the very best in the dreamers who built this nation.

Prose/Style: Gifted with enormous insight, compassion, and empathy, Kang Rajeev has written a memoir that recalls A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in its ability to re-create her family history not only through her own eyes, but through the eyes of her mother and father. Shifting seamlessly from one point of view to another, the author conveys the unspoken fears, the tremendous sacrifices, the small triumphs, and the devastating setbacks experienced by many immigrant families.

Originality: What sets this book apart is its author's ability to objectively depict harsh realities with great love and deep respect. Many who were raised in America by immigrant parents will relate to the sometimes painful process of lives spent trying to straddle the line between the new world and the old, but few have reflected so deeply as Kang Rajeev on the heroism and dignity of parents who left everything and everyone they cherished to create a life in America.

Character Development/Execution: Kang Rajeev is able to convincingly convey her family's lives and history not only through her own eyes, but through the eyes of her parents. Moreover, even when life is hard and conflict arises between the values of the old world and the new, there is never bitterness on the author's part. Kang Rajeev loves and reveres the people she is writing about, and her reader will do the same.

Blurb: Kang Rajeev has written a memoir that recalls A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in its ability to re-create her family's history not only through her own eyes, but through the eyes of her mother and father. Written with warmth, humor, unsparing honesty, and tremendous love and respect, Generation Zero recollects pain without bitterness, embraces imperfections, and glows with gratitude.

Date Submitted: January 29, 2021

Formats
ebook Details
  • B08N6ZKC3T
  • 207 pages
  • $9.99
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