In her Dedication, Gouw writes: to the sisterhood of women with whom I share the joys, loves, hopes, sacrifices and pains that live in a woman’s heart, that mold a woman’s life. Her novel provides a front row seat to the womanly struggles she describes. Strong female characters abound, and even though you may not like all of them, Gouw's storytelling helps you understand what motivates each individual. It might be tempting to pigeon-hole this book as a woman’s book, but men will also find resonance in some of the male and female characters. After all, a war and revolution affect men and women alike.

Sensual images and brief but inviting descriptions of both scene and personal sensitivities beg the obvious question: when will someone convert this story into a great, sweeping movie? In the right hands, a director who stays true to the story line of this delightful novel, will be grateful to Gouw for the gift she has given the world. And let’s hope this gifted author has more tales to tell.

Only A Girl
Review by Kitty Wells
Book Club Facilitator

Lian Gouw’s captivating debut novel, Only a Girl, is a story of a Chinese mother, daughter, and granddaughter living in Indonesia through the World Depression, World War II and the Indonesian Revolution.

Nanna, the matriarch of the family, tries to preserve her traditional Chinese values. Her daughter, Carolien, is eager to assimilate into the Dutch colonial society. Despite the Japanese occupation, Carolien’s daughter, Jenny, is brought up in the Dutch culture, which puts her at real disadvantage when the Dutch leave and the Indonesians revolt. Add to this plot a failed marriage and an abandoned baby girl and there is a book you may have trouble putting down.

I found the generational tensions as well as the multicultural situation fascinating. As I am passing around my copy of Only A Girl, others agree with me.

Only A Girl
Review by Larry Stueck
Reader and Photographer

Only a Girl is a masterpiece of storytelling. The novel, set in the Netherlands' East Indies, known today as Indonesia, spans the early 1930's to 50's. At the heart of the story is the relationship between three Chinese women of consecutive generations, each seeking greater autonomy and success than their mother in a European society and amongst a nation searching for its sovereignty. In rich and complex prose Lian Gouw develops her characters around a backdrop of multi cultures and the dramatic history of Dutch rule, Japanese occupation and Indonesian Revolution.

The women in the novel are domineering to, sometimes, a fault. Like in many stories depicting a man's ambition, achievement often times comes at the loss of someone they love. In Only A Girl, it is the women who strive for control, success, and status even at the cost of losing the men in their lives.

Besides skillfully weaving all these complexities into a cohesive story, Gouw's detailed descriptions throughout the book paint a highly memorable view of life in the former Dutch colony.

Though Only a Girl may seem to have a wider appeal to women, Gouw's methodic use of universal values such as ambition, pride, security, fear and love draws all readers into the story irrespective of gender. Lian Gouw is a gifted writer who is able to capture her reader’s attention not only throughout the book but even for some time after The End. Gouw’s Only a Girl is a must read.

Only A Girl
Review by Sandy Olsen
Writer and Reader

Only a Girl, a novel by Lian Gouw, beautifully details the changing and often tumultuous lives of three generations of a Chinese family living in Indonesia during colonialism, war, and revolution. The story weaves a rich tapestry of joy, hope, disappointment, passion, and heartbreak as the three main characters, a woman from each generation, are both torn apart and united by their traditions, conflicting values, and love for each other.

The story poetically describes the physical setting and the characters’ deep relationship with that part of their world, but it also vividly depicts the terror, violence, and death inherent in war and revolution. Violence, and it is there, is never gratuitous. Rather, it is seen through the eyes of characters who abhor it and are painfully touched by it. It is a story of steely resolve juxtaposed with rice-paper thin security during political upheaval.

The rhythms of the story artfully lead the reader from subtle, quiet scenes of rituals, leave takings, and loneliness, to looming conflicts, both personal and external, and ultimately through doors that close and can’t be opened again.

Lian Gouw describes a time not so different from today’s, where ethnic identity, oppression, and the struggle for independence is not just about governments but also about ordinary people who want better lives for themselves and their children. To read this book is to understand that people may speak different languages but that the language of the heart is universal.

Only A Girl
Review by Jana McBurney-Lin
award winning author, My Half of the Sky, Komenar Publishing

"Your heart will be torn by the Lee family, citizens of Indonesia during that country's most dynamic period of history (1932-1952). You'll struggle with them as they grapple with which rituals to honor when the world is changing beneath their feet year after year, from Dutch control to Japanese control to Indonesian control. Gouw brings this fascinating piece of history alive."  

In her debut novel, Only A Girl, Lian Gouw has assembled cultural history, social commentary, and character development skillfully. The thought-provoking novel is an intricate weave of family and civilization coming to terms with the past, the present, the future, and war.

Set in Indonesia between 1930 and 1952, Only A Girl is a finely detailed portrait of three courageous Chinese women trying to find their way in a world of cultural melding and upheaval as Western “progress” clatters against customary Chinese mores.

Nanna wishes to maintain established Chinese ideals, yet her daughter Carolien yearns to take on the ways of Western lifestyle imposed by Dutch colonialism. Carolien raises her own daughter Jenny in Western ways but then Jenny is ill-equipped to cope in a society where Dutch rule is no longer when Indonesia is declared independent.

The reader is brought alongside these admirable characters and their complex circumstances with cheering and welling with tears. Difficult and often upsetting moments are balanced with Gouw’s careful and revealing attention to detail. The relationships and characters develop nimbly alongside stunning descriptions of nature, food, and setting.

Only A Girl causes self and societal introspection - we are reminded of the potentially tentative situation of any political system. It is a captivating novel that mines history, heartbreak and humanity.  

Only A Girl
Review by Alan Rinzler
Executive Editor Jossey-Bass/John Wiley &Sons

Only a Girl is a terrific book. Lian Gouw is a great story teller and has shown me so much I never knew about the history, people, society and culture of an important part of the world, which is so crucial to know about now, in this time of global connection and transformation."