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lrmsreads 's review for:
Dreams of Joy
by Lisa See
I finished my first book on the Kindle, Dreams of Joy by Lisa See. I will admit that this book did not get off to the best start for me. At the end of Shanghai Girls, about sisters, May and Pearl, Pear's daughter Joy learns that she is really the daughter of May and an artist still living in China. While away at college she has been a part of a group encouraging General Mao and the People's Republic of China. It ends up getting her whole family in trouble and as a result, the father she always knew hangs himself. She blames herself and flees to China. The book is told in first person, but alternates between Joy and her mother, Pearl who follows her to China. It felt very much like I was reading a bratty 19 year-olds diary and lacked a depth of description. The history lesson on the first ten years of the People's Republic of China also felt very forced. I love historical fiction because it teaches us things about history by weaving it into the story, but the dialogue often felt like quotes from a textbook describing China at the time. Then the dialogue turned and started to feel like it was quotes from the propaganda at the time. Finally, and sadly, the book started to turn for me as the people started to starve and the realizations came that maybe Mao's China wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I was reminded more and more of books that I have read about Russia during World War II and the great depths of starvation. The things they did to make "food", anything for sustenance started to remind me of the things I've read about starvation during WWII. And, then the story itself brought that topic up, Joy said she used to wonder why people didn't rise up against the regime then and she said that now she knows people were "too weak, too tired and too scared" to do anything. That is powerful. And, I think the saddest imagery of the book was when Pearl and Z.G. on their way to rescue Joy see children whose parents dug holes in the ground and then placed them in the holes to prevent them from escaping. So, they hoped someone would rescue their children, but knew in all likelihood they would die of starvation in the hole. In the end, I really enjoyed this book.