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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
Don't expect lots of happiness in Lisa See's novels; they are often tragic, sad and filled with heartbreak. Dreams of Joy is no exception; joy only really enters the picture at the very, very end. This is essentially a sequel to Shanghai Girls; it's probably possible to read this without reading that first book, but I would still recommend reading them both. As usual, though, See brings to Western attention the stories of Chinese people whose lives might go unnoticed. She allows us a good look inside Communist China in the '50s/'60s and the many problems caused by Mao. Absolutely heartbreaking. But it is good to know a bit more about an era and place I hadn't heard much about in this way. See educates us without making it feel educational.
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com: https://ratedreads.com/dreams-joy-clean-fiction-book-review/
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com: https://ratedreads.com/dreams-joy-clean-fiction-book-review/
I resisted reading this because I hated Snow Flower so much, but I ended up enjoying this book. Actually, I don't know if "enjoying" is a good word, since the last third of the book is so incredibly grim and heart wrenching. However, it made the Cultural Revolution more clear to me, and even though it was horribly sad, I was grateful to have the chance to see what many suffered--and what isn't often addressed.
I'm only giving it four stars, though, because I felt some plot solutions were a bit contrived. Other than that, I highly recommend this book and will be reading *Shanghai Girls* so I can learn more about these characters.
I'm only giving it four stars, though, because I felt some plot solutions were a bit contrived. Other than that, I highly recommend this book and will be reading *Shanghai Girls* so I can learn more about these characters.
Followup to "Shanghai Girls." Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, 19-year-old Joy runs off to Shanghai to find her real father.
I have admittedly been reading this book for a while. I'm sure it would have been much faster if I hadn't decided to reread Harry Potter about a chapter into this book, but there you go. Lisa See is an auther I really enjoy, but it took me a while to get into this one. It is a sequel to Shanghai Girls, which isn't my favorite of her books. I had also read that one quite a while ago and was pretty fuzzy on the details. So starting this book also required me to squint back and recall all that had happened in the last one.
But once I really got into the story I thought it was pretty good. I know next to nothing about the People's Republic of China, but I feel like I at least have an idea of the tragedy now. It was fascinating to watch different practices be put into place, knowing that they were surely destined to fail. I really liked that the story was told from two perspectives: one the young, naive girl full of Red Spirit, and the other the older, wiser, and more suspicious mother.
Pearl is a pretty great woman, and I would love to know her in real life. I enjoyed Joy's journey throughout the novel, and it was interesting to see at what point her eyes would open to the mistakes that were being made all around her. By the end of the book this girl was only 22 or 23, and she has had a lifetime of experiences and bad choices behind her.
Of See's books that I have read so far I have enjoyed Snow Flower and Peony the most, but I think it is interesting how she is taking different moments in time and creating these characters and experiences all connected in some way to China. It is really cool to find remnants of something from on story in another and to see they way that attitudes and traditions have changed or stayed the same. I will continue to pick up Lisa See's books, and think others could really enjoy them as well.
But once I really got into the story I thought it was pretty good. I know next to nothing about the People's Republic of China, but I feel like I at least have an idea of the tragedy now. It was fascinating to watch different practices be put into place, knowing that they were surely destined to fail. I really liked that the story was told from two perspectives: one the young, naive girl full of Red Spirit, and the other the older, wiser, and more suspicious mother.
Pearl is a pretty great woman, and I would love to know her in real life. I enjoyed Joy's journey throughout the novel, and it was interesting to see at what point her eyes would open to the mistakes that were being made all around her. By the end of the book this girl was only 22 or 23, and she has had a lifetime of experiences and bad choices behind her.
Of See's books that I have read so far I have enjoyed Snow Flower and Peony the most, but I think it is interesting how she is taking different moments in time and creating these characters and experiences all connected in some way to China. It is really cool to find remnants of something from on story in another and to see they way that attitudes and traditions have changed or stayed the same. I will continue to pick up Lisa See's books, and think others could really enjoy them as well.
challenging
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was a very good book. Rhough the grotesque explainstion of starvation and what people did was difficult to read. Although the rape is not clearly described it is referred to enough that it bothered me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Classism
I have been captivated by each novel I read from Lisa See. Her writing captures the time period, characters and events so well that it feels you are a part of them. This follow-up to Shanghai Girls is no different and takes the reader inside China during the Great Famine. I feel that a lot of Asian history is overlooked or ignored in American textbooks and thus reading See's books I have discovered so much that I want to learn more about.
I liked Dreams of Joy better than it's predecessor. At the end of Shanghai Girls, Joy runs away to China. It is the worst thing she could do. But, she thought she was smarter than, and knew more than her mother, aunt, and father Sam. Sam was not her biological father. He was her father in all the ways that counted. He committed suicide at the end of Shanghai Girls. Her real father (Z.G.) lives in China. After over hearing that her mother Pearl is really her aunt and, her aunt May is really her mother... She runs away to China with money saved for her college education. Her journey is partially fueled by guilt she feels for her fathers suicide. It's partially wanting to meet her father. It's partially from idealizing China. A place she has never been. Pearl follows, worried sick about her daughter. At first everything is fine. Joy meets her father, meets a boy named Tao and gradually gets to learn about the China she has thought about while in the states. Her and Pearl reunite. The book alternates between her and Pearls point of view. Pearl goes back to her family home. The boarders are still there from 20 years ago. They have let the house go. It's dirty and run down. But she develops a relationship with a man who was a young student at the time she left. Joy was not a very likeable character. She became likeable towards the end. But, it was after she was humbled. After she marries Tao, he shows his true colors. She realizes that Pearl and Z.G. were right about him. She gets pregnant and has a girl. Her daughter is not valued by anyone in the village collective she chose to live with Tao but her. Under Mao's rule, China has a horrible famine. A famine that almost kills Joy and her daughter. She is saved by the mother she took for granted. There is drama at the end involving Tao. He was a traitor to the people that helped him. I almost thought they would not escape. It was a "happy" ending. But, not without a lot of turmoil before hand. Plus, we finally get to read about what happened to Pearl and May's father.
This book has been sitting on my bookshelf forEVER. Probably for 3 or 4 years. Uhh, obviously I always meant to read it. I remember buying it almost immediately after finishing the first book, Shanghai Girls, way back in the day (haha). Shanghai Girls was an addicting read and I wanted more. But then for some reason, I never got around to reading Dreams of Joy until now — probably some other book popped up on my radar and I just HAD to read that first, you know.
Anyway, Dreams of Joy was not as good as Shanghai Girls, let’s be honest. Not saying it’s bad, just that if I was forced to compare the two, Shanghai Girls would come out on top. Even though the two books are related, you don’t have to read the first one first in order to read this one.
In Dreams of Joy, it’s 1957 and we start off in Los Angelos. 19 year old Joy discovers that her parents aren’t her real parents. Her real mom is actually her aunt, and her real dad is an artist in communist China. Also known as the New Society of Red China. Devastated by the loss of her non-biological father, Joy decides she wants to reunite with her bio-father in China, and, influenced by the propaganda of China, help rebuild her ancestral country. She’s totally over her head in her idealism and nobody can convince her that this is a bad idea. Actually, she was rather hard to like, but that may be because the reader (me) already knows how this part of China’s history plays out, so I was like, girl, you gotta stop being stupid and go home. But nope.
Somehow she makes it to China and actually finds her father (…. well that was easy, huh?) Even her bio-dad tries to subtly tell her she should go back to America because things aren’t what they seem here. But Joy stubbornly wants to stay and do her part in helping China become one of the best countries in the world. So, part of the reason why I didn’t like this book as much as the other one was because Joy’s misplaced enthusiasm for Red China was so hard to relate to (’cause we know how that turns out in the end!!!), and also, a lot of her thinking and talking is too much like a spoiled brat.
Of course, she later gets caught in one of the biggest tragedies of China — y’know, the famine and stuff — and only then does she sort of get it, but by then it’s a little late. I guess she sort of redeems herself later but I don’t really like characters, or real people, who have such strong blind idealism and disregard everything that other people say. Like, come on, your parents that loved and raised you and ESCAPED from China are trying to tell you to stay the hell away from there, but somehow, you know better. Oh, and you know, she thinks it’s a great idea to get married to some guy she’s known for a few months and get knocked up too. Mmhmmm.
I loved the historical aspect of this book a lot, but man, I couldn’t really stand Joy. The other characters were okay at best, but as Joy was one of the main characters and I had to read from her perspective quite frequently, this book was a tad hard to get through; hence why it took me nearly 3 weeks to complete reading even though it’s not that long of a book. Oh well.
Anyway, Dreams of Joy was not as good as Shanghai Girls, let’s be honest. Not saying it’s bad, just that if I was forced to compare the two, Shanghai Girls would come out on top. Even though the two books are related, you don’t have to read the first one first in order to read this one.
In Dreams of Joy, it’s 1957 and we start off in Los Angelos. 19 year old Joy discovers that her parents aren’t her real parents. Her real mom is actually her aunt, and her real dad is an artist in communist China. Also known as the New Society of Red China. Devastated by the loss of her non-biological father, Joy decides she wants to reunite with her bio-father in China, and, influenced by the propaganda of China, help rebuild her ancestral country. She’s totally over her head in her idealism and nobody can convince her that this is a bad idea. Actually, she was rather hard to like, but that may be because the reader (me) already knows how this part of China’s history plays out, so I was like, girl, you gotta stop being stupid and go home. But nope.
Somehow she makes it to China and actually finds her father (…. well that was easy, huh?) Even her bio-dad tries to subtly tell her she should go back to America because things aren’t what they seem here. But Joy stubbornly wants to stay and do her part in helping China become one of the best countries in the world. So, part of the reason why I didn’t like this book as much as the other one was because Joy’s misplaced enthusiasm for Red China was so hard to relate to (’cause we know how that turns out in the end!!!), and also, a lot of her thinking and talking is too much like a spoiled brat.
Of course, she later gets caught in one of the biggest tragedies of China — y’know, the famine and stuff — and only then does she sort of get it, but by then it’s a little late. I guess she sort of redeems herself later but I don’t really like characters, or real people, who have such strong blind idealism and disregard everything that other people say. Like, come on, your parents that loved and raised you and ESCAPED from China are trying to tell you to stay the hell away from there, but somehow, you know better. Oh, and you know, she thinks it’s a great idea to get married to some guy she’s known for a few months and get knocked up too. Mmhmmm.
I loved the historical aspect of this book a lot, but man, I couldn’t really stand Joy. The other characters were okay at best, but as Joy was one of the main characters and I had to read from her perspective quite frequently, this book was a tad hard to get through; hence why it took me nearly 3 weeks to complete reading even though it’s not that long of a book. Oh well.
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See is a wonderful continuation from book 1 Shanghai Girls. It was definitely needed to wrap up the stories of Pearl, May, Joy, and Z.G. The book covers around 5 years I believe of Pearl and Joy's life once they went to China. Lisa does an amazing job drawing you into the storyline. By the end of the story I had tears in my eyes. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical-fiction.
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes