When they are together, Anna is dissociative and miserable underneath a well-practiced smile. He pleases Anna’s family and makes sure that Anna pleases him Anna however, is left wanting.
Julian is a clean-cut Chinese American, who is also a Harvard and Stanford business graduate and investment banker. One thing her family believes she does get right, though, is her boyfriend Julian. Anna, on the other hand, speaks faltering Chinese and has an unshakeable sense of not being Chinese enough or living up to her family’s cultural expectations. The two have such a large age gap that at times it feels like her sister is also her mother. Plagued by guilt, shame and the pressure of fame, hyper-visibility and expectation, Anna gets stuck in a cycle of musical self-flagellation.Īnna has an older sister who models an unattainable level of Chinese-ness and only offers Anna very tough, berating love. “Dedicated to all the caregivers out there: those who care because they want to, those who care because they have no choice, and especially the medical professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, every single one.”Īnna Sun is a Chinese American violinist who is catapulted to success after a YouTube video of her performing goes viral, only the piece she was performing was intended for someone else, someone who was in a car accident and unable to play. The Heart Principle’s dedication sets the tone for the entire book and reads as follows: At its core, however, The Heart Principle is a story about identities rebuilt after loss, mental health, neurodivergency, the burden of caretaking (both of oneself, and of the ones we love), culture and family.
When they find themselves on a dating app and then find each other, their unlikely paths collide and the weight of their individual burdens feel less heavy. On the surface, it is a love story about two people, Anna and Quan, both struggling under the weight of their experiences and expectations. Hoang’s third novel is part-fiction, part-memoir.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Helen Hoang has given fans of her work something to hold onto in moments of darkness: The Heart Principal.
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