Book Review: Acquiesce

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I received this book in a swag bag at a writers' conference. Acquiesce is a play written by David Yee who is half-Chinese, half-Scottish born and raised in Toronto. This is the first time I have read a play (except for Shakespeare back in high school a few decades ago and I never understood those). For me it's a slightly confusing play as the scenes go back and forth from present & past and being written in play format it's harder to distinguish the difference. There is not a lot of description. Aside from a facial expression or a movement, it is mostly dialogue in script form. Though I know it was the author's intention, having characters that aren't really there but you don't know it until later, is confusing for me. However, I am curious to know how they would perform on the stage two past & present scenes simultaneously. What I liked was learning about the Chinese culture when it comes to family and death rituals, and the family relationship aspect. The main character, SIN, is like the author - born and raised in Toronto of mixed race - and knows nothing of his Chinese culture. When his father passes away he has to go to China and perform the "eldest son duties" during the funeral process, SIN is ignorant and resistant as his relationship with his father fell apart many years earlier. There was some humour sprinkled throughout and it was an easy, quick read. I originally gave this 3 stars but as I was writing my review on Goodreads I changed it to 4. NOTE THE STAR RATINGS AS PER GOODREADS: 1 - I did not like it 2 - it was OK 3 - I liked it 4 - really liked it 5 - it was amazing