Making a Scene by Constance Wu
Making a Scene is a memoir by Constance Wu, a star in the TV sitcom Fresh Off the Boat and the movie Crazy Rich Asians. In this novel, Wu gives readers a peek into her life experiences from her first job to her brushes with Hollywood sexual harassment to her Twitter moment.
This book consists of essays. Some of them are better than others. Personally, I really loved the story about her rabbit.
However, I wished that Wu would have utilized a ghost writer like Jennifer Robertson did in Bitcoin Widow.
Wu had the foundations of a great story, but the formatting just did not work. The book has these long paragraphs with very little dialogue. Making a Scene would have been better if the dialogue was punched up a bit.
The large paragraphs really got to me. Recently, I have been reading about how to write Instagram captions. One of the tips is to only have 2 or 3 lines together or else, the reader is overwhelmed and will skip over them. I will fully admit that I felt overwhelmed with these paragraphs. I would have really enjoyed the book much better if the paragraphs were broken down into smaller chunks.
Please keep in mind that I read Making a Scene on an eReader. I would be really curious to listen to the audiobook of this. I especially love celebrity audiobooks!
If I was purchasing this for a friend who didn’t believe in audiobooks, I would purchase a printed copy and a special bookmark which has a transparent center. This allows the reader to focus on one line at a time and helps keep the eye from wandering. You bet that is how I got through A Suitable Boy.
The other thing I think a ghost writer would have helped with is the saying, “It is better to show than to tell.” In Making a Scene, I felt that there was a lot of telling going on. For example, in one essay, Wu describes her relationship with her neighbors. She states that they attended all of her plays and chorus concerts. It would be more compelling if she described looking around for someone, and then exhaling a breath she didn’t know she was holding when she saw her neighbors, knowing that someone was supporting her.
She also wrote an essay about her first job in a bakery. Part of the job involved sitting at the bread table, engaging in conversation with the team. I wanted to know the details of the conversations, even a little dramatization would have helped me connect more to the story.
Overall, Making a Scene is decent but I think that I would have enjoyed the audiobook more.
*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.