Rating  - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
This is one of the best books I've read in years. A truly different kind of story of a different place and time than I knew much about. It was engaging and unforgettable!
Rating - Great book!
This was a book club pick for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I loved learning about the lifestyle and traditions of China in the 1800-1900's. It is a sad, touching, beautifally written story.
Rating - Powerful, moving & beautifully written...
Every once in awhile, I read the first page of a novel and know that I am reading something truly awesome. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See is an unbelievably powerful and moving book about friendship in 19th Century China.
Lily is the daughter of a common farmer in Puwei province in China. Her family lives in a house with a dirt floor and a room for their animals. As a young girl, it is discovered that Lily is not only beautiful but that she has exceptional feet. If they are bound correctly, she can be married into a wealthy family. To smooth that path, matchmaker Madame Wang proposes that Lily take on a laotong relationship with Snow Flower, a girl her own age from a more prosperous family. Madame Wang believes that Snow Flower can teach Lily some of the refinements she'll need for her marriage. The girls have a special fan, on which they write secret messages using nu shu, a language used only by women.
See takes the girls through their childhood, their foot-binding, their engagements, their weddings, their childbearing and beyond. After many decades, a misunderstanding threatens their relationship. They must learn when it is acceptable to withhold the truth, and when is it better not to do the correct thing. They also learn that Lily has as much to teach Snow Flower as the other way around.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan gives the reader a fascinating look at life for women in 19th Century China. Women are considered nonpersons whose only worth can be attainted through the birth of sons. The process of foot-binding, the contracting of marriages, the wedding customs, the subservience to mothers-in-law, having to live with concubines, etc., are all very interesting and often times alarming. Women had to seek support through their relationships with other women, especially through natoang friendships. A natoang relationship was as "significant as a good marriage" as it was a "relationship made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity."
Lisa See is a talented and beautiful writer. Written in the first person through the eyes of 80 year old Lily, she reflects back "For my entire life, I have longed for love. I knew it was not right for me--as a girl and later as a woman--to want or expect it, but I did, and this unjustified desire has been at the root of every problem I have experienced in life."
See reminds me of Amy Tan, and I will definitely be looking for more of her books.
Rating - Book Club liked it
This is a readable story and a window to the oppressive nature of pre-19th century pagan culture in China. Highly recommended.
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