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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
Joy is a young girl born in the United States, but whose parents are from China. When she
After reading Shanghai Girls #1, I immediately shelved this one to read as well. As amazing and powerful as the first one was, this one might have been even more so. Lisa See does not shy from the beauty or the distress of the life of her characters and this one held plenty of both. Both books of this series have found spots on my "favorites" shelf.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
"As she spoke, I wanted to cry, because sometimes it's just so damn hard to be a mother. We have to wait and wait and wait for our children to open their hearts to us. And if that doesn't work, we have to bide our time and look for the moment of weakness when we can sneak back into their lives and they will see us and remember us for the people who love them unconditionally."
What I Liked
Joy as a character is incredibly intriguing. She comes from a household torn between American and Chinese cultures and traditions, and after she joins a liberal arts college, she decides that Communist Red China is the ideal life. However, she's middle class or even semi-wealthy North American and the rural, peasant life of China is so much harder than she could ever comprehend. Watching Joy's perspective of communism change is so interesting that I could hardly put the book down.
I love how See paints the parent-childrelationships here. What makes a mother? What makes a father?
What I Didn't Like
Perhaps this is only my Western culture speaking, but Z.G.'s immediate and casual acceptance of Joy seems shocking to me.
Joy as a character is incredibly intriguing. She comes from a household torn between American and Chinese cultures and traditions, and after she joins a liberal arts college, she decides that Communist Red China is the ideal life. However, she's middle class or even semi-wealthy North American and the rural, peasant life of China is so much harder than she could ever comprehend. Watching Joy's perspective of communism change is so interesting that I could hardly put the book down.
I love how See paints the parent-childrelationships here. What makes a mother? What makes a father?
What I Didn't Like
Perhaps this is only my Western culture speaking, but Z.G.'s immediate and casual acceptance of Joy seems shocking to me.
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A good sequel to Shanghai Girls. It was hard for me to get through some of the famine parts - about trading babies to eat, leaving small children to die, and the general suffering. I thought the author tied things up nicely. I don't know if I agree with some of the sex scenes being included (Pearl sleeping with Z.G. just to see what it was like), but I think the author did a nice job of keeping it somewhat decent.
I did like the format of having Pearl narrate some chapters and having Joy narrate some chapters. This allowed the author to portray two different voices - which I think she did well.
I also don't understand how a whole country could be starving and no one else realize it was going on the world. But I do realize this was a time when media and internet didn't exist. It had to to be horrible for these people.
My favorite quote:
Page 155
"As she spoke, I wanted to cry, because sometimes it's just so damn hard to be a mother. We have to wait and wait and wait for our children to open their hearts to us. And if that doesn't work, we have to bide our time and look for the moment of weakness when we can sneak back into their lives and they will see us and remember us for the people who love them unconditionally."
I did like the format of having Pearl narrate some chapters and having Joy narrate some chapters. This allowed the author to portray two different voices - which I think she did well.
I also don't understand how a whole country could be starving and no one else realize it was going on the world. But I do realize this was a time when media and internet didn't exist. It had to to be horrible for these people.
My favorite quote:
Page 155
"As she spoke, I wanted to cry, because sometimes it's just so damn hard to be a mother. We have to wait and wait and wait for our children to open their hearts to us. And if that doesn't work, we have to bide our time and look for the moment of weakness when we can sneak back into their lives and they will see us and remember us for the people who love them unconditionally."
Wonderful sequel to Shanghai Girls. in Dreams of Joy we venture back to post-Revolution China. Idealism is destroyed but there is always hope.
This is a perfect conclusion to [b:Shanghai Girls|5960325|Shanghai Girls|Lisa See|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327968416s/5960325.jpg|5991850]; I absolutely love the ending. The ending is so perfectly, in one way I hope Lisa See doesn't decide to write another book about the Chin sisters and their family. On the other hand, a book that includes baby Samantha as a adult narrator, taking the story into contemporary times, would be absolutely fascinating. Either way, I cannot recommend this and 'Shanghai Girls' highly enough. My grandma read these books first, and then my mom did, and now this two-book series is recommended by three generations.
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
a continuation from shanghai girls and yet… i want more! a wonderful read with a rollercoaster of emotions