A review by flaneussy
Peony in Love by Lisa See

3.0

I don't think I enjoyed this novel as much as Shanghai Girls, but I still found Peony in Love interesting. I was tempted to abandon both books (basically, the temptation didn't go away until I read the last line), but the payoff was substantial in both cases--namely, I felt like I had learned something by being exposed to a different cultural and different periods in history. Additionally, it was cool to be exposed to the perspectives of several women throughout the course of both stories; neither See nor I were actually in China during the 17th century, but I still felt like I had an idea of what women had gone through and could have been feeling.

That being said, as a fairly discerning reader, I still had issues with POL. It felt a little long, and there wasn't so much there in terms of actual plot. I've learned that See's writing style takes me a while to warm up to (the phrase "man-beautiful" made me want to throw up in my mouth.) I understand why she gave Peony the voice that she did--she died when she was a teenager, so it makes sense that she was "stuck" in that mindset--but she never seemed to grow up or change. The story took place over the course of twenty-three years; a little bit of character development would have been interesting. Peony never seemed to grow out of her stupid, love-struck mindset. I thought her interaction with Tan Ze was really interesting; however, it might have served the story better if Peony acted from a place of vengeance rather than ignorance. That being said, it's possible to disagree with the narrator and still become invested in the story. Tan Ze's characterization bothered me until the very end of the novel; her motivations become much clearer and she seemed to redeem herself. As a reader, I felt that I had underestimated her.

In conclusion, I liked this novel. It was accessible yet complex, and it made me think about what was being fed to me. I will say that See's novels (as much as I seem to take issue with their narrators) have no lack of depth. In the future, I will definitely give her other novels a try.