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#5 Platform - Level Up
Apr. 12th, 2012 08:58 pmAh, the tricky balance of gaming and parental expectations.
Book: Level Up
Authors: Gene Luen Yang, art by Thien Pham
Provenance: Borrowed from Westmount Library
Finding oneself and what one wants to do in light of parental pressures is one of the challenges of late adolescent life. Should you do what you like, following your own passions, or should you follow your parents’ desires and advice, and take a more conservative path? Such is the problem facing Dennis Ouyang, who has fallen pretty hard in love with video games, and grows very skilled with them… but whose parents really want him to be a doctor. To study hard, get into the right school, and become the right kind of doctor, that’s what his parents expect. And after his father dies, he has to try to navigate a course between trying to respect his memory and carving out his own life… supported by some angels.
The story here is pretty well-done, and doesn’t go exactly where you think; I think it’s not quite as sophisticated as American Born Chinese was, but it was still pretty interesting, and you get a sense of Dennis’s struggles to walk a middle path. There’s also some good medical humor in there, too, if you like that. The supporting characters are interesting, from Dennis’s mom and dad to the other students. It’s probably on purpose that all the students are from minority backgrounds, as well, and pretty much all different ones.
The art was pretty good, not super detailed, but meant to evoke gaming, in the panel design and probably in some of the sketchiness. It does a pretty good job of carrying the story across, but it’s not overwhelming.
This was an enjoyable and fast little read, but I’d probably try his earlier works first before this one.
Next up for review: Otaku Spaces.
Book: Level Up
Authors: Gene Luen Yang, art by Thien Pham
Provenance: Borrowed from Westmount Library
Finding oneself and what one wants to do in light of parental pressures is one of the challenges of late adolescent life. Should you do what you like, following your own passions, or should you follow your parents’ desires and advice, and take a more conservative path? Such is the problem facing Dennis Ouyang, who has fallen pretty hard in love with video games, and grows very skilled with them… but whose parents really want him to be a doctor. To study hard, get into the right school, and become the right kind of doctor, that’s what his parents expect. And after his father dies, he has to try to navigate a course between trying to respect his memory and carving out his own life… supported by some angels.
The story here is pretty well-done, and doesn’t go exactly where you think; I think it’s not quite as sophisticated as American Born Chinese was, but it was still pretty interesting, and you get a sense of Dennis’s struggles to walk a middle path. There’s also some good medical humor in there, too, if you like that. The supporting characters are interesting, from Dennis’s mom and dad to the other students. It’s probably on purpose that all the students are from minority backgrounds, as well, and pretty much all different ones.
The art was pretty good, not super detailed, but meant to evoke gaming, in the panel design and probably in some of the sketchiness. It does a pretty good job of carrying the story across, but it’s not overwhelming.
This was an enjoyable and fast little read, but I’d probably try his earlier works first before this one.
Next up for review: Otaku Spaces.
