First Daughter

by Whitney Stine

Jade, the eldest daughter of a noble Chinese family, becomes caught in the nightmarish terror and savagery of civil war in turn-of-the-century China as she falls in love with a great patriot and sacrifices everything she holds dear for the sake of the revolution

Genres: Fiction

496 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1985

Reviews

[Jenifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really blown away with the intimacy with which Stine depicts the culture of pre-democratic China. The elaborate intricacy of the superstitions, rituals and ways of speaking that governed people's thinking and lifestyle seemed magically alien to me. I wonder how Stine knew so much about it? I couldn't find anything about him on the interweb, except for his quite famous books on Betty Davis.
I appreciated the arc of the story, of women and a society rising from adversity. I know it is a kind of melodrama, but the historical accuracy and background were very realistic. The writing style was smooth, with great descriptions of weather and scenery. The characters were well drawn and sympathetic.
During my reading, I really felt transported to another place and time. I couldn't quite understand the ending of the book, I felt that it was a little abrupt. Perhaps it was Stine's purpose, although I had the feeling that maybe he had to finish for some external reason (there's my imagination working overtime). At any rate, my hat is off to Stine for what he accomplished with this book.