Lisa See’s book about China in 1937 stretching until shortly after the reign of communism begins is probably the most difficult book I have ever rated.
Ever.
Going into this review I fully understand I was not raised in the Chinese culture and well, I’m white. I don’t understand the reactions of the characters to situations and other characters. That’s why while I say this book is the most depressing book I have ever read and I actually sympathize with the character who committed suicide because this book offered little hope and out of all 300 pages or so, you saw 2 paragraphs of happiness and even that was strained.
The book begins with Pearl and May, 2 sisters in Shanghai when they are roughly 18 and 21. Pearl, the oldest, is immediately identified as the lesser sister in their parents eyes having to endure demeaning ridicule and comparison to her younger, prettier, and daintier sister, May. As Pearl is telling this story in first person, you really feel how sad and embarrassed she is of herself. However, through it all, even with her parents obviously favoritism of her sister May, she takes care of her, and protects her, being her jie jie.
In the first few chapters we realize their Baba (father) is a gambling man who lost everything to debtors, even his own daughters in an arranged marriage. Up until then they always thought that unlike their parents, they would be able to marry for love and choose their partner themselves. They meet with Sam and Vern, the two men they will be marrying, which is out of tradition, but they are allowed to meet once before the wedding. Sam is a quiet and handsome man, very caring and mindful, while Vern is naught but 14 and very good at it, even a little less than mature. Pearl is to marry Sam, May is to marry Vern.
A little while later, 17 days, their new husbands to be are due for return from a “business trip” from Hong Kong for the marriage ceremony to take place. They after dodging, and Pearl being in love with another man, realize they have no choice to go through with it and they do.
When japan declares war on China, the city is bombed, people are dying all around them, and in defiance, they threw away the tickets that would have taken them to America to meet their husbands. When things get back, and their father either runs off from his debtors or is killed, their mother and them start trying to make their own way to America using the little money their mother stowed away from their father’s gambling habit.
Through rape, the death of their mother, and persistence, they finally board a ship to take them to Angel Island, the west’s version of Ellis Island. They find out May is pregnant, and not by her 14 year old husband, so while in detainment before being allowed to go home to their husbands, Pearl decides to raise the baby as her own since she had actually had sex with her husband on the wedding night.
If you are looking for a happy life in America, it’s not here. If this sounds sad thus far, it only gets worse. It’s more of May being terrible and selfish toward her sister, living in a tradition Chinese home with her in laws, her husband, her sister, and her sister’s husband who is not only younger, and a very sweet boy, is ill with disease and mentally slow. The daughter that Pearl raises, Joy, is an absolute ingrate towards the end and continues to step all over her mother, and even her good natured and strong father. May is continually selfish being the almost privileged girl in life and blaming her poor sister who has done nothing but sacrificed for her.
If you either understand the culture, both traditionally and the earlier to mid turn of the 20th century or are just one of those people who don’t mind being surrounded in misery from first to last page, then I have never read a better book for you. Being I am not, I didn’t really enjoy the book on an emotional level, but the story is well written and flows enough to keep you interested and hoping for a better ending that never comes.
Final Rating: 3 stars
