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eoremovich 's review for:
Dreams of Joy
by Lisa See
I have admittedly been reading this book for a while. I'm sure it would have been much faster if I hadn't decided to reread Harry Potter about a chapter into this book, but there you go. Lisa See is an auther I really enjoy, but it took me a while to get into this one. It is a sequel to Shanghai Girls, which isn't my favorite of her books. I had also read that one quite a while ago and was pretty fuzzy on the details. So starting this book also required me to squint back and recall all that had happened in the last one.
But once I really got into the story I thought it was pretty good. I know next to nothing about the People's Republic of China, but I feel like I at least have an idea of the tragedy now. It was fascinating to watch different practices be put into place, knowing that they were surely destined to fail. I really liked that the story was told from two perspectives: one the young, naive girl full of Red Spirit, and the other the older, wiser, and more suspicious mother.
Pearl is a pretty great woman, and I would love to know her in real life. I enjoyed Joy's journey throughout the novel, and it was interesting to see at what point her eyes would open to the mistakes that were being made all around her. By the end of the book this girl was only 22 or 23, and she has had a lifetime of experiences and bad choices behind her.
Of See's books that I have read so far I have enjoyed Snow Flower and Peony the most, but I think it is interesting how she is taking different moments in time and creating these characters and experiences all connected in some way to China. It is really cool to find remnants of something from on story in another and to see they way that attitudes and traditions have changed or stayed the same. I will continue to pick up Lisa See's books, and think others could really enjoy them as well.
But once I really got into the story I thought it was pretty good. I know next to nothing about the People's Republic of China, but I feel like I at least have an idea of the tragedy now. It was fascinating to watch different practices be put into place, knowing that they were surely destined to fail. I really liked that the story was told from two perspectives: one the young, naive girl full of Red Spirit, and the other the older, wiser, and more suspicious mother.
Pearl is a pretty great woman, and I would love to know her in real life. I enjoyed Joy's journey throughout the novel, and it was interesting to see at what point her eyes would open to the mistakes that were being made all around her. By the end of the book this girl was only 22 or 23, and she has had a lifetime of experiences and bad choices behind her.
Of See's books that I have read so far I have enjoyed Snow Flower and Peony the most, but I think it is interesting how she is taking different moments in time and creating these characters and experiences all connected in some way to China. It is really cool to find remnants of something from on story in another and to see they way that attitudes and traditions have changed or stayed the same. I will continue to pick up Lisa See's books, and think others could really enjoy them as well.