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Shanghai Girls: A Novel (Hardcover)
Shanghai Girls: A Novel (Hardcover) Reviews
I’m a fan of Lisa See’s two earlier novels, “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” and “Peony in Love”, both of which were set in 19th and 17th century China respectively. In “Shanghai Girls”, the author moves the setting of the novel to Shanghai and later to the US. Lisa See paints a vivid portrait of life in pre-World War II Shanghai and takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through the Japanese invasion of China and its aftermath.
The protagonists in this novel are two sisters – Pearl and May. Pearl is the older sister, born in the auspicious Year of the Dragon, yet frowned upon by her Baba [father] who dislikes her tall appearance. Pearl is also educated, having completed college, and is proficient in a few languages and dialects. In contrast, younger sister May, born in the Year of the Sheep, is shorter yet lovely, and has only managed to complete high school. Yet, for all Pearl’s accomplishments, it is May that is the apple of her parent’s eyes, and uses this partiality to her advantage. Both sisters live a life of privilege, yet they work as ‘beautiful girls’ posing for pictures used in ads and posters and earn a good living. This may appear surprising given their parent’s conservative outlook [the girls' mother has bound feet], yet not altogether strange as later events bring to light the family’s dire financial straits.
When the girls are told their father has huge debts and has decided to marry them off to a pair of brothers, Gold Mountain Men residing in LA [men who have left China to go to America to seek their fortunes, returning to find China Brides], they realize their days of freedom are over and decide to revolt. Unfortunately, the Japanese invasion of Shanghai puts an end to any of their plans. Fleeing the Japanese is not without its horrors and ultimately Pearl and May find themselves alone except for one another.
Even after leaving China, the pair find their situation is still dire as upon arrival in the United States, Pearl and May are detained on Angel’s Island for months undergoing untold suffering. They finally meet their ‘spouses’ but life for the sisters still has many trials in store, and a secret shared between them threatens their future.
“Shanghai Girls” is a well-woven narrative that flows well and Lisa See credibly evokes the bond between two sisters, whose love for one another is strong, yet also fraught by rivalries. This is not just a story about siblings for it is also about the clash between East and West as the sisters struggle to find their footing in a new world, even as the bonds of their old world remain strong. Lisa See is truly a gifted author for being able to portray both the old world of 17th and 19th century China [as seen in Peony and Snow Flower] and the new as seen in “Shanghai Girls”. Final verdict: a compelling read.
I was tired when I finished the book. It was one of those where I had to stay up one night to finish it because when I tried to put it down, the story kept turning over in my head. I had an honest like and dislike for some of the characters. I do have to admit that part of me kept wondering what else could go wrong as the story progressed.
The most striking thing about this book was that it is the first time that I, as an African-American, could feel the effects of discrimination against another people. The author is able to really make you feel what the characters feel. Additional kudos goes to the author for illustrating how dangerous it is to see things from only one point of view. Ever story has at least two sides.
Aside from wondering how much more hardship could possibly befall the family, I found the book to be an excellent read. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a challenging read.
I felt I had a duty to finish this advance copy in order to write an honest review about the novel. I can’t say that it was pulling teeth to finish it. But I can’t say that I would have finished it if I had simply checked it out of the library and had no obligation to review it on Amazon.
The writing is meh. You’ll find that the author’s major lacking is in the use of descriptors and imagery. While there was plenty of opportunity–from the Chinese cooking, to the sights of Shanghai, to the horrors of war and the trauma of rape, to the physical beauty of the women subjects–the author’s descriptions could have been far more vivid and compelling than they actually were. The plot was not bad, but it was somewhat predictable. The flow of the story actually picked up a great deal towards the last 1/2 of the book, and towards the end, I was reading at a rapid clip b/c of the suspense. Unfortunately, the book ends with a pretty major cliffhanger, so it’s obvious that the author probably has a sequel in mind for these characters.
If you want a better read on life in China during the pre-war period, I highly recommend Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking which is compelling and heart-wrenching. If you want a great read on mother-daughter and sisterly relationships in the context of intergenerational and intercultural American-Chinese differences, I would greatly recommend just about anything by Amy Tan, whose characters and their relationships are so vividly narrated and rich, that I am often convinced that she is writing about my own Chinese mother and myself (a first generation Asian American woman). I particularly recommend Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, and The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Between Tan and Chang, I’m not entirely sure that Lisa See has a lot to offer a reader that’s much different or better.
Nevertheless, one can see that a great deal of research and personal interviews went into the making of the novel, and it comes off as fairly genuine and well-conceived. I do also really like the author’s angle of living as an illegal Chinese or even as a Chinese-American during the post-war Red Scare in the United States. I only wish that the narrative was more fleshed out.
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