Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - April Book Club

[Amy Steinberg]

One of our members "rickimc" suggested what looks like a great book for our next book club.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. See's engrossing novel set in remote 19th-century China details the deeply affecting story of lifelong, intimate friends (laotong, or "old sames") Lily and Snow Flower, their imprisonment by rigid codes of conduct for women and their betrayal by pride and love. While granting immediacy to Lily's voice, See (Flower Net) adroitly transmits historical background in graceful prose. Her in-depth research into women's ceremonies and duties in China's rural interior brings fascinating revelations about arranged marriages, women's inferior status in both their natal and married homes, and the Confucian proverbs and myriad superstitions that informed daily life. Beginning with a detailed and heartbreaking description of Lily and her sisters' foot binding ("Only through pain will you have beauty. Only through suffering will you have peace"), the story widens to a vivid portrait of family and village life. Most impressive is See's incorporation of nu shu, a secret written phonetic code among women—here between Lily and Snow Flower—that dates back 1,000 years in the southwestern Hunan province ("My writing is soaked with the tears of my heart,/ An invisible rebellion that no man can see"). As both a suspenseful and poignant story and an absorbing historical chronicle, this novel has bestseller potential and should become a reading group favorite as well.

I found some copies at half.com - http://product.half.ebay.com/Snow-Flower-And-the-Secret-Fan_W0QQtgZ...

Is having it read by May 1st o.k.?

[Amy Steinberg]

I just started the book last night and just got to the part about how they are putting off her foot binding for another year. Already a great book.

[Solsida]

Just wait. I wish they put it off again. It's really hard to read this. (It's well written for sure, but really hard to read...)

[Solsida]

Okay, I think I'm through the worst of it. Funny, I read another book where foot binding was a main thrust of the story, but I don't think it bothered me quite as much. I wonder what the difference was. I'll have to look up the other book. I think it was told in a flashback and I didn't like the character so much so maybe it was easier to create a little distance. Like Rickimc said I can't imagine having to go through it or why it would be considered attactive. I can't imagine what started the practice or how it became such an important part of the culture of the time.

[Solsida]

I finished this morning, anyone else finished? It was interesting reading the afterward and how the author traveled to China to do research.

[rickimc]

I am only about a 1/3 of the way through. I have so many other books I have to read, that I am trying to read a little of this each day.

[Solsida]

I think it starts to pick up halfway through.

[Barefoot Bling]

Can we extend the reading deadline? My copy just got here yesterday! I think it came Media Mail from the moon!

[rickimc]

I would like that, too. I am almost done, but I have a show this weekend, so I won't be able to sit down and read again until Monday.

[Solsida]

Works for me!

[rickimc]

Finished last night. Very well-written.

[Amy Steinberg]

O.k., I put the book down yesterday. I skimmed the last couple of chapters. Why? Because I thought the first half of the book was much more engaging then the later half. The foot binding where her toes break made me creep out of my skin. The conversations were interesting and I felt like I was learning. I just didn't feel that way about the second half of the book.

It seemed to me that Snow Flower was nothing of what Lady Lu thought she was. Was it that Snow Flower was so quick to want her friend to be more traditional that she couldn't see the forest for the trees?

I'm sort of stumped. Anyone?

[rickimc]

Snow Flower was not what Lily thought she was, but even though Snow Flower lied to Lily, she never broke thier contract. Lily thinks that Snow Flower did and cuts her off from her life, only to find out on Snow Flower's death bed that she had been true to Lily. It was all very sad, but Lily learned a lot about how to be a true Lady from Snow Flower, even though her friend had fallen so far. Unfortunately, Lily lost a lot in the process as well, and was so intent on being what she thought a good Lady was that she missed Snow Flower's cries for help.