Amazon.com Review
Book DescriptionFor readers of the phenomenal bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love--a stunning new novel from Lisa See about two sisters who leave Shanghai to find new lives in 1930s Los Angeles.
May and Pearl, two sisters living in Shanghai in the mid-1930s, are beautiful, sophisticated, and well-educated, but their family is on the verge of bankruptcy. Hoping to improve their social standing, May and Pearl’s parents arrange for their daughters to marry “Gold Mountain men” who have come from Los Angeles to find brides.
But when the sisters leave China and arrive at Angel’s Island (the Ellis Island of the West)--where they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months--they feel the harsh reality of leaving home. And when May discovers she’s pregnant the situation becomes even more desperate. The sisters make a pact that no one can ever know.
A novel about two sisters, two cultures, and the struggle to find a new life in America while bound to the old, Shanghai Girls is a fresh, fascinating adventure from beloved and bestselling author Lisa See.
not sure i will make it to book club tonight. i enjoyed this book. I liked it much better than the snowflower book. I thought the characters and story were more interesting. In looking at the questions, I realized, i did not know much of the histroy of the chinese in america in this period. I was aware of the communist fear toward the end of the book but never realized the difficulties before that era. I liked how at the end of the book (when the sisters fight) you begin to question the motives of the mother through out their life. How the daughters perspective of what happened is so different. Im sure the same way that my girls view situations in our day to day. I also thought how strong both girls were; so close to death after the awful rape passage and they still just pushed on. the reality of their home in america vs what they thought they were getting etc. i also liked how the tragedies (which there were too many) made the family stronger. sometimes that has the opposite effect on families. now, i guess i don't have tocome to book club, but am still hoping to make it. would like to know if other people liked the book?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this book very much. The character development was so good that they felt like friends throughout the reading. It also opened a window for me on something that I only knew in passing concerning the Japanese treatement of the Chinese during WWII. It also further enlightened me to the Chinese culture here in the US. I found it fascinating and tragic all in one paragraph at times. I hope to be there tonight.
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