Ashley’s Reviews > The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie > Status Update

I’ve been enjoying Flavia’s precociousness but just hit a snag that’s disappointing. I acknowledge that this book is set in 1950, but it just referenced a character “dressing up” to “be” Chinese, similar to Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This racial insensitivity may be historically accurate, but it’s off-putting in a 21st-c book, especially as one that so subtly questions gender norms.