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Sheila DeChantal's Reviews > Shanghai Girls
Shanghai Girls
by Lisa See (Goodreads Author)
by Lisa See (Goodreads Author)
It is the mid 1930's in Shanghai and May and Pearl are beautiful, sophisticated, and well educated. When their father gambles away all the family owns, they are on the verge of losing everything. In order to save their home, May and Pearl's father arranges for his daughters to be married to two brothers who live in Los Angeles and within a few days of making this decision the girls are shocked, horrified... and married.
When the girls went on the boat to be delivered to their new home in the states, they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months along with many other women trying to get to the US. It is as thought the lives they once knew had crumbled right before their eyes. When May discovers she is pregnant the girls make a pact that no one can ever EVER know.
Once in the states they find that life is not as they had been told, their father in law is not the rich man that he portrayed himself to be in Shanghai. Instead he is close to poverty, relying on what his sons, and now his daughter in laws can provide him by working and giving him the money. Together May and Pearl learn to survive in a new world, in new ways.
My first experience with Lisa See was Snowflower and The Secret Fan. I devoured that book and knew I wanted to read more of her work. That time has come with Shanghai Girls which has turned out not only to be an incredible fiction experience.
What at first I thought was going to be mainly about their new lives and how they adjusted to this new life (much like A Buddha In The Attic), I was surprised to find that Lisa See winds a much deeper story within the story and when I caught on to what she was doing, I was really thrilled. As this book is about two sisters from Shanghai and their lives, it is really about the sisters Pearl and May. While Pearl narrates what she sees and how things are, you get a very strong feeling of who they are. Here in lies the beauty of Lisa See's writing.
Shanghai Girls is a look into two girls lives from their youth as beautiful girls to their experiences lives, marriages, and more in the United States. Lisa See does a wonderful job of making this book feel more fact than fiction.
When the girls went on the boat to be delivered to their new home in the states, they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months along with many other women trying to get to the US. It is as thought the lives they once knew had crumbled right before their eyes. When May discovers she is pregnant the girls make a pact that no one can ever EVER know.
Once in the states they find that life is not as they had been told, their father in law is not the rich man that he portrayed himself to be in Shanghai. Instead he is close to poverty, relying on what his sons, and now his daughter in laws can provide him by working and giving him the money. Together May and Pearl learn to survive in a new world, in new ways.
My first experience with Lisa See was Snowflower and The Secret Fan. I devoured that book and knew I wanted to read more of her work. That time has come with Shanghai Girls which has turned out not only to be an incredible fiction experience.
What at first I thought was going to be mainly about their new lives and how they adjusted to this new life (much like A Buddha In The Attic), I was surprised to find that Lisa See winds a much deeper story within the story and when I caught on to what she was doing, I was really thrilled. As this book is about two sisters from Shanghai and their lives, it is really about the sisters Pearl and May. While Pearl narrates what she sees and how things are, you get a very strong feeling of who they are. Here in lies the beauty of Lisa See's writing.
Shanghai Girls is a look into two girls lives from their youth as beautiful girls to their experiences lives, marriages, and more in the United States. Lisa See does a wonderful job of making this book feel more fact than fiction.
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Marjorie
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Apr 05, 2012 12:53pm
This book is really good, you must read Dreams of Joy by Lisa See, it is fantastic. Probably, the best book I have ever read.
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So glad you liked the book. I'm half-way through Dreams of Joy and I can't put it down! The story of what it was like for the Chinese peasants under Mao is very revealing!
The Great Leap Forward under Mao had to be a nightmare for China's population. Lisa See puts you right there.An amazing read!!
