October 12 was a beautiful day here, a hint cooler, and perfect for a drive into Austin for a gathering of the FABs. Beverly has moved so we assembled from three different directions to help celebrate her beautiful new home with lunch and a discussion of our latest book. Of course we pre-ordered Chinese take-out, so there was a table full of delicious choices. I sampled everything, had seconds on the Beef and Broccoli, and topped it off with Beverly’s cake, fresh fruit and fortune cookies.
Synopsis:
“Dreams of Joy” is the second Lisa See book we’ve read; it continues the story of the Chin sisters which began in “Shanghai Girls”. May and Pearl’s life was picture book perfect; they were the pampered daughters of a well to do family, famous as models for a series of “Beautiful Girls” posters, and they were both in love with Li Zhi-Ge, the artist who painted those posters. Then the world collapsed around their ears: Z.G. only loved May; they had an affair and she learned she was pregnant just as her father announced that he was bankrupt and had sold both girls into arranged marriages with “Gold Mountain Men”, that is, Chinese men working in California. As they are preparing to leave China the Japanese invade and they make it to the United States only after much suffering, the death of their mother, and the birth of baby Joy. Before they meet their new husbands, May tells Pearl that she isn’t capable of raising a baby and Pearl agrees to present Joy as her baby.
The second book begins in l957 with Joy, now an idealistic college girl, caught up in a movement that supports Communist China. That involvement brings about a family tragedy and when she also learns that she is May’s child, rather than Pearl’s, she runs away. She is seeking her father and the purer life that Communism promises in China. This book tells the dramatic story of her trip into the cities and villages of that vast country during Chairman Mao’s reign. Although Joy reconciles with her father, and makes a place for herself among the people of the Green Dragon Commune, she ends with most of her dreams destroyed. Ultimately she finds that the only person she can completely rely on is the one she ran away from, her adopted mother. Pearl followed Joy to China, and she is an important part of the story, in fact, alternating chapters are from her point of view. She endures hardships and danger, but she saves her daughter and brings the family back together.
The author has obviously done a lot of research and draws her pictures in great detail. We end this book knowing a lot about l950's China, from the planting practices in the communes to the menus of the lavish banquets of the Party officials. The decimation of the countryside under Mao’s ill-conceived “Great Leap Forward” is vividly portrayed, and heartbreaking. Ms. Lee lists a lengthy bibliography in the Acknowledgments; she may realize that many of the horrible stories from the time of the famine are almost unbelievable and we need to confirm that human beings would behave as she describes.
Comments:
The majority of the FABs liked this book very much, several even more than “Shanghai Girls”. Marcia mentioned that she liked learning the history about that time in China added to an interesting story. Brenda agreed, saying that it gave us insights into a time few Westerners knew much about. Several members believed this book, like the first, was deliberately left open-ended, and expect a continuation of the story in another book.
Favorite Quotations:
“I’m going to have a baby, I’m going to launch a Sputnik (commune term for “do a bold thing”), I’m going to right things with my husband, and along the way I hope to protect myself from the peasants and find my true self.” Joy, p. 229
“...in acting as Joy’s aunt for nineteen years. She (May) kept the secret. She honored her daughter and me by keeping that secret.” Pearl, p. 43
"Life is what it is, and she's living it as a Dragon should -- never accepting defeat." Joy, referring to her mother, Pearl.
Ratings:
(****) 4 out of 5 stars
