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caitpaige 's review for:
Dreams of Joy
by Lisa See
I thought "Dreams of Joy" was on par with "Shanghai Girls;" both very enjoyable reads. This one was particularly fascinating for what it revealed about Communism in China; a topic that I am not very familiar with. The policies of The Great Leap Forward were ludicrous and it is amazing to think that it was only the 1950s and 60s when this occurred. Growing up in SoCal and now living in San Francisco, where we have a huge immigrant Chinese population, it actually gives me a new perspective on some of my friends and neighbors. Did they or their parents go through this? Does it explain certain behaviors and beliefs that they still maintain?
As far as the story itself, I thought it was well crafted. I enjoyed seeing old characters again and meeting new ones. I thought Joy - one of the new main characters - was a twit through most of the first part of the book, but it's hard to identify with someone that naive, idealistic, and self-centered. (In that vein, she was a good carry through of May's character, which was mostly absent from this book.) I'm not sure her guilt and angst were really expressed well enough to justify her running away to New China, but it made for a good story, and by the end I liked her somewhat better. I thought it was realistic that she was so drastically humbled by her actions - a lot of times, in stories, it seems that the main character might make mistakes, but is always somehow justified or redeemed. Joy was just wrong, got herself in huge trouble and had to be rescued. As in "Shanghai Girls," Pearl remained the most solid, steady, admirable character of the book. I enjoyed the chapters most that were told from her perspective.
As far as the story itself, I thought it was well crafted. I enjoyed seeing old characters again and meeting new ones. I thought Joy - one of the new main characters - was a twit through most of the first part of the book, but it's hard to identify with someone that naive, idealistic, and self-centered. (In that vein, she was a good carry through of May's character, which was mostly absent from this book.) I'm not sure her guilt and angst were really expressed well enough to justify her running away to New China, but it made for a good story, and by the end I liked her somewhat better. I thought it was realistic that she was so drastically humbled by her actions - a lot of times, in stories, it seems that the main character might make mistakes, but is always somehow justified or redeemed. Joy was just wrong, got herself in huge trouble and had to be rescued. As in "Shanghai Girls," Pearl remained the most solid, steady, admirable character of the book. I enjoyed the chapters most that were told from her perspective.