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A review by katko123
Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
3.0
Interesting story based on actual historical events. It´s about a girl in nineteenth-century China, who has a very unfortunate life, gets kidnapped and smuggled to the US. There her life isn't any brighter so don't expect a sugary love story. It´s rather bitter and unpleasant as life was back in those days.
The girl does seem to be more mature than a real person her age could really be, but maybe back then that's how it was? If you didn't learn fast you wouldn't survive. And yet she restrains her emotions too well, she adapts too quickly and too easily to new situations and is way too resourceful for a real person, for a child, I might add. It just doesn't seem to be realistic.
The story is told in first person by Daiyu herself. So we know her exact thoughts and feelings. And that was, in my opinion anyway, the weakest part of the book. At times it was simply boring, but mostly I´d say there is too much text that is completely unnecessary. Where was the editor? There should be a large part of text crossed out.
What I really, really like about this book is the author's note at the very end, when she explains how she came around to the actual events and how she started researching the history of Chinese communities in XIX century in US, which is almost totally missed out from schoolbooks.
The girl does seem to be more mature than a real person her age could really be, but maybe back then that's how it was? If you didn't learn fast you wouldn't survive. And yet she restrains her emotions too well, she adapts too quickly and too easily to new situations and is way too resourceful for a real person, for a child, I might add. It just doesn't seem to be realistic.
The story is told in first person by Daiyu herself. So we know her exact thoughts and feelings. And that was, in my opinion anyway, the weakest part of the book. At times it was simply boring, but mostly I´d say there is too much text that is completely unnecessary. Where was the editor? There should be a large part of text crossed out.
What I really, really like about this book is the author's note at the very end, when she explains how she came around to the actual events and how she started researching the history of Chinese communities in XIX century in US, which is almost totally missed out from schoolbooks.