With the feel of a novel by Lisa See, All the Flowers in Shanghai, tells the story of 17-year-old Xiao Feng who mostly doesn’t mind be in the shadow of her older sister whom her mother is grooming to marry into a good family. When Feng is forced to marry the man chosen for her sister, she finds herself thrust into a world with which she is entirely unfamiliar and unprepared. Taken away from her family and her beloved grandfather with whom Feng would spend hours walking in the public gardens, Feng quickly learns that the only way to live through what she considers the ordeal of her new family, is to harden herself and become powerful and controlling. Her first act is to give away her newborn daughter to a poor family rather than subjecting her to the same life in the future, a rash decision she grows to regret and one that colors and influences the rest of her days.
Told from a woman’s point of view, written by a man, All the Flowers of Shanghai lacks and intimacy and subtleness of Feng that might make her a more empathetic character. The change in her personality, while entirely understandable, comes about so quickly it feels forced. There is much detail written about the social strata in pre-World War II China giving the plot a very authentic feel. The gardens Feng spends time in with her grandfather and the descriptions of the flora are lovely and provided a metaphor to Feng’s life as she slowly withers away. Definitely worth a look for fans of historical novels, especially those set in exotic locations.
No comments:
Post a Comment