Is Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers a little racist or am I a little racist?
Hello all!
I read Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers like two months ago. I liked the book. It was a cute read - mostly about found family but had a murder mystery element to it.
Throughout the book I noticed that Vera Wong does not use proper grammar like 40% of the time. Vera Wong is a Chinese immigrant of the USA. She is a septagenerian. She has one son that was born in the USA.
What I thought was weird about the book is not that Vera Wong did not have perfect grammar all the time but that everyone that was born in the USA ALWAYS used prefect grammar (excluding a toddler). I am combing through the passages of the book that I remember (my memories) and I don't remember any of the adults that were born in the USA making any grammar mistakes. I also don't remember if the one other Chinese immigrant (Alex) doesn't make any grammar mistakes. But if he doesn't make any mistakes then that concerns me because that would make Vera more of a caricature of an immigrant rather than just the immigrants having imperfect grammar.
I understand that books need some realism and realistically an immigrant would make more grammar mistakes compared to USA born citizens. In reality, USA born citizens still make grammar mistakes everyday probably numerous times a day. So why was Vera the only character (excluding the toddler) to speak English imperfectly?
Is this racism? Am I racism for thinking of this?
If you have recently read the book and the other adult characters did make grammar mistakes please let me know!