Review: The Snakehead
The Snakehead
Author: Patrick Radden Keefe
Publication: July 21, 2009
Doubleday
I wish that Jon Krakauer had written this book. I also wish that it were an HBO series.
I also have to admit that I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did and I fully think it’s because Keefe’s writing style is not quite to my taste. The story, which is true, is at least as compelling and fascinating as Under the Banner of Heaven, and in this case, I had no idea about how human smuggling worked in the early 1990s or, indeed, at all. The idea of a mild-mannered Chinese lady (Sister Ping, our protagonist) being an international “snakehead” - a person who facilitated the smuggling of Chinese undocumented immigrants into the United States - who made something like forty million dollars at it? Amazing. My roommate made the suggestion that it would be an amazing HBO series…and it would. It has the operatic feel that is Big Love meets The Wire and it happened right under the nose of a lot of the East Coast types who love HBO shows.
For those who are curious about the actual plot, this is mostly the story of Sister Ping, a Fujianese immigrant who worked hard, ran a shop and a restaurant — and a multimillion human smuggling business as a “snakehead.” She was ultimately caught and sent to prison during the Bush Administration, nearly 10 years after the incident that was her undoing, the grounding of the Golden Venture, a cargo ship full of Chinese immigrants that ran aground in Long Island. The story of why the Golden Venture went aground, what happened to those migrants, and what happened to Sister Ping are all a part of this book. There’s a lot of underworld intrigue, gang warfare, international crime, and desperate people trying to reach America as well as the politics of handling China and Chinese immigrants in the late 80s and early 90s. It’s impressive, sprawling stuff that will surprise most of its readers who probably had no idea about any of it.
But the writing was a bit like 1491, another book that was good and significant and tells you a lot you don’t know, but felt like a bit of a schlep to read. Keefe tries so hard not to have an opinion on illegal immigration sometimes that sometimes the book gets a bit…roundabout/dry in spots. I recommend it, especially if you like non-fiction or enjoy the work of Jon Krakauer, but it took me a long time to read because the writing style was not to my taste, though by no means bad.
