Bibliofreakblog

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Recently I gave this to a guy to read, who looked at it, looked at me, looked at it, looked at me.  “Is this a chick book?” he asked.  “I mean, this book practically has a vagina.”

Let it be known that he started reading the book but couldn’t get past the graphic descriptions of footbinding in the beginning and, as far as I know, still hasn’t finished it. 

So yes.  It is kind of a chick book, in that characters are women, and it is about the lives of women.  Does that mean it’s about fuzzy kittens and hair styles?  No.  Like many books chronicling the lives of women, it does talk about their hopes, dreams, emotions, etc., but don’t let that scare you, male readers.  There’s plenty more in this book to be scared of.

The story is of two girls, from different classes, in a remote part of China, centers around the solidity of women when they are given the chance to think for themselves.  Not that they are supposed to.  The women communicate using nu shu, the only writing ever created for and by women (let’s not argue about whether or not there’s actually been writing created for and by men only—it’s just not the point).  After they have been married off to strangers, their lives are spent in an upstairs room with only one window.  Nu shu is their way out into the world.  They write to each other using their secret language on the panels of fans, and embroidered on handkerchiefs. 

But Nu shu is a complicated, nuanced language.  Misinterpretations result in painful loss, which for women shuttered from the rest of the world, is worse than what we can probably imagine. 

The narrator, Lily, and her best friend/soul mate, are laotong, or “old sames.”  They share certain qualities, except for class, and their friendship is so important, it is central to their lives.  While you can’t choose your family, including your husband in 19^th century China, you can choose your friends.  Well, that’s only kind of true because these “certain qualities” include birth signs and foot size, and they are matched up together because of it.  But friendship is more important than marriage, which is a business decision made for the well-being of two families, the laotong match is made for the well-being of the two families (and the future marriage matches they will make) and also the consideration of the girls themselves. 

Buy Snow Flower and the Secret Fan on Amazon

If you like this book/author, you might like:

(my reviews in blue)

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Empress Orchid & The Last Empress by Anchee Min
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Hawaii by James Michner
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Three Daughters of Madame Liang by Pearl S Buck
The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama
Sula by Toni Morrison
Splendid Slippers: A Thousand Years of an Erotic Tradition by Beverly Jackson
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

Other works by Lisa See:

On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family
Peony in Love
Shanghai Girls

The Red Princess Mysteries:

Dragon Bones
Flower Net
The Interior

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