Product Description
In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she’s painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.
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 Great read of that era
Enjoyed the book thoroughly. Made me very interested in foot binding. I can not believe this actually happened. Great plot and history in this book.
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Great Book!!!
I know the title is a little crazy but this is a great story and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. If you liked Memoirs of a Geisha then you have to read this book!
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 Inspirational book for women!
Lis See's novel is definitely worth reading. It's a great way to increase one's knowledge of other cultures and read an interesting novel at the same time.
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 Not so good...
My high school counselor suggested this book to me when I told her I particularly enjoyed Amy Tan's novels. No, she really wasn't trying to be mean to be or anything, and I'm not being sarcastic here. Also, a high school classmate told me it was one of her favorite books. All I knew was that it had something to do with the ancient Chinese days, nothing else.
A few months went by, and I didn't think much about books anymore. But one day, I was at a Borders in my local mall in Los Angeles. I somehow spotted this book even though it was on the highest shelf possible. I instantly recognized the title. I got on the stool and grabbed it.
That is one thing that I also found quite odd: both sides of the cover are misleading. The front looks like it could be about anything, maybe even Japanese or Korean! I mean, come on, they used fans as part of their culture as well! Perhaps a picture of a woman in a qipao (the traditional Chinese dress) or with tiny slippers would have been more suitable.
Lisa See makes the first mistake when she claims that the main character, Lily, is a farmer's daughter. If this were a true story... well, it just simply wouldn't happen. Farmers tend to be incredibly poor. It's common knowledge that only rich women got their feet bound up, because if you're poor, then what's the point? You still have to work on crops in the hot, blistering sun all day long. Perhaps if Lily's father were a landowner or doctor, then her footbinding would make more sense. Her father standing as a farmer and her trying to get into royalty just doesn't fit together.
Further proof of the above paragraph, well I'm Chinese and I was raised in a Chinese community, one in Los Angeles that rivals San Francisco and even our actual business district downtown. Very rarely does footbinding ever come up in our normal conversations, and I have yet to have met a person who actually has a female in their family who got their feet bound. To top it off, I've only heard about one person who has a female relative who got it done out of the whole thing (books, internet, media), and that was in a collection of short stories.
Another thing is that Lisa See makes it seem like the story is basically that Chinese women some time ago only got their feet bound and finished while their age was only single digits, married before or around the time kids today would graduate high school, had five (or more) children, and sat around in big chairs all day staring out windows. I'm sure it was not that simple. They probably had to give birth, watch children, and cook when the maid weren't there to attend to business. They still had kids to watch after, I doubt the servants would enjoy having to stress themselves out with a dozen little ones and the lunch dumplings.
The language they use, the thing they claimed was exclusive to women, it's definitely not universal. I'm pretty sure no one has heard of it. Me and my family didn't even know what it was until I picked up this book. I do believe it was used only in Hunan, that one part of China.
Like a couple of other reviewers pointed out, the story never really seems to take off. We bounce through a few events, tragic nonetheless, but Lily does not appear to have very much emotion for her sad little life, even for being an oppressed and young Chinese female. Even in Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha", the main character has a few voiced complaints and joys here and there.
Although I'm not born and raised in Hong Kong like C. Pun, one of the other reviewers here who highly criticized the book, I'm a full Chinese female born and raised in Los Angeles. I just don't understand all the hype surrounding this book, considering it's incredibly historically inaccurate and that is what the whole story is supposed to be based on: history. I saw that Amy Tan praised it, saying something like, "Hey, this is a great story about two women in China a couple of centuries back who survived footbinding with the help of each other. This is a world that has faded away from us only recently." I really don't get that, because she was a great author and "The Joy Luck Club" became one of my favorites, how could she bow down to something like this?
Like C. Pun said, why did Lisa See decide to write up something like this? Chinese definitely would not run around writing up novels about other cultures. Not only is it because we tend to not know very much about them, we're not them, and besides those two facts, it sure would look very inaccurate and silly to the world. Although when you get to the end of the book and see the credits where Lisa claims she is half Chinese and half Caucasian, some pages on the internet claim she's only a quarter or one-eighth Asian.
I will admit that this story was very tragic. It sent my mind reeling for weeks afterwards, and even after that it popped back into my head a few times a month. Like, what if we lived like that? What if I had feet even smaller than the size of my hand? The story does have a good theme or two scattered in certain places around the book, but the poor writing style and unrealistic story just do not click with it. I only wish it had been written by a different person, with different characters and a more realistic background.
On a last note, to those who said we came pretty far from the days of footbinding and oppression, there's still Hollywood and evil people out there. I should know, I only grew up near there. Fake boobs, size zero, eating disorders. For some reason, I find this comparable to those runway models. They have to be thin or else. It's like that for most celebrities as well. Although it doesn't apply to normal people as much, the pressure still hangs above them. Yes, inequality still exists and it is unknown if it will ever go extinct.
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Heart-wrencing and beautiful
Pros: Compelling, suspenseful, moving, beautifully written, evokes passionate sympathy and emotion, delicate and lovely prose.
Cons: Makes many relationships in your life seem fake and superficial when compared to that of Snow Flower and Lily's'.
I could not stop crying! There are no crazy plot twists, nothing exceedingly clever, but the conflict at hand is so simple yet laid out so eloquently and is incredibly POWERFUL despite it's simplicity. Truly special!
Highly recommended!
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