There is a quasi-love triangle that feels kind of icky and unconvincing. Her bond with her cousin and another man also play way too much of a role in the story. Sylvie’s chapters reveal her month in the Netherlands and give us insight into her childhood there. Apparently, both her marriage and her work life were far from idyllic. Their son, Sylvie’s best friend, is also being somewhat cagey.Īs time goes by Amy’s image of Sylvie as this perfectly put-together adult begins to shatter as more of her secrets come to the light. Her mother’s cousin is hostile and contemptuous about anything concerning Sylvie and her husband is rather creepy. Here she picks up on the weird atmosphere that suggests that not everyone was as in awe of Sylvie as she was.

Overcome by anxiety Amy too flies to the Netherlands where she stays with her cousins. Weeks after Amy receives a worrying call from the son of her mother’s cousins (the people who Sylvie was raised by). When news that her beloved grandmother is dying reaches her Sylvie rushes to the Netherlands. While Sylvie shows open affection towards Amy, not seeming to resent her for being the one who got to stay with their parents, she is unable and or unwilling to grow closer to either her mother or her father, in fact, her relationship with her father is fraught indeed. At age nine she finally joins her parents and younger sister in America. Unlike her younger sister, Sylvie did not spend her first years with her parents and in fact, grew up in the Netherlands with her grandmother and some cousins of her mother.

She’s married to a wealthy man and has a solid career. On the surface, Sylvie Lee, the eldest daughter, is the more successful and accomplished of the two Lee daughters. The narrative switches between three points of view: a mother and her two daughters. Despite the many moments of poignancy that appear throughout the course of Searching for Sylvie Lee, the novel is ultimately diminished by unnecessary melodrama and convoluted (yet predictable) soap-opera-ish twists.Īt its heart Searching for Sylvie Lee is a family drama about long-held family secrets.

Jean kwok searching for sylvie lee