Shanghai Girls
A Novel
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کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
Janet Song's elegant and passionate narration is fitting for the story of May and Pearl, two privileged sisters growing up in Shanghai in 1937. As Pearl, the hardworking older sister, tells their tale, Song reads with a jauntiness that embraces the sisters' fun as sophisticated models in a thriving city and Pearl's ease with Chinese dialects. Song also projects the nuances of Pearl's secret resentment of her sister's beauty and her own role as caretaker. Song's tones become grave with the sisters' abrupt fall from grace, which involves bankruptcy, a hasty arranged marriage, Pearl's rape by invading Japanese soldiers, and May's out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Song captures the girls' determination as they adjust to life in Los Angeles, where they face prejudice, poverty, and secrets that threaten their close relationship. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
March 23, 2009
See (Peony in Love
) explores tradition, the ravages of war and the importance of family in her excellent latest. Pearl and her younger sister, May, enjoy an upper-crust life in 1930s Shanghai, until their father reveals that his gambling habit has decimated the family's finances and to make good on his debts, he has sold both girls to a wealthy Chinese-American as wives for his sons. Pearl and May have no intention of leaving home, but after Japanese bombs and soldiers ravage their city and both their parents disappear, the sisters head for California, where their husbands-to-be live and where it soon becomes apparent that one of them is hiding a secret that will alter each of their fates. As they adjust to marriage with strangers and the challenges of living in a foreign land, Pearl and May learn that long-established customs can provide comfort in unbearable times. See's skillful plotting and richly drawn characters immediately draw in the reader, covering 20 years of love, loss, heartbreak and joy while delivering a sobering history lesson. While the ending is ambiguous, this is an accomplished and absorbing novel.
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