This was a vibrant read and one that spoke to me in a deeply profound way. I enjoyed that Chan brought in the act of investigation and I found that her style of writing matched that journey. I enjoyed the unique tone and pacing that feels more intimate for is connection to objects rather than sticking to a specific narrative arc that I would be expecting from a memoir or biography, this book invited retrospection. Throughout, Alexandra Chen offers a wonderfully rich meditation on the role of storytelling in our personal and collective mythologies by focusing on her own family. The introduction connects stories with family and history in a way that had me reading to see where the next section would go. By the end of the first chapter I found photography, objective history, and poetic remembrance all joined together with beautiful original artwork to show the many varied and layered versions of storytelling that each uncover a different aspect of that unique conjoining of history and mythology that is, at its heart, The Human Story.