Shanghai Girls: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a fan of Lisa See's two earlier novels, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" and "Peony in Love", both of which were set in 19th and 17th century China respectively. In "Shanghai Girls", the author moves the setting of the novel to Shanghai and later to the US. Lisa See paints a vivid portrait of life in pre-World War II Shanghai and takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through the Japanese invasion of China and its aftermath.
The protagonists in this novel are two sisters - Pearl and May. Pearl is the older sister, born in the auspicious Year of the Dragon, yet frowned upon by her Baba [father] who dislikes her tall appearance. Pearl is also educated, having completed college, and is proficient in a few languages and dialects. In contrast, younger sister May, born in the Year of the Sheep, is shorter yet lovely, and has only managed to complete high school. Yet, for all Pearl's accomplishments, it is May that is the apple of her parent's eyes, and uses this partiality to her advantage. Both sisters live a life of privilege, yet they work as 'beautiful girls' posing for pictures used in ads and posters and earn a good living. This may appear surprising given their parent's conservative outlook [the girls' mother has bound feet], yet not altogether strange as later events bring to light the family's dire financial straits.
When the girls are told their father has huge debts and has decided to marry them off to a pair of brothers, Gold Mountain Men residing in LA [men who have left China to go to America to seek their fortunes, returning to find China Brides], they realize their days of freedom are over and decide to revolt. Unfortunately, the Japanese invasion of Shanghai puts an end to any of their plans. Fleeing the Japanese is not without its horrors and ultimately Pearl and May find themselves alone except for one another.
Even after leaving China, the pair find their situation is still dire as upon arrival in the United States, Pearl and May are detained on Angel's Island for months undergoing untold suffering. They finally meet their 'spouses' but life for the sisters still has many trials in store, and a secret shared between them threatens their future.
"Shanghai Girls" is a well-woven narrative that flows well and Lisa See credibly evokes the bond between two sisters, whose love for one another is strong, yet also fraught by rivalries. This is not just a story about siblings for it is also about the clash between East and West as the sisters struggle to find their footing in a new world, even as the bonds of their old world remain strong. Lisa See is truly a gifted author for being able to portray both the old world of 17th and 19th century China [as seen in Peony and Snow Flower] and the new as seen in "Shanghai Girls". Final verdict: a compelling read.

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Love Made Of Heart Review

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(More customer reviews)Ryan's book is a heartfelt, compelling story of one woman's quest to find love and forgiveness, both for herself and her relationships. The main character, Ruby, weaves in and out of her Chinese American background as she tries to find pieces of each culture that will help her become the strong woman she aspires to be.
Ruby begins her narration with the night her mother is taken from their apartment by policemen. Ruby's mother is mentally ill, and cannot function without medication. The struggle with shame, fear, and guilt over not being able to protect her mother, or forgive herself, propels Ruby into therapy. Her journey into eventual resolution takes Ruby through memories into the past, where the reader catches glimpses of an unstable childhood fraught with confusion, and experiences with violent domestic abuse. Along the way, the adult Ruby stumbles through intimate relationships, learns to deal with the realities of having a mentally ill parent, and makes a dear friend who becomes a surrogate grandmother. This nurturing character, Mrs. Nussbaum, provides a voice of wisdom to the story that envelops it in reassurance. By the end, as Ruby fits all of the pieces together, her self love extends outward into a mature forgiveness of her parents, and opens into a wider circle of giving. The reader is let into the gentle secret that love is an endless, self-generating energy that rewards the giver as much as the receiver.
This book is a real page-turner, and I recommend it to anyone!

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Ruby's life has become unmanageable ever since the day her mother's emotional breakdown forced Ruby to hospitalise her, shaming the family. Now Ruby is caught between two different cultures - one in which she is the American girl, and one in which she is known only as 'daughter'.

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Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco Review

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(More customer reviews)Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders is one of the more innovative ethnographies released recently. Whether you are reading for academic reasons or for fun, I highly recommend you read this book! Dr. Gowan conducts a discourse analysis to her rich ethnographic data--i.e. she reads actions as text--in a way that enables her to discuss being homeless from the broad systemic perspective of policy directed toward homelessness in addition to the individual level understandings and experiences of people who are homeless. She does so by demonstrating how homelessness is consistently expressed through three forms of talk: sin, system, and sick. Doing so enables her drastically reduce the use of jargon in the text while enabling her to smoothly transition back and forth between discussions of policy and presentations of detailed individual accounts. The result is a well-executed and written study providing a holistic understanding of homelessness that will change the way you view the politicians, social workers, and people living on the street. On all accounts, this book is a resounding success and I'm looking forward to reading it again.
Additional comments to the casual reader: As mentioned, this book uses little jargon and is enjoyable to read. You will be able to move through the text without becoming bored or stuck on dry scholarly debates.
Additional comments to other ethnographers and scholars studying culture: This book advances the discussion surrounding the culture of poverty anxiety generated by the Moynihan report. It also could be viewed as a methodological exemplar of how to use discourse analysis with ethnographic data. It is the first I've seen using this approach, but as any good approach, I'm sure it won't be the last.

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Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm in a different position from some of the other reviewers because I was there. Speaking from that perspective, the book is dead on accurate. It is not (only) the salacious story which compells, it is the unanswered questions, questions which, I believe, most people who went through the whole thing have to continue to ask themselves. There is a deep human need to give up our hearts completely to something/someone, and in this case, this need was manipulated and abused. This is a simultaneously old and fresh story. How was it that a man convinced highly intelligent well-educated Americans to treat him like a god come to earth? Presidents and movie stars don't get the heroically self-abasing treatment Dick Baker got from his students. Baker is a remarkable person, a genuine Zen master without a moral mirror of any kind. He still can't figure out what he did wrong.
It was enormously educational to be at Zen Center just before the Debacle. In all my varied life, I have never been in a more confusing place. Nothing seemed to add up, and I put it down to my lack of spiritual attainment. It's true I didn't have much of the latter, but that wasn't the confusion. It was that the whole place was a nest of lies and delusions. That came out later.
The amazing and hopeful part of the story is not really stressed in the book. And that is, Zen Center is alive and well. They took a situation which has destroyed many spiritual practice centers, and they survived and learned. That is a tribute to the deep moral and spiritual treasure of the committed students which are still there. If it wasn't for them, no one would bother to tell that old story.

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