Home, As Made (and Remade) in the Pages

House A by Jennifer S. Cheng is the deconstruction and reconstruction of what makes a home in diaspora. The three sections of the book, Letters to Mao, House A: Geometry B, How to Build an American Home, are the foundation laid to explore Cheng’s experience of home. Giving the reader insight from the architect’s perspective allows for more intimacy with every facet of this home revealed down to its smallest part. This reverence of a house as a home is parallel to Marianne Chan’s Leaving Biddle City, an ode to a youth in diaspora spent in the town of Biddle City. Both collections use narrative memory to build the greater picture of what home was and how that home shaped them as individuals.