Days of Distraction: A Novel

Although this book seemed like it would have an interesting story, Days of Distraction really fell flat as I struggled to finish it.

Jing Jing is a twenty-five-year-old Asian American who is struggling with her identity. As a product writer, she is bored with her job and desires something more, although she does not know exactly what. Now, this may seem like it would be a story that would take off with Jing Jing going on adventures and exploring what is out there, but instead, the poor girl is so confused about what she wants to be versus what she should be versus what other people want her to be instead of just being.

Jing Jing moves to Ithaca, New York, with her boyfriend “J,” quitting her job and deciding to be a freelancer. J certainly knows what he is doing with his life and Jing Jing seems to associate that with the fact that he is white. The book goes on and on and really has no good direction. Jing Jing is just a poor lost soul looking up stories about other mixed Asian/White couples and trying to make sense of it. What started out as an interesting read became quite boring as the main character was like a dog chasing her own tail.