MADreads

Old same

August 9th, 2006 Tracy - Sequoya

Just finished reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan which Molly commented about on Liz’s review of Women of the Silk. This is destined to become if it isn’t already, a book group favorite.  The novel tells the story of two young girls, Lily, the book’s narrator and Snow Flower her laotong or old same.  This laotong friendship is meant to last a lifetime and those in the friendship communicate with a secret langugage known as nu shu.

Lisa See first came “across a brief mention of nu shu when she wrote a review of Wang Ping’s book Aching for Beauty.”  She “became intrigued and then obsessed with nu shu and the culture that rose around it.”  Traveling to China in 2002 to further investigate this secret language prompted the first chapters of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

See does a wonderful job letting us into the darkest aspects of women’s lives in 19th century China.  The isolation, the ritual footbinding of small girls, the oppressive role women had especially if they didn’t produce sons.  But ultimately the book is about friendship and the power of women to persevere under the harshest of circumstances.  I highly recommend this one.

Entry Filed under: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction