Take a photo of a barcode or cover
catalogthis 's review for:
Dreams of Joy
by Lisa See
First things first: I received an advance copy of this through a Goodreads "first reads" giveaway. And as much as I love free stuff, I won't let that color my review.
This novel is a sequel to [b:Shanghai Girls|5960325|Shanghai Girls|Lisa See|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255570412s/5960325.jpg|5991850], which I haven't read. Thought about checking it out of the library, but decided to try reviewing [b:Dreams of Joy|9500416|Dreams of Joy A Novel|Lisa See|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517eAagLttL._SL75_.jpg|14385974] first, to see how it works as a standalone. It does, and doesn't.
The novel is narrated entirely in the first-person present tense, though it (thankfully!) alternates narrators. We begin with Joy, a nineteen-year-old girl fleeing her Los Angeles home in 1958 after the death of her father and a fight with her mother and aunt. And where does she flee? Communist China on the eve of the Great Leap Forward and subsequent famine. Our other narrator is Pearl, Joy's mother, who rushes to China in hopes of finding her daughter and bringing her back to the U.S. Not the easiest of tasks at this particular point in history.
Joy was... not my favorite character. She's naive and hypocritical, and comes across (sometimes) as almost a deliberate simpleton. I think we're supposed to be sympathetic to her, since she blames herself for her father's death, but I spent most of her chapters wishing she would wake up and pay attention to what's going on around her. Pearl's chapters were a relief by comparison. Still, even in Pearl's case, it was difficult to connect to her. This is partly because I hadn't read [b:Shanghai Girls|5960325|Shanghai Girls|Lisa See|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255570412s/5960325.jpg|5991850]; Pearl's most emotional scenes (reunions with people in Shanghai) had little resonance for me, since these other characters were basically strangers.
Not all of this can be blamed on the sequel-ness of the work, though. The author uses one of my least favorite devices: characterization shortcuts. There's probably a literary term for this, but to me, it's any instance where an author uses a cultural shorthand as a substitute for creating a character from scratch. In See's case, she uses Zodiac signs: Tao is a Dog, therefore he is likeable; Z.G. is a Rabbit, therefore he is cautious. Paolo Giordano did it in [b:The Solitude of Prime Numbers|6613956|The Solitude of Prime Numbers|Paolo Giordano|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275625540s/6613956.jpg|3873004]: Alice is an anorexic, Mattia is a self-mutilator. Lionel Shriver notably did not do it in [b:We Need to Talk About Kevin|80660|We Need to Talk About Kevin (P.S.)|Lionel Shriver|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170984758s/80660.jpg|3106720], and let me tell you -- Kevin was a lot more disturbing for not having an easy label plucked from the DSM. Anyway. It's hard to describe, but I know it when I see it.
Plot-wise, the novel works. Through Pearl and Joy, we see two very different perspectives of life in China during the Great Leap Forward. See did her homework; the descriptions of life in Green Dragon Village, especially as the famine worsens, are indelible. Again, my disappointment stems mostly from my lack of connection to any of the characters.
Recommended for those who liked [b:Shanghai Girls|5960325|Shanghai Girls|Lisa See|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255570412s/5960325.jpg|5991850].
This novel is a sequel to [b:Shanghai Girls|5960325|Shanghai Girls|Lisa See|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255570412s/5960325.jpg|5991850], which I haven't read. Thought about checking it out of the library, but decided to try reviewing [b:Dreams of Joy|9500416|Dreams of Joy A Novel|Lisa See|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517eAagLttL._SL75_.jpg|14385974] first, to see how it works as a standalone. It does, and doesn't.
The novel is narrated entirely in the first-person present tense, though it (thankfully!) alternates narrators. We begin with Joy, a nineteen-year-old girl fleeing her Los Angeles home in 1958 after the death of her father and a fight with her mother and aunt. And where does she flee? Communist China on the eve of the Great Leap Forward and subsequent famine. Our other narrator is Pearl, Joy's mother, who rushes to China in hopes of finding her daughter and bringing her back to the U.S. Not the easiest of tasks at this particular point in history.
Joy was... not my favorite character. She's naive and hypocritical, and comes across (sometimes) as almost a deliberate simpleton. I think we're supposed to be sympathetic to her, since she blames herself for her father's death, but I spent most of her chapters wishing she would wake up and pay attention to what's going on around her. Pearl's chapters were a relief by comparison. Still, even in Pearl's case, it was difficult to connect to her. This is partly because I hadn't read [b:Shanghai Girls|5960325|Shanghai Girls|Lisa See|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255570412s/5960325.jpg|5991850]; Pearl's most emotional scenes (reunions with people in Shanghai) had little resonance for me, since these other characters were basically strangers.
Not all of this can be blamed on the sequel-ness of the work, though. The author uses one of my least favorite devices: characterization shortcuts. There's probably a literary term for this, but to me, it's any instance where an author uses a cultural shorthand as a substitute for creating a character from scratch. In See's case, she uses Zodiac signs: Tao is a Dog, therefore he is likeable; Z.G. is a Rabbit, therefore he is cautious. Paolo Giordano did it in [b:The Solitude of Prime Numbers|6613956|The Solitude of Prime Numbers|Paolo Giordano|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275625540s/6613956.jpg|3873004]: Alice is an anorexic, Mattia is a self-mutilator. Lionel Shriver notably did not do it in [b:We Need to Talk About Kevin|80660|We Need to Talk About Kevin (P.S.)|Lionel Shriver|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170984758s/80660.jpg|3106720], and let me tell you -- Kevin was a lot more disturbing for not having an easy label plucked from the DSM. Anyway. It's hard to describe, but I know it when I see it.
Plot-wise, the novel works. Through Pearl and Joy, we see two very different perspectives of life in China during the Great Leap Forward. See did her homework; the descriptions of life in Green Dragon Village, especially as the famine worsens, are indelible. Again, my disappointment stems mostly from my lack of connection to any of the characters.
Recommended for those who liked [b:Shanghai Girls|5960325|Shanghai Girls|Lisa See|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255570412s/5960325.jpg|5991850].