A Quick Little Book Review

- spoiler alert -

PEONY IN LOVE, by Lisa See
8* out of 10*

The first hundred pages of this novel did not win me over. They seemed a bit wooden, predictable, sentimental. The information about 17c Chinese culture - the government, the role of women, the opera - those were all interesting enough, but the story seemed to simply be the sob story of a powerless, swooning, foolish girl who dies for the love she can't have, which ironically ends up being the love/marriage her parents had actually arranged for her. It felt so predictable and lame when that all came down that I remember smacking my borrowed paperback on the couch and physically sticking my finger down my throat as if to gag, and shooting accusing eye daggers at the red cover because the author had wasted my time.

Is that a strong enough reaction?

Oh, and along the way there'd been awkward sentences in clunky dialogue, which made me feel that the book had just been carelessly cranked out by the author and publisher because Lisa See's previous book, Snowflower and the Secret Fan, had been such a smash hit. (Haven't read it.)

BUT I kept reading because readers I respect had liked this book. And, to my delight, the last 2/3 of the book indeed represented the author's creativity, smart cultural analysis and storytelling skills.

The rituals of the Chinese and their dead were so wonderfully conveyed through the point-of-view of Peony, a sixteen-year-old girl who'd died of that foolishness mentioned in my first paragraph. Caught in the after-world - one of its crazy layers, according to Chinese belief - Peony lives as a ghost where rituals have not been rightly performed and brutal consequences result for her unless she can change them.

So, that foolish girl she had been comes to understand the many depths and ways human beings can love. And, of course, woven in there is a deep (and cultural ?) lesson about women's strength and their rightful claim on the arts.

In the end, while I don't think the book is a perfect 10 in its execution - although I do think the first hundred pages had to set the stage for physical and emotional events to come (maybe only 75 were needed?) - I think the novel's overall depth and uniqueness and creativity earns it a solid 8.