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Book groups take note

July 13th, 2006 Liz - Central Library

For some reason I keep reading books about China that take place just before, during and/or after the Cultural Revolution.  This time it’s Women of the Sillk by Gail Tsukiyama.  Other books set in this time and place are very dreary, owing to life in China under oppression, poor living conditions, and difficult economic times.  In Women, though, there is hope and oftentimes happiness.  Protagonist Pei, in some ways, has it better once she’s joined the sisterhood of silk workers.  Having come from a home where her parents barely spoke and also barely eked out a living, the ‘girls house’ where the silk workers live is a good place for Pei.  After overcoming the shock and sadness of being left there at age 8, she finds love, comfort, and support in the sisterhood.  Tsukiyama’s portrayal of the factory itself is not black and white.  It’s hard for some, but not others; sometimes dangerous, but not always.  As a book group pick the novel has a deceptively simple style which flows and makes for easy, fast reading.  If you read the non-fiction Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China and found it too depressing, or if you read Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and found it informative but also sometimes sweet, this one will be just right.

Entry Filed under: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction