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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
This is probably 3.5 stars for me. I did really like it. The only reason I didn't rate it higher was because the first several chapters was really hard to get into.
The book follows Joy (a young Chinese-American)and her mother Pearl (a Chinese immigrant living in America),and is set in the 1950's or 60's. Joy decides that she wants to return to China to help build up China and it's communist movement. Fearing for her daughter, Pearl follows her to try and find her and bring her back to America.
I loved reading about the communist movement in China. If you like historical fiction, this book is a great one.
The book follows Joy (a young Chinese-American)and her mother Pearl (a Chinese immigrant living in America),and is set in the 1950's or 60's. Joy decides that she wants to return to China to help build up China and it's communist movement. Fearing for her daughter, Pearl follows her to try and find her and bring her back to America.
I loved reading about the communist movement in China. If you like historical fiction, this book is a great one.
was on edge like this whole book but so good. def some anti communist prop in it but also the prc fucked ppl up so idk. loved the girlies in this book. stories that center on different generations of women r my shit
Heartbreaking and lovely. I couldn't put this book down.
My only regret is that it’s been a little too long since I read [b:Shanghai Girls|5960325|Shanghai Girls|Lisa See|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51E6J23C50L._SL75_.jpg|5991850], so I was a little fuzzy on some of the details leading up to this book. I don’t think that would be a problem if you hadn’t read the first one first.
3.75 stars
This book started slow for me but I appreciated the detail and learned a lot about life under Mao during the Great Leap Forward. Well worth reading.
This book started slow for me but I appreciated the detail and learned a lot about life under Mao during the Great Leap Forward. Well worth reading.
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love Lisa See. This one was a little different because it was more current. She paints such good pictures of history - it was a good glimpse into communist China.
Dreams of Joy is Lisa See at her best!
The story follows the odyssey of Joy, the daughter of Pearl in "Shanghai Sisters", escaping from the US to the People's Republic of China in 1957. It is important to note first that in this year, Mao Zedong's regime has just launched a campaign called Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom to invite criticism from all elements in China. This campaign was a precursor to the next campaign which resulted in disaster for China, The Great Leap Forward. The book takes the Great Leap Forward period between 1958 and early 1960s as the historical background to the story.
Having arrived in her desired communist China, Joy finally set her steps into meeting his biological father, Z.G. She was once very fond of the idea of communism, cited some famous Mao's quotes such as "Everybody works so everybody eats" or "With one more mouth, come two more hands to work". And her worldview changed when she found out that the New China is not as good as it was campaigned to the whole world and through propaganda. The New China which has brought women to stand up for their own, still had old-fashioned customs and even denounced women who got footbindings.
In this sense, Lisa See tried to give a fair explanations to how the history of the People's Republic of China once was. She provides enough historical background to the readers that even for readers who are not familiar with modern history of China, they will be able to digest it right away.
The book itself is also a hopeful conclusion to the previous book of Lisa See, Shanghai Girls. As the previous book ends with a such open ending with Joy escaped from her mother's house to China. There are many questions in Shanghai Girls which can finally be answered in this book. However in my opinion, Dreams of Joy could also be read in a standalone sense. Since the book itself contains a lot of historical data which might sounds interesting to the readers, especially to those who want to know more about how life in China once was during Mao's Great Leap Forward period.
The story follows the odyssey of Joy, the daughter of Pearl in "Shanghai Sisters", escaping from the US to the People's Republic of China in 1957. It is important to note first that in this year, Mao Zedong's regime has just launched a campaign called Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom to invite criticism from all elements in China. This campaign was a precursor to the next campaign which resulted in disaster for China, The Great Leap Forward. The book takes the Great Leap Forward period between 1958 and early 1960s as the historical background to the story.
Having arrived in her desired communist China, Joy finally set her steps into meeting his biological father, Z.G. She was once very fond of the idea of communism, cited some famous Mao's quotes such as "Everybody works so everybody eats" or "With one more mouth, come two more hands to work". And her worldview changed when she found out that the New China is not as good as it was campaigned to the whole world and through propaganda. The New China which has brought women to stand up for their own, still had old-fashioned customs and even denounced women who got footbindings.
In this sense, Lisa See tried to give a fair explanations to how the history of the People's Republic of China once was. She provides enough historical background to the readers that even for readers who are not familiar with modern history of China, they will be able to digest it right away.
The book itself is also a hopeful conclusion to the previous book of Lisa See, Shanghai Girls. As the previous book ends with a such open ending with Joy escaped from her mother's house to China. There are many questions in Shanghai Girls which can finally be answered in this book. However in my opinion, Dreams of Joy could also be read in a standalone sense. Since the book itself contains a lot of historical data which might sounds interesting to the readers, especially to those who want to know more about how life in China once was during Mao's Great Leap Forward period.
I would give this 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this book - just as much as Shanghai Girls. I loved that it held a couple great surprises at the end as well as provided a lesson in history as I was not aware of "The Great Leap Forward" and the tragedies that accompanied it.
Loved visiting the characters of Shanghai Girls again, but this book was infinitely more depressing and full of hardship than the first one, for me. It went a little slow in the beginning, but I was a puddle of happy tears at the end!!