Daring structure but a bit didactic

books:

	• Peony in Love: A Novel Lisa See Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2008 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 106 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

A heroine to break your heart

After her previous novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I was looking both forward to, and with a bit of trepidation to Lisa See's next novel. After all, I had been very pleased with Snow Flower, and sometimes an author just can't reach that high note a second time around.

This time, the story is set in the China of the seventeenth century. The Manchus from the north have toppled the Ming dynasty, and the country is still reeling from the conquest and the introduction of new customs and ideas. But many of the surviving families have hung onto their ways, while still adapting to a new, more uncertain world. Peony has grown up within the confines of her family's home, her father a famous scholar, her mother a woman respected for both her generousity and justice. There are numerous aunties, cousins and her own servant, Willow, all of whom do seem to love Peony, with the exception of several cousins, obviously envious of Peony's status as the only child of the head of the Chen family.

Peony is a bit spoiled, as the reader might already guess, and Peony is much as most teenagers who are indulged a bit. In her isolated world, Peony cares for only one thing -- an opera called The Peony Pavilion, a story of two lovers who meet together in dreams and are eventually united in bliss. Frankly, Peony is obsessed with the story, memorizing entire sections of the opera, and even letting her education in the more womanly arts go the winds in her love. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, when the man whom she is to marry will be named, her joy becomes complete when her father says that he will have the opera performed in their home. Even her cousin's spite isn't enough to ruin Peony's happiness.

While the women can not openly sit to watch the performance, being that they are good, virtuous women, they can attend and at least listen behind screens set up in the hall. Peony peeks through a crack, and sees a young man in the audience sitting near her father. Immediately she is smitten by his looks, and later, when she is out in the gardens to get a breath of air, she encounters him.

For the three nights of the opera, the pair slip off to meet one another. Peony knows that it's wrong, that if she's caught, it will ruin her and her family. But this unknown young man is so perfect to her, his voice stirring up longing, and his sensitivity so in tune with her own -- well, she's infatuated and terrified of her forthcoming marriage. On the last night of the opera, Peony risks the temptation of the outside, and is betrayed by one of her cousins. Worst still, her marriage is announced and as she has the same name as her future mother in law, she will now be known as 'Tong' -- "Same."

Peony finds herself locked up in her room, the only contact is when her maid brings her meals, and Peony retreats into her beloved "Peony Pavilion." If the heroine, Du Liniang, can survive on a cup of pear juice a day, Peony is determined to do just the same. After all, her husband-to-be is probably old and horrid, and she cannot bear the idea of anyone beside the unknown man in the garden. So Peony fades, and only when she is dying does everything become clear...

What happens next, well, that I shall leave for the reader to discover. It is simply too delicious to reveal here. See's command of Chinese culture, literature and custom is entrancing to read, telling the story of a family of women, bound together by legends and secrets, all of it revolving around Peony, who discovers that life is far, far more than an opera.

See uses metaphor, and the motif of writing and revenge and jealousy to bind the story all together. The worlds of the living and the dead intermingle in stories, the movement of air, rain from the sky, and the power that the dead can hold over the living. I found myself hooked from the start, and it was nearly dawn by the time that I finished reading, having been too curious to find out what happens next to do the sensible thing and go to bed.

There are some fairly adult topics in this one, with sexual innuendo being obscured and veiled, and one depiction of foot binding that is pretty graphic and downright horrifying to read, along with the psychological torment of anorexia that Peony inflicts on herself to cope with the impending separation from her family. However, these are fairly brief and do add to the story, so if you can handle that, by all means, don't skip this book.

Try not to skip to the ending before you finish the story, as there is a delightful twist that Lisa See saves for the reader at the end. From start to finish, I was caught up in this vanished world, and let myself escape into a story where dreams can turn into reality. The paperbound release is due in October 2007.

Four stars. Recommended.

for more information click here

Daring structure but a bit didactic

This latest novel by Lisa See is breathtakingly daring in its narrative structure. The narrator is quite young, and we witness her evolve as she tells her story. That in itself is not so daring but when you add that the narrator is dead, you can appreciate just how many risks the author is taking.

The portrayal of Chinese customs and mores will intrigue those who have any interest in ancient and modern China. The book, though, often strays into the didactic. If this is your initial encounter with See, I'd recommend one of her other novels for a first read.

for more information click here

Peony in love

Peony In Love is one of the most touching books about women I ever read. It's less about the everyday routine in medieval China than its predecessor (Snow Flower and The Secret Fan), though it also has strikingly meticulous details about the afterworld, written with a lot of humor and irony. Apparently poor women even after death had their tiny lily feet to wrap in bindings. In her wanderings Peony goes through different roles a woman can play through her life: a romantic and naive girl, in love with a fantasy, a new wife, struggling to adjust to the new family, a jealous wife, a mother. Every transition is a small death - the woman will never be the same. Her name changes, her body changes and yet her soul still keeps parts of her past selves. Peony learns about different kinds of love - romantic love, sensual love, mother love. She lives through seven emotions: joy, anger, grief, fear, love, hate, desire. She experiences them all. She learns history of other women in her family, and she finally gets to know her own mother, or the woman who she had been before she became Peony's mother.

The Peony In Love is a universal study about woman's life. It's breathtakingly warm, it's sentimental, it's beautiful and every word in it is true. Set in the 17th century China, it's also a very interesting history lesson especially for those who is as ignorant in Far East history as I am.

for more information click here

reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

Good books that will keep you reading late into the night
Some Divine Summer Reading
My Favorite Summer Fiction
Some Wonderful Fiction
Some Savory Fiction

search for books
peony in love, love, novel, peony

Impressum / about us