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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
This book must be read after Shanghai Girls. It took me a little bit longer to get into, but once I did the story was engrossing. Had a hard time putting it down just like Shanghai Girls. Loved it.
I am glad I read this second book. I never knew of the famine and difficulties that the Chinese people had to endure at the hands of Mao Tse-Tung's communist regime. I knew about them as fact, but I never visualized them or personalized them. You really felt for the people of China and the horrors of what went on.
I knew [b:Shanghai Girls|5960325|Shanghai Girls|Lisa See|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255570412s/5960325.jpg|5991850] didn't seem finished, so was excited to read this sequel. The historical setting -- China during Mao's "Great Leap Forward" -- is fascinating, bringing to the catastrophic consequences of collectivization to life. Joy, the title character, is a Chinese-American college drop-out, who has run away to China to find her newly revealed biological father and help build Communist China. I wanted to beat her with The Little Red Book as she refused to listen to any of the parental figures who tried to tell her that Mao's China was no utopia. Eventually, of course, even she can't ignore the glaring hypocrisy and starvation around her, but by then all kinds of complications have arisen. I thought the ending See created was a bit overly complicated, but it allowed her to weave all the little threads in exactly where she wanted them.
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wow, I am in awe of this book. Shanghai Girls/Dreams of Joy deserves a Nobel prize or something. I've never said that before.
This was my 6th Lisa See novel, but I should have read this so much sooner. It was a look into communist China like I've never seen before, although there have been glimpses of communism in her other books. It almost feels like a book that certain people would want to ban. Although the message about communism (or at least Mao's China) varies from anxious to horrific, it also lets the reader know clearly that, "Everything China says about China is propaganda, and everything the United States says about China is also propaganda." The same goes for anything you hear about the USA.
After the traumatized ending of Shanghai Girls, 18 year old Joy runs away from her life and guilt in Los Angeles.... To Communist China. Her liberal Chicago college and "Chinese-American clubs" turned her into a communist sympathizer, which ruined her family when the government investigated. She's never been to China, although her mother and Aunt fled China in Shanghai Girls, and she thinks it will be better... or at least, she doesn't deserve to go home. It's much easier to get into China than it should be, but it's not so easy to get out (not that she wants to). Her terrified mother also goes to China to search for Joy and convince her to come home.
China wants the world (and its people) to picture China as a place where no one goes hungry, everyone is equal, and the vegetables grow to the size of houses. They try, in a terrifying and militaristic way, but no part of this is true. Everyone starves to death. I always expect to be devastated by Lisa See, but that expectation never makes it less horrible. It gets shocking.
My only "criticism" is that these books should really be re-released with new covers, like Lisa See's more recent books. These covers look dated, and they really don't send the right message about what kind of books these are. Everyone judges a book by its cover, unfortunately. These deserve more!
This was my 6th Lisa See novel, but I should have read this so much sooner. It was a look into communist China like I've never seen before, although there have been glimpses of communism in her other books. It almost feels like a book that certain people would want to ban. Although the message about communism (or at least Mao's China) varies from anxious to horrific, it also lets the reader know clearly that, "Everything China says about China is propaganda, and everything the United States says about China is also propaganda." The same goes for anything you hear about the USA.
After the traumatized ending of Shanghai Girls, 18 year old Joy runs away from her life and guilt in Los Angeles.... To Communist China. Her liberal Chicago college and "Chinese-American clubs" turned her into a communist sympathizer, which ruined her family when the government investigated. She's never been to China, although her mother and Aunt fled China in Shanghai Girls, and she thinks it will be better... or at least, she doesn't deserve to go home. It's much easier to get into China than it should be, but it's not so easy to get out (not that she wants to). Her terrified mother also goes to China to search for Joy and convince her to come home.
China wants the world (and its people) to picture China as a place where no one goes hungry, everyone is equal, and the vegetables grow to the size of houses. They try, in a terrifying and militaristic way, but no part of this is true. Everyone starves to death. I always expect to be devastated by Lisa See, but that expectation never makes it less horrible. It gets shocking.
My only "criticism" is that these books should really be re-released with new covers, like Lisa See's more recent books. These covers look dated, and they really don't send the right message about what kind of books these are. Everyone judges a book by its cover, unfortunately. These deserve more!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This is my favorite book of Lisa See and I love all her books. It was a great cont of Shanghai Girls. And I love the way that she wrote the book through both Peral and Joy. It gave the story more dept and insight into both of the story lines!
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This book was a pleasant surprise. I always thought Lisa See wrote light fiction, but she has actually done a lot of on-the-spot research. So I am mistaken. And when I think of some of her other books, she must have done the work. So I am in error. Eventhough this book is fiction, it rings very true and accurate. Now I will go back and see which of her books I haven't read. I did read Shanghai Girls recently. Amy Tan invited her to go to China and this is how this particular novel, in part, came to be.
Lisa See's mother is also an accomplished writer.
Lisa See's mother is also an accomplished writer.
Simply fantastic. I read Shanghai Girls a couple years ago, and I forgot how much I was attached to Pearl and May's story. This sequel possibly outshone its predecessor, focusing on Pearl's daughter Joy, and her journey into Communist China in the late 1950s. Several of the scenes in China are quite graphic, but the entire story was truly engrossing. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in China in the wake of the Great Leap Forward and to readers of Shanghai Girls; you won't be disappointed.