Author: Lisa See
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Library Binding
Pages: 254
Publication Date: 6/28/2004
Publisher: Random House
★★★★☆
Lily is haunted by memories–of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness.
In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu (“women’s writing”). Some girls were paired with laotongs, “old sames,” in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.
With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become “old sames” at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.
My friend and I saw the trailer for the movie version of this book, and I instantly said to myself "I want to read that" while she said at the same time "I want to see that."
Ironically, she read the book first, after checking it out from the library, and I borrowed it from her to read once she was finished. We still haven't watched the movie yet.
The book did not, for me, live up to the promise of the movie trailer. I have the sense, after having skimmed some reviews of the movie, that this could be because the movie itself doesn't live up to the promise of the book, or even of its own trailer.
I wanted to love this book. In the end, I think that I did love this book. It's just that it took me a long time to get to that point. I'm not a fan of books that take me a long time to finish them.
My experience with this book was unusual. When I was reading it, I didn't want to put it down. I was entirely immersed in the world of nineteenth-century China. When I wasn't reading it, I wasn't compelled to pick it up. There just wasn't enough movement in the story to make me interested.
I admit that this could be a side effect of reading a lot of young adult fiction for a long time. This is precisely the sort of book I ought to love.
And I did. Truly, I did love this book.
The story is told artfully and the art is beautiful. Lily meets Snow Flower when they are in daughter years, seven years old and beginning their foot binding on the same day, chosen for one another as "Old Sames." They match one another in seven of the eight signs, though Lily is much poorer than Snow Flower.
Over the years they love one another, share intimate moments with one another (yes, in many ways this is a lesbian romance), and talk about their hopes for the future. They learn things about one another that they might have wished not to know, and their circumstances change.
The heart of this story is one of love and betrayal, and it is written brilliantly. Atmosphere is one of the crucial components of a good story, in my opinion, and this book is swimming in atmosphere. See does a remarkable job of developing the main characters in this book (though I have to complain that the Butcher seemed inconsistent with himself more often than not and while I recognize I wasn't meant to like him, part of the reason I don't like him is that he didn't seem to fit the story or his own personality at all times).
If you love beautiful words, and you enjoy stories set in Asia, I earnestly believe that you ought to read this book.
I will warn you though that it's graphic. It describes foot binding in graphic detail. This is a subject that I've been interested in for several years and therefore I appreciated this, but it is not a "nice" process, and it does involve the breaking of the feet in order to re-form them into a different shape meant to be beautiful and erotic to men.
See does a remarkable job of demonstrating the horrors of womanhood at the time, and of bringing the reality of China (especially during this time period) to light in the twenty-first century. Daughters at the time were "worthless branches" (and one might consider that they still are in China in a time where families are permitted only one child), and proper decorum stated that girls ought to complain about how worthless they are routinely in their letters.
It brings to light just how privileged we are in the twenty-first century, especially in Western culture, and yet how far we still have left to go.
I do recommend this book, particularly for women, and I hope that it is one that you will genuinely enjoy as much as I have.
Ironically, she read the book first, after checking it out from the library, and I borrowed it from her to read once she was finished. We still haven't watched the movie yet.
The book did not, for me, live up to the promise of the movie trailer. I have the sense, after having skimmed some reviews of the movie, that this could be because the movie itself doesn't live up to the promise of the book, or even of its own trailer.
I wanted to love this book. In the end, I think that I did love this book. It's just that it took me a long time to get to that point. I'm not a fan of books that take me a long time to finish them.
My experience with this book was unusual. When I was reading it, I didn't want to put it down. I was entirely immersed in the world of nineteenth-century China. When I wasn't reading it, I wasn't compelled to pick it up. There just wasn't enough movement in the story to make me interested.
I admit that this could be a side effect of reading a lot of young adult fiction for a long time. This is precisely the sort of book I ought to love.
And I did. Truly, I did love this book.
The story is told artfully and the art is beautiful. Lily meets Snow Flower when they are in daughter years, seven years old and beginning their foot binding on the same day, chosen for one another as "Old Sames." They match one another in seven of the eight signs, though Lily is much poorer than Snow Flower.
Over the years they love one another, share intimate moments with one another (yes, in many ways this is a lesbian romance), and talk about their hopes for the future. They learn things about one another that they might have wished not to know, and their circumstances change.
The heart of this story is one of love and betrayal, and it is written brilliantly. Atmosphere is one of the crucial components of a good story, in my opinion, and this book is swimming in atmosphere. See does a remarkable job of developing the main characters in this book (though I have to complain that the Butcher seemed inconsistent with himself more often than not and while I recognize I wasn't meant to like him, part of the reason I don't like him is that he didn't seem to fit the story or his own personality at all times).
If you love beautiful words, and you enjoy stories set in Asia, I earnestly believe that you ought to read this book.
I will warn you though that it's graphic. It describes foot binding in graphic detail. This is a subject that I've been interested in for several years and therefore I appreciated this, but it is not a "nice" process, and it does involve the breaking of the feet in order to re-form them into a different shape meant to be beautiful and erotic to men.
See does a remarkable job of demonstrating the horrors of womanhood at the time, and of bringing the reality of China (especially during this time period) to light in the twenty-first century. Daughters at the time were "worthless branches" (and one might consider that they still are in China in a time where families are permitted only one child), and proper decorum stated that girls ought to complain about how worthless they are routinely in their letters.
It brings to light just how privileged we are in the twenty-first century, especially in Western culture, and yet how far we still have left to go.
I do recommend this book, particularly for women, and I hope that it is one that you will genuinely enjoy as much as I have.
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