Review: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See is the tale of two sisters.   The book opens in Shanghai in 1937, where Pearl and May are “beautiful girls” who model for an artist and whose faces appear on calendars and advertisements selling everything from soap to cigarettes.  They make money, but it all goes into supporting their expensive lifestyle.  They are sophisticated, educated girls who wear gorgeous clothing, stay out late, go to clubs, and take full advantage of their status in this cosmopolitan city.  They are blissfully ignorant of the rapidly changing political climate and the war with Japan looming on the horizon. 

At home, they are just girls, albeit girls living a privileged life, with cooks and servants and lovely furnishings.  Daughters are worthless in China except for their value as marriage material.  Pearl, however, is in love with her “beautiful girl” artist ZG, and May loves Tommy.  They’ve made a modern assumption that they will marry for love, as they do in the west, and are shocked when their father announces that their marriages have been arranged, to help the family. “Baba”, a wealthy businessman, has had a reversal of fortune.  His gambling debts are mounting and he sees no other way out but to marry off his daughters to the highest bidder. 

24 hours later, the girls are married women.  Their new husbands, Sam and Vern (only 14!), and their family live in Los Angeles.  The plan is that the girls will tie up loose ends, take a boat to Hong Kong to meet their new husbands, then travel with them to Los Angeles.   Pearl and May, still in denial, never get on the boat for Hong Kong.  Baba is upset but thinks, “What can I do?”  Life goes on pretty much as before, with the girls adjusting their lifestyle only slightly and trying to make more money. 

But then the war breaks out.  They get caught up in the bombings but manage to escape Shanghai.   Threatened by collectors of Baba’s debt, they flee.  Leaving the city proves extremely difficult, and as they make their way out of the country, they are broken both physically and spiritually.  They finally arrive in Los Angeles after much hardship and make a life with their husbands and extended family as immigrants in Chinatown.  Pearl and May, with their love of western clothing and sensibilities, are made to wear the traditional clothing of China for the tourists and must stay within the confines of the community.   Pearl works and works, harboring little resentments against the more carefree May.  They struggle with everyday life, and nothing is as they expected it to be.   

As in Lisa See’s earlier novels, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love, there is a major misunderstanding between the main characters that threatens to destroy their relationship and propels much of what happens in the book.  May and Pearl, like all siblings, view their shared past differently.  The revelatory moment, when they each see things clearly and understand the others’ perspective, comes late in the novel.   

I’m a huge Lisa See fan and was completely swept away by Shanghai Girls. This is a book about survival and just how much a person will endure for the people they love.  It is also a captivating history lesson about the difficulties faced by our immigrant population.  The book is so rich in detail, lush in its descriptive language.  Lisa See is an expert at describing and exploring women’s relationships, making this a natural choice for a book club.  My only complaint is the cliffhanger ending.. but then, maybe that leaves the door open for a sequel.  I hope so!  

Shanghai Girls will be released on May 26th.  Many thanks to Random House for sending me an advanced readers copy.  

For more information on Lisa See, please visit her website.

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Review: Peony in Love by Lisa See

Lisa See is a master at exploring ancient Chinese life, particularly the lives of women.  Set in 17^th century China, Peony in Love is the story of how a privileged young girl from a wealthy family becomes a lovesick maiden, a hungry ghost, and eventually, an honored ancestor. 

The story opens with 16 year old Peony and her household preparing for a performance of the opera “The Peony Pavilion” which her father has staged and directed at great expense.  Visitors have arrived and there is much excitement.  The opera is performed over the course of several days, and the young unmarried women are permitted to view it only from behind a screen, because it would be improper for a man outside of their immediate families to see them. 

Peony, an only child, is educated and well loved, unlike many ‘useless’ girls of her time.  She is lovely with her tiny bound feet and delicate lily gait.  She has studied the opera, considered a danger by some, and has many opinions and feelings about it.  Through the screen she can see some of the guests and a section of the stage.  She glimpses a handsome young man in the audience and, during a particularly poignant scene, is overcome with emotion and needs to move about.  Quite by accident, she encounters this young man (a sensitive poet who was also moved by the scene) in a courtyard of her home.  Ashamed at being seen yet drawn to him, they have a few moments together boldly speaking about the opera.  

Peony finds a way to meet this young man twice more.  Her mother discovers she has been out, and fearing the appearance of impropriety, banishes the betrothed Peony to her room.  Though she never learns the poet’s name, Peony becomes obsessed with the idea of him.  Her father has already arranged a marriage for her but she is lovesick for her poet, consumed by thoughts of him and wishing to marry him.  Ever the dutiful daughter, she continues to prepare for her marriage but also begins a project based on The Peony Pavilion, obsessively recording her thoughts on love in the margins.  She starts refusing food and ignores the advice of her doctors.  Her mother, alarmed and desperate to make Peony well again, burns every edition of The Peony Pavilion that she can find in a vain attempt to shock Peony back into health.  By the time Peony realizes she has made a horrible mistake about her sensitive poet, she is on her deathbed and it is too late. 

But that is just the beginning of this love story.  Peony learns about yearning and romantic love as a young girl; she later discovers physical love as a hungry ghost, and ‘deep heart’ love as a sister-wife in the afterworld.  She finds a way to make her voice heard and to live on even after death. 

I was anxious to read this book after having read Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, perhaps my favorite book of all time (definitely in my top 3).  It is beautifully written, historically accurate, well researched and artfully constructed.  It’s a very visual book; I could vividly see the scenes in my mind’s eye.  There are so many wonderful cultural details and rich descriptions of traditions, superstitions and ideas about the afterlife, the treatment of ancestors, foot binding (not nearly as intense as Snow Flower, thank goodness), women’s issues, marriage, writing, and everyday life that make this a truly absorbing novel.  I loved it and would recommend Peony in Love to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, or just a really good (tragic romantic asian ghost) story. 

My book club will have the great privilege of talking to Lisa See by speaker phone next Sunday at our meeting.  I’ll be sure to take notes and share the details here!

Sunday Salon

Happy Sunday!  I have so much catching up to do, it’s ridiculous.  First, before another second goes by, let me announce the winners of two contests that were over long ago!  Valerie M. is the winner of the Agatha Christie’s Poirot DVD collection contest!  AND Shana from Literarily is the winner of Sweetsmoke by David Fuller!  Congrats to the winners!

My husband came home from China this week.  His business trip was extended an extra day due to a typhoon, but fortunately he got out ok and made it home without incident.  The kids divebombed him the second he walked through the door- “Daddy, daddy, we missed you, what’d ya bring me???”  He had all kinds of junk ancient Chinese artifacts.  My oldest was especially excited because her 6th grade class is studying ancient China right now.  She freaked out when she discovered he’d seen the Terra Cotta Warriors– he had no idea she was studying that in school and couldn’t believe how much she knew about it. Her class had a field trip Friday to the Bowers Museum to see the amazing Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit, the largest display of Emperor Qin’s army of 7,000 soldiers outside of China, where she proudly boasted that her daddy had been there just last week.  

My younger daughter (of I Hate You, Mom fame) was just happy to get a red shirt and red pajamas from China (red being her favorite color) along with lots of other cheap souvenirs I have no place to put lovely keepsakes.

I’ve been without a camera since March, when my old NIkon went in the shop and never came out. Apparently a 5 year old digital camera is an antique that is nearly impossible to get parts for.  I finally gave up hope of ever getting it back and bought myself a sweeeet new camera- a Canon EOS Rebel Digital SLR. It arrived this week from Best Buy Online (free shipping!) and all I want to do is play with it!  I LOVE IT and have been so busy reading the manual and figuring out all the features that I haven’t done much other reading.  (The picture on top is the first pic I took with my new camera.)  I’m still working on Peony in Love by Lisa See for my book club and it’s wonderful.  I plan to devote a couple of hours to it today.  Or maybe I’ll just take pictures.  We’ll see.

Oh, I also wanted to mention that we have two new TLC Book Tours starting this week:  Lesley Dormen, author of The Best Place to Be (tour schedule HERE), and Kim Powers, author of Capote in Kansas (tour schedule HERE), will be making the rounds.  

What have you been up to this week?

Sunday Salon

It’s finally SUNDAY!  I think a lot of us bloggers have a BBAW hangover this weekend.  So many posts to read, so many giveaways, so many awards and so much excitement!  It was a great week, put on by the tireless My Friend Amy, who did a phenomenal job putting it all together and keeping track of everything.  A round of applause for AMY!  (clap, clap, clap)

My BBAW giveaways will be ending this week too;  this one on Monday, and this one on Tuesday.  Hurry and enter if you haven’t already!

Fall has arrived here in Southern California. I used to love this time of year growing up in Michigan- back to school, sweater weather, fall colors, apple picking.  The change of seasons is more subtle in So. Cal. but when you’ve lived her awhile you start to notice small things.  We go from hot to warm, green to brown, and dry to not quite as dry, over the course of several months.  It’s still blazing hot right now, but it cools off in the evenings, and it’s chilly in the early morning.  The kids are back in school (and already have tons of homework), and by next weekend we’ll start to see pumpkins and scarecrows on porches to remind us that it’s fall, since the weather doesn’t offer much of a clue.

I’ve got so much reading lined up but it’s a challenge to find time.  My husband is in China on business, so I’ve been a “single mom” for the past week.  Things I’ve had to do without him include:

* going to Back to School night alone

* taking the girls on an overnight campout at their school (I  made the kids put the tent up, so it wasn’t that bad- it was just the carting things back and forth and the sleeping on the ground that sucked!)

* dealing with the emotions (“I miss daddy” sniff sniff)

* hauling the garbage cans to the curb and back (his job)

* feeding the dog and picking up poop (also his job)

* taking my youngest to her golf lesson (always a daddy/daughter thing)  

On the plus side, I’ve only cooked dinner once all week.  A couple nights we had leftovers, a couple nights we went out, and one night we had “breakfast for dinner”.  Oh, and I haven’t shaved my legs.  Ha!

Right now I’m reading Peony in Love by Lisa See.  I’ve wanted to read this since it came out, but was waiting for my book club to vote it in.  So far I LOVE it.  I was already a big fan after reading Snow Flower, now I’m a bigger fan.  Her writing is so lush and evocative- you get such a sense of the surroundings, you can almost smell the jasmine on the breeze.  Lisa is going to join our book club meeting in October by speaker phone and we could not be more excited!  

Next on the TBR pile is Immortal by Traci Slatton for Jennifer’s online book club at Literate Housewives (not to be confused with her regular blog, Literate Housewife). This one is somehow a cross between historical fiction and time travel.  It’s set in Florence in the 14th century, and the back cover says something about a golden boy having to make a choice between immortality and his only chance to find his true love (I’m paraphrasing wildly).  

After that, it’s on to The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff for a TLC Book Tour stop here on October 30th.  It’s about Ann Eliza Young, 19th wife of Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon church.  There’s also a parallel story about a present day murder in a polygamist family.  I can’t wait to start it.  

And last, but hopefully not least, I’ll be reading Run by Ann Patchett.  The only Patchett I’ve read is Bel Canto, which I intensely disliked, but because my friend Jill at Fizzy Thoughts liked Run so much, and then offered to send me her copy, I’m going to give it a try.  I’m also interested in Patchett’s Truth and Beauty, about her friendship with Lucy Grealy (Autobiography of a Face), so I’m going to give her a second chance, and then possibly a third.  

I’m curious- If you’ve read a book that you didn’t like at all, do you give an author another chance and read more of their work?  Or do you “fire them” forever?  

Happy Sunday!