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Dreams of Joy (Shanghai Girls #2)

by Lisa See (Goodreads Author)

4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 · rating details · 21,873 ratings · 2,930 reviews

In her beloved New York Times bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, and, most recently, Shanghai Girls, Lisa See has brilliantly illuminated the potent bonds of mother love, romantic love, and love of country. Now, in her most powerful novel yet, she returns to these timeless themes, continuing the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, an...more

Hardcover, 354 pages

Published May 31st 2011 by Random House (first published January 1st 2011)

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Best Cover Art 2011 (Non-YA)

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Historical Fiction 2011

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Sep 19, 2011 Praj rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 女性

If my mother would have read this book, firstly, she would scoff at Joy for being an ignorant fool and then latched her eyes onto me sternly saying, "See, this is what happens when you do not listen to your mother!" But then, if we do listen to our mothers all the time, how would we craft our own experiences, crash down in our mistakes and strive for success in our own astute ways. Joy was restless, enthusiastic and an erratic teen who like many other adolescent Chinese immigrants romanticized M...more If my mother would have read this book, firstly, she would scoff at Joy for being an ignorant fool and then latched her eyes onto me sternly saying, "See, this is what happens when you do not listen to your mother!" But then, if we do listen to our mothers all the time, how would we craft our own experiences, crash down in our mistakes and strive for success in our own astute ways. Joy was restless, enthusiastic and an erratic teen who like many other adolescent Chinese immigrants romanticized Mao’s ideology as a mere spectator from the other side of the fence. Only if Joy was a little tolerant to her mother’s woes or more educated on Mao’s New China, life could have had been less turbulent and death would not lurk on her doorstep.

Shanghai Girls (the prequel to this novel) ends on a somewhat bitter note with Joy finding out the truth about her parental lineage and Pearl’s husband committing suicide with its guilt embedded deep down in Joy’s heart. Life in Los Angeles’ Chinatown was even more confusing and undesirable , when Joy finds out that Pearl is not her biological mother and her father may be residing in China in all its likelihood. A rambunctious Joy eventually flees from her home and ends up in China where she meets Z.G. (her biological father) and with him she travels through the countryside as an apprentice to Z.G’s cultural painting lessons as a part of a system carved by Mao to induce liberal arts to ordinary Chinese folks. During, one such excursion, Joy meets an illiterate village bumpkin Tao and then in a juvenile aggression of love marries him. Still highly oblivious to the discrepancies of governing functions in mainland China and the countryside authorities, Joy finds herself on the centre stage playing a chaotic part in Mao’s economical sputnik –‘The Great Leap Forward’; banishing all the idealistic aspect of communism that Joy once nourished as a college student in Chicago.

I have read Frank Dikötter’s commendable book on ‘The Great Leap Forward’ and the curse that followed Mao’s economic revolution. The famine that struck the core of China’s agricultural composition brought in vast number of diseases, unimaginable suffrage through hunger and death loomed in every household. Lisa justly elucidates this tragedy that caused nearly 60 million deaths, highlighting the cannibalistic measures adopted by the famished farmers where infants were swapped by neighboring families for maintaining lack of guilt when the babies would be used as meal options. Excelling on her forte of Chinese women and their battles with the conventional norms ; Lisa See once again precisely highlights the second class treatment bestowed on Chinese women regardless the cultural progress.

Joy’s journey through the two parallel worlds illuminates her ferocious personality as she was born in the Year of the Tiger; just like Pearl was meant to be a Dragon of great strength and clemency. Unlike in the earlier volume, the narration is spilt through the words of Pearl and Joy herself; revealing Pearl’s apprehension in seeking happiness while letting go of her traumatic past and Joy’s realization of her true belonging through a harrowing present.

Lisa See illustrates the beginning of a liberating end of betrayals, trepidations, nightmarish chaos of self-identification and the hypocrisy that highlights in every edifying phase of survival. Lisa’s books are always a delight to read and have been applauded through my numerous comprehensions. Contrasting many reviews, this is not a “coming of age” story; it’s a passage of a young woman who chases happiness among revulsion realizing the rainbow that she gazed at was just a watery monochromatic painting of horror.

Moral of the story:- Listen to your mother, although not frequently. Otherwise you could miss out on some remarkable books.
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May 21, 2011 Ellie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, asia, american, first-reads, own, 2011ind-chal200bks

I'll say at the outset: I love Lisa See. I loved On Gold Mountain: The 100 Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family. The Flower Net, Shanghai Girls, Peony in Love, and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I love her writing, her carefully researched hstory, her political commitment, and deft creation of characters, her portrayal of relationships, especially family ones.

So I was thrilled to win her soon-to-be-published new work, book:Dreams of Joy: A Novel|9500416] from the goodreads giveaway.

But I...more I'll say at the outset: I love Lisa See. I loved On Gold Mountain: The 100 Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family. The Flower Net, Shanghai Girls, Peony in Love, and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I love her writing, her carefully researched hstory, her political commitment, and deft creation of characters, her portrayal of relationships, especially family ones.

So I was thrilled to win her soon-to-be-published new work, book:Dreams of Joy: A Novel|9500416] from the goodreads giveaway.

But I was also a little nervous. I knew I had to write a review of a writer I more than respect and admire. "What if"?

But to my great relief, I loved Dreams of Joy. It does not disappoint. In fact, it may well be her best novel so far. It is the continuation of See's novel Shanghai Girls, the story of the relationship and journeys of sisters May and Pearl.

Briefly, Pearl and May escape from China after having been traumatized by events during the war between China and Japan. They come to America to begin fresh. They are children running of the past to create, as so many others have and continue to, a new life in a new country.

They grow up and Pearl has a daughter, Joy. Dreams of Joy is her story. I won't write more about the family because their story is the complicated heart of this story.

I will say that Joy, reversing the journey of her mother, leaves America and goes to China out of an idealistic wish to be a part of the people's movement there. She also has other, more personal, motives.

The time is 1958. Joy is about to learn the difference between idealistic dreams and the sometimes horribly harsh reality that is caused by forcing their embodiment in people's lives. As most of us know, Chairman Mao's "Great Leap" was not the great freedom for the masses that at least some of us, like Lisa, believed was happening at the time.

The book appears to be meticulously researched. This is the way I like to learn history: through stories of how people lived it. We watch Lisa grow up fast. Lisa is not a perfect person but she is a beautifully realized her. Through her, her experiences, and her relationships we learn about a dark period in Chinese history and about how a young, somewhat self-centered, girl becomes a woman.

Once again, See's writing is beautiful: clean and straightforward, beautifully balanced and always serving her story. The characters are engaging and the backstory-the history of a continent-is fascinating. And, again as always, See is interested not only in individuals on their own, but people interacting with others, with depictions of the complications and commitments of family love and life and the interactions between these people and the society they live in.

See may be one of the great writers of people and their times, of the effect history has on individuals and the impact individuals have on each other.

I strongly urge everyone to read this book.(less)

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Sep 15, 2011 Sandra rated it 5 of 5 stars

Beautiful, beautiful book...and a bit horrifying as well. I was unaware when I started this book that it was part of a well-known series involving Pearl and Mae, two of the story's main characters. Joy is the 19 year old daughter of Chinese nationals who relocated to California at the start of China's "Cultural Revolution". The book opens with the death of Joy's father and a startling family skeleton revealed. Deeply shaken, Joy leaves the US to pursue her idea of China. Believing, as only a col...more

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Jun 16, 2011 Meredith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm thrilled that there is a sequel to Shanghai Girls! This looks good; I can't wait to read it. Just can't decide if I should buy the book or read on my Kindle!
If you have not read Shanghai Girls yet.. go get yourself a copy.

This book was so good; I'm a little bummed out that I've finished reading it.

I'm not going to recap the whole plot because so many other people have done so on their reviews. It's really about relationships within a family, and life in communist China during the 'Great Le...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Gwen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: set-in-china, audiobook, asian-theme, historical-fiction, favorites, mother-daughter

This is one of my favorite books of all time! Its the powerful and satisfying conclusion to "Shanghai Girls."
Exquisitely written down to the last vivid detail in this amazing journey across 1950s China and into the heart of what it means to be a family. If you were awestruck by Lisa See's "Shanghai Girls," prepare yourself for an even finer novel with "Dreams of Joy" completing the tapestry with compelling and mesmerizing redemptive power. Great sense of place and evolution of somewhat flawed, b...more

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Jul 12, 2011 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Lisa by: Callie

Shelves: audio

Very well written and took many twists that I was not expecting. I learned a lot about Communist China that I found interesting and want to learn more.

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Nov 29, 2011 Agatha rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I am glad I read this one, to learn the continuing story of sisters May and Pearl, and daughter Joy, but I do not think this book was as good as the previous ones. We meet up with Joy again as she has run away from home to go back to China to help build the new revolution. It is the 1950s, Mao has come to power in 1949, and Joy is burning with excitement over communes, socialism, etc. She soon learns that it is not all as romantic as she had thought, however, as she reunites with her birth-fathe...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Dynasti rated it 5 of 5 stars

“My mother used to tell me that Heaven never seals off all exits.”

I loved this book as much as I loved the first Shanghai Girls and other Lisa See books such as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
I should start off by saying, oddly, I've never been interested in Chinese culture or Chinese anything. Its so big and always booming and so constricting (or at least that's how I've felt) that I never sought interest in it, which yes, is rude and awkward. But Lisa See and her books alone have made me mor...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Amy Meyer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

Publisher: Random House
Published Date: May 31, 2011
ISBN: 978-1400067121
Pages: 368
Genre: Historical Fiction; Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Book Summary: In her beloved New York Times bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, and, most recently, Shanghai Girls, Lisa See has brilliantly illuminated the potent bonds of mother love, romantic love, and love of country. Now, in her most powerful novel yet, she returns to these timeless themes, continu...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 19, 2011 Lisa Gricius rated it 5 of 5 stars

Lisa See is an amazing literary voice. I have read all her work and she never disappoints. Her lyrical prose transports me. I have never been so vividly transported to China before reading her most recent work, "Dreams of Joy". Dreams of Joy tells the story of Joy, a Chinese-American at the the time of the inception of Mao's Great Leap Forward. A heartbreaking tragedy and a family secret come to light sends Joy on a journey to China to find herself and her biological father. Joy is idealistic a...more

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May 31, 2011 Debra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: won-from-firstreads, firstreads-read

Dreams of Joy is the follow up book to Shanghai Girls. I would recommend you read that book first although See does give a recap of Shanghai Girls in the beginning of the book. I enjoyed Shanghai Girls a lot so I was excited to see that she was continuing the story line. I wasn't aware of the famine in China during the 50's and all the hardships the Chinese people who lived in the country endured so this was very educational for me. See is a great story teller. Her books always flow and she has...more

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Nov 11, 2011 Dianne rated it 4 of 5 stars

I didn't read the first book 'Shanghai Girls' beforehand, but this follow up caught me up to what was going on. I really admire Pearl, (the mom) so much! Parts of this are very graphic dealing with the events of the late 1950s in China. It was weird as someone in the book is about my same age now as they were born in 11/59 (that's if it had been a true story of course). I couldn't believe it. Chinese women really have struggled over the centuries and of course they all wanted sons. I really felt...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This picks up right where Shanghai Girls left off, so don't read this if you haven't read its predecessor. It won't make as much sense or be as meaningful otherwise. I was afraid to read this, thinking it would be another book of neverending series of disasters. Instead, this story covers an epic disaster in China's history. See did a good job of making this shameful period come through in her writing; I learned a lot. There's tragedy, horror, sadness, hope, and love, and most importantly, no cl...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Komal marked it as to-read

Shelves: for-a-rainy-day

Tuesday, May 31, 2011: AHHH! I loved, loved, LOVED "Shanghai Girls" and can't wait to read about little Pearl's adventure to find her birth father.

Saturday, June 18, 2011: Whoo hoo!! I finally got this book at the library! I'm so tempted to ditch what I'm currently reading (LA Candy by Lauren Conrad, ugh gag!!) and start this!

Saturday, June 25, 2011: I hope this one is as good as "Shanghai Girls!!!"

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May 05, 2013 Lady Jane Grey rated it 5 of 5 stars

First of all, what an awesome title ;) Also, you probably should read "Shanghai Girls" first and have this one waiting when you finish that one. The books are separate and can be stand alones, but I think you would appreciate this book much more if you know what happened leading up to it.

This is not for the faint of heart. There was something about the Holocaust book "Sarah's Key" that disturbed me to the point of being traumatized (I'm not quite sure how to explain it). With this book, I was ho...more First of all, what an awesome title ;) Also, you probably should read "Shanghai Girls" first and have this one waiting when you finish that one. The books are separate and can be stand alones, but I think you would appreciate this book much more if you know what happened leading up to it.

This is not for the faint of heart. There was something about the Holocaust book "Sarah's Key" that disturbed me to the point of being traumatized (I'm not quite sure how to explain it). With this book, I was horrified with some things, but I could still leave it emotionally. I don't want to say that the author didn't do a good job describing things and making them real because she did an excellent job of that. I don't think I've ever read much about what happened in The Great Leap Forward. It is easy to just read that X number of people died and people starved to death without really thinking about it. From the notes from the author in the back of the book, it also sounds like some of the testimonies of the people that lived through this are only recently coming out.

Something I appreciated was that this book wasn't overly political. One of the main characters, Joy, starts off extremely socialist and supportive of the idea. She lives through a nightmare that is a result of socialism, but by the end of the book we don't know what her ideology is. The book shows what can happen with socialism, not necessarily what always happens. Kind of like an example of how not to do socialism. For the record, I am a libertarian capitalist for the most part. I'm glad I was able to read a story and escape from the world of politics.

Something else I thought I would add: there is a twist that comes out of nowhere in the end! My jaw literally dropped and my eyes popped open. I read and reread the few sentences to make sure I was reading it correctly. That hasn't happened to me when reading a book in a long time, so any doubt of the five star rating was gone after that! There are twists in books all the time, but it seems like I've seen a lot of them coming or at least wasn't too surprised. Well done, Lisa See!(less)

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Apr 07, 2013 M.e. rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read Dreams of Joy by Lisa See for my history class. I really liked it. Before reading it, I didn't know anything about Red China and when we covered it in class I was able to draw connections between the book and the history I was taught. I liked how Lisa See gave readers multiple views on Red China. The book starts out with a teenage/young adult, Joy, leaving her mom and aunt at home and running away to China to find her real father. Joy believe communism is a great government system and wan...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Annette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dreams of Joy by Lisa See is the sequel to Shanghai Girls. It picks up when nineteen-year-old Joy, daughter of Pearl and Sam Louie, runs off to communist China to aid in the communist cause. There she finds her birth father and quickly realizes her disillusion in the utopian society of communism. She lives in a farming village and soon develops a relationship with a young man. All the while Pearl is frantic and gives up her life in Los Angeles to search for her missing daughter. Times in China a...more Dreams of Joy by Lisa See is the sequel to Shanghai Girls. It picks up when nineteen-year-old Joy, daughter of Pearl and Sam Louie, runs off to communist China to aid in the communist cause. There she finds her birth father and quickly realizes her disillusion in the utopian society of communism. She lives in a farming village and soon develops a relationship with a young man. All the while Pearl is frantic and gives up her life in Los Angeles to search for her missing daughter. Times in China are tough and they get even tougher as Mao Tse Tung launches his Great Leap Forward.

The Great Leap Forward promoted “collectivism,” where people worked collectively for the good of China. Farmers were no longer allowed to grow what they wanted and in the manner they were accustomed. Mao Tse Tung strictly enforced planting crops extremely close together in an effort for greater production. However, this crowded out the plants and caused many crop failures. Although other factors may have contributed, a devastating famine resulted and millions of people died during the late 1950s and early 60s. Like everyone else, Joy struggled with hunger and shocking conditions. A few extremely disturbing instances in the way they dealt with the hunger made all the eyebrows in our book club rise “collectively.” I’m sure you’ll know just what I’m talking about when you read it.

I am not a history buff and barely remember this chapter in history being taught in school. Oh sure, I can vividly picture Mrs. Merckel with her blond curls and those oversized black rimmed glasses in my eighth-grade Social Studies class mention Mao Tse Tung (or Mao Zedong as he’s now known). But after saying his name, things seem to go black. My brain flatlined. I do not recall any of the atrocities, the persecution, or even the cannibalism.

That’s what I enjoy about historical fiction. As a kid history was not my favorite subject. I glazed over most history classes in school. Mainly I just remember having to memorize dates of significant wars which I quickly released from my mind. Historical fictions, however, bring the human aspects to life. The people become real, not just statistics. Historical fictions and memoirs push emotional buttons that a sterile history class just can’t do.

Although this book was a sequel, occurrences in the first book were woven into the story, so the book can stand alone. I would recommend reading both, Shanghai Girls, then Dreams of Joy. Both are excellent. Both got thumbs up from my book club. Read other reviews at http://readinginthegarden.blogspot.com (less)

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Jan 10, 2013 Dawn Barton rated it 4 of 5 stars

Joy leaves America and travels to Communist China to 'help build the New China'. She surrenders her passport not realising that this would inhibit her travelling in China or indeed leaving, as with you she was looking at things through rose-tinted glasses. She finds her father ZG who is an artist and she goes travelling to Green Valley (later to be called Dandelion Commune number eight) which is a rural farming, idyll and a simple way of life. Pearl also abandons her life in America and travels...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ladies

I liked this much better than Shanghai Girls. I feel like Ms. See struggles to create relatable characters, and it takes her a long time to get comfortable with them. When this book started out, the characters were already fairly set, and it was smooth and easy to start reading.

I enjoyed the plotlines and the descriptions and found it overall very compelling and rather charming. As far as I'm concerned, Shanghai Girls hardly has a plot...it exists only so that this book could be written. Maybe...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Ashley rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: asian-literature

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Since Dreams of Joy is the sequel to Shanghai Girls, there will be some necessary spoilers here. If you haven’t read Shanghai Girls, it is necessary to understand the full story - there are numerous references to happenings in the first book.

Picking up immediately where Shanghai Girls left off, Dreams of Joy begins with Joy’s distress after her father’s death and the revelation that the mother she has known all her life is her aunt and her real father is somewhere in Shanghai. Unable to make se...more Since Dreams of Joy is the sequel to Shanghai Girls, there will be some necessary spoilers here. If you haven’t read Shanghai Girls, it is necessary to understand the full story - there are numerous references to happenings in the first book.

Picking up immediately where Shanghai Girls left off, Dreams of Joy begins with Joy’s distress after her father’s death and the revelation that the mother she has known all her life is her aunt and her real father is somewhere in Shanghai. Unable to make sense of the situation, she rashly chooses to run away to China - a country she has only ever known through photographs and the politics discussed in a University of Chicago communist group for Chinese students. When her boyfriend brushes her off as being dramatic, Joy realizes she must make the trip alone. She takes her college fund, buys a one-way ticket to Hong Kong, and makes her way into China.

I was expecting the search for Z.G. to be the bulk of the book, but that’s taken care of within the beginning, and the story instead moves on to highlighting communist China. Dreams of Joy is still about family, love, and strength, but it’s also about showing the reality of China under the rule of Mao (something I can’t seem to find a lot of authors talking about, except for See and Anchee Min).
Starting her “adventure” in China with a trip to help out a peasant village, Joy is drawn in by how inspiring and successful the communist ideals seem to be. Driven even further by Pearl’s journey to find her, Joy chooses life in the village, starting a downward spiral into the deceit and hypocrisy of the regime that she idolized. The novel is split in equal parts between Joy and Pearl, sharply contrasting life in the village and life in Shanghai as Pearl makes the best she can of her old home and Joy tries to maneuver around her new life as safely as possible.

Like Shanghai Girls, Dreams of Joy constructs a world of political turmoil and tightropes to walk, unpretty goodbyes, and extreme personal struggles, but it did seem to take fewer risks. Throughout Shanghai Girls, May and Pearl learned what true loss was and were subjected to terrors and experiences that changed and shaped them. Throughout the book, Pearl thinks back to the devastating moments in her life - they are never washed away. What Dreams of Joy does, however, is wraps things in a bow as well as they can be. Some moments are not realistic, seemingly for the purpose of leading in happier directions, and fewer liberties are taken with main characters as with those on the side. The aftermath of gruelling moments is the sequel is not as seriously considered as it was in the first book. In the midst of extreme China, things are bleak and disturbing, but once the city comes back into sight, the bleakness almost disappears, and Joy and Pearl are back to talking just as they would have in California. The prose also is not quite as beautiful as in its predecessor, though there are a few gems hidden in the chapters.

With a good suspension of disbelief, however, Dreams of Joy can be moving and comes with plenty of moments of surprise - a good completion to the story of the two beautiful girls who fled the city they loved and did what they could to survive. (less)

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Nov 25, 2012 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 18, 2012 Bev rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: china, kindle, novel

This book is the sequel to See's earlier "Shanghai Girls. " At the conclusion of that book, the idealistic young college student Joy had just discovered the secret of her parentage, her birth, and her real father. Angry with both her Mother and her Auntie May, Joy flees to China, where she plans to find her real father and become part of Mao's "Great Leap Forward." In this book, mother Pearl follows Joy to China, determined to find her daughter and convince her to return to America. Both women g...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Jessica Larson-Wang rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. My main complaint here was that the suspension of disbelief required for this book was a bit much. I enjoyed the story -- once I just decided to suck it up and suspend -- and the description of the famine that resulted from the Great Leap Forward was heartbreaking, but overall I just couldn't get past how ridiculously improbably the entire scenario was. Starting from pretty much the first page you have situations that just defy reason. The only real conclusion we're left to draw as readers is th...more

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Aug 10, 2012 Nisha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Like Shanghai Girls, I read this book in about two and a half hours. All criticisms aside, Lisa See is compulsively readable.

I actually preferred this book to Shanghai Girls, but I do think to really enjoy this there needs to be a suspension of disbelief. It's a little hard to believe that American-educated, of-sensible-upbringing Joy would really go to the lengths she does in this novel - to China, (view spoiler) Why would any American girl...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

Great book to read for background on why China is the way it is today. I never realized the depth of the suffering during the Mao years.

Joy, born in America from Chinese immigrant parents, is enamored with the idea of Chinese communism, just coming on the stage during the early years of the cold war. She feels guilty over the suicide of her father (who is not her real father) and confused on learning who her true parents are. She manages to make it to the land of her ancestors and at first is de...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Sheri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another wonderful book by Lisa See. If you haven't read her "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," you've been missing something. Her later book, "Shanghai Girls" are also delightful. This novel, "Dreams of Joy," is sort of a sequel to "Shanghai Girls." When Joy, a 19-year old Chinese-American whose father has just committed suicide finds that that her Auntie May is really her mother, and that her mother Pearl is really her auntie, she leaves them and the US to go live in Communist China, where both...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Gwen rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Dreams of Joy" is far more powerful, compelling and altogether richer than its predecessor, Shanghai Girls. In that book, we followed sisters May and Pearl from their "beautiful girl" days in Shanghai through a perilous and life-altering escape from China, a (deliberately) long wait on Angel Island and a new life in Chinatown (Los Angeles). Dreams of Joy is a mother-daughter story, a story of idealism meeting reality, and the strength of familial bonds.

Joy flees to China when faced with a revel...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Amy S rated it 5 of 5 stars

Just finished this book yesterday. I have to say, I was not a big fan of the first in the series, "Shanghai Girls." In fact, I went back to see what I rated it and was surprised to see I gave it a four! I was sure I must have left a three. I was not planning on reading the sequel at all, but a friend of mine had purchased the book and passed it on to me, where it has since sat on my shelf for six months until this week, where I couldn't put it down.

Wow. The character development, the writing, a...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Steven Langdon rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed Lisa See's "Shanghai Girls" for its historical depth and its well-shaped, dramatic plot -- but I was disappointed by the superficial character of the relationships amongst its main players, sisters Pearl and May, and their shared daughter, Joy. "Dreams of Joy" is the sequel and follows Joy and Pearl as they return to China. It is, however, a far better book in its exploration of the complexity of relationships amongst the main characters. It is also a book that deepens understanding of...more I enjoyed Lisa See's "Shanghai Girls" for its historical depth and its well-shaped, dramatic plot -- but I was disappointed by the superficial character of the relationships amongst its main players, sisters Pearl and May, and their shared daughter, Joy. "Dreams of Joy" is the sequel and follows Joy and Pearl as they return to China. It is, however, a far better book in its exploration of the complexity of relationships amongst the main characters. It is also a book that deepens understanding of some of the tensions that were sketched in the first novel.

There are two main settings in China in the book. One is rural, Green Dragon Village, on its way to becoming a model commune caught up in the Great Leap Forward years. The other is Shanghai, dramatically changed after the Revolution yet with its underlying continuity. A great strength of this novel is its ability to chart the differing dynamics of both places, without oversimplifying either. Lisa See has dug deeply into the historical record of both communities to present a vivid portrait of social change, conflict and crisis in the hard years of transition to a different society. The grim mistakes of the Leap years destroy the idealism of Joy about China, while the ambiguities of social relationships in Shanghai help her mother Pearl to a more nuanced understanding of what is happening in her old community -- and to a deepening appreciation of love and passion in her own life. These experiences in turn rewrite relationships amongst Joy and Pearl and May, and Z.G. whom both sisters loved. How this all plays out is handled very well by Lisa See, permitting her to explore her understanding of China and to demonstrate her skill at tracing the complex and shifting perspectives of her women characters.

What is less satisfying in the book is the author's treatment of the main male characters. Tao, the man Joy chooses to love, becomes (almost inexplicably) a totally malevolent figure. The relationship between the two, and how fast it changes, does not seem credible. And Z.G., too, despite the way he accepts Joy as his daughter, becomes something of a cardboard figure, without much bite or substance. This too seems less than credible given the strong feelings for him of both Pearl and May.

Despite this, my reaction to this novel is very positive. Pearl and Joy both emerge as strong figures, survivors in a difficult world. Their struggle to prevail despite adversity becomes a compelling story that illuminates well a challenging time and place. (less)

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Jun 01, 2012 Courtney rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Dreams of Joy" by Lisa See is one of those novels that you just can’t help but think about after you finish it. It is the sequel to best-selling novel, "Shanghai Girls," and is told from the perspective of Pearl (the main protagonist of "Shanghai Girls") and her daughter, Joy.

This sequel is set in 1950s communist China, where 19-year-old Joy travels to find her real father, Z.G. Knowing that Red China is dangerous, Pearl pursues her daughter, returning to Shanghai and her old family home. But m...more

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About Lisa See

Lisa See is a Chinese-American author. Her books include Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), Dragon Bones, and On Gold Mountain. She was named the 2001 National Woman of the Year, by the Organization of Chinese American Women. She lives in Los Angeles.

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On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family

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Quotes from Dreams of Joy

“As she spoke, I wanted to cry, because sometimes it's just so damn hard to be a mother. We have to wait and wait and wait for our children to open their hearts to us. And if that doesn't work, we have to bide our time and look for the moment of weakness when we can sneak back into their lives and they will see us and remember us for the people who love them unconditionally.” — 28 people liked it

“Seeing something once is better than hearing about it a hundred times. Doing something once is better than seeing it a hundred times.” — 13 people liked it

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Dreams of Joy (Shanghai Girls #2)

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