River East, River West

These book club questions are from the Women's Prize, for which this novel was on the Fiction shortlist in 2024. A full reading guide can be found here.

Book club questions for River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

Consider the young people in River East, River West: Alva, Zoey, Gao Xiaofan, Doggy, Li Xinwei. For the moneyed elite like Zoey’s family, the privileges of capitalism are available in Shanghai, but how does Zoey’s life compare to Li Xinwei or Gao Xiaofan’s life? Even though Zoey is very privileged, is her life really that admirable?

How do the experiences of Alva and her friends compare with MinMin’s, born a few years earlier, and with Lu Fang and Ciyi’s experience of being young in China? And, how do all of their lives compare to Sloan’s experience of China as a young white woman? Who has the most privilege, and why?

How does Lescure use the metaphor of swimming in River East, River West?

‘River east, river west’ comes from a Chinese saying suggesting that people’s destinies are in constant change and that there is no fixed path of rise, fall, honour or disgrace. How does Lescure explore this idea in Lu Fang and Sloan’s lives?

Alva’s class watches slides of the Nanjing Massacre, which their teacher describes to them as, ‘the greatest atrocity of the past century’. How does Lescure contrast the education received at Alva’s Chinese and American schools? What is she showing us about them?

Did you feel sorry for Ciyi? Or MinMin? Should Lu Fang have stayed with Ciyi? Did he have any choice in anything that happened in their relationship?

River East, River West Book Club Questions PDF

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