Get "Shanghai"ed

Tonight the Neland Women's Book Club tackled Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. The novel was a success by book club standards, as it gave us a lot to talk about. Well, most books give this group something to talk about, mainly because we like to talk a lot. Earlier, I gave my halfway-through-the-novel thoughts about the book, considering the immigrant story aspect of it. That was just a small portion of the discussion tonight.

The first thing that came out tonight is something we probably learned a few years back when we read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by the same author, but then promptly forgot. (The nice thing about forgetting things is that you find them interesting all over again when you learn them for the second time.) Lisa See writes about China and Chinese Americans, but her author photo shows a redheaded woman with freckles. She doesn't, at first glance, fit the reader's expectations. However, See's great grandfather was Chinese, and he was one of the founders of the Los Angeles Chinatown area. See grew up in Los Angeles, close to her Chinese-American family and spending a lot of time in Chinatown. She has obviously spent a lot of time in research as well.

The ladies at tonight's meeting agreed that the book was good, that we learned a lot from it, and that some events in the novel were difficult to read about. This past Sunday, our pastor talked about how, when he was young, he couldn't stand reading John Updike, because Updike piled tragedy upon tragedy for his characters. He didn't feel that was reality. Now, in middle age, he realizes that sometimes people really do experience tragedy upon tragedy. He probably wouldn't have liked this novel when he was younger.

In spite of that, and beyond the historical and cultural context, this is still a novel about the relationship between two sisters. Sisters who are closer to each other than they are to anyone else, who make sacrifices for each other, and who are also jealous of each other and bitter over perceived injustices over the course of a lifetime. The book is told in the voice of the older sister, Pearl, but every so often you get a glimpse of the younger sister's point of view. Some of their feelings about who was loved more, or who has sacrificed more, ring very true to a reader like me, who shares both love and childhood rivalries with three siblings. Being family gives you like DNA, but not necessarily like minds!

One member tonight compared this book with books by Amy Tan, commenting on the fact that these women are married off to whomever is chosen for them, and they have very little choice in how their lives play out. We realize that as American women in the 21st century, we have enormous freedoms that are not shared among the women of the world, now or in history.

A curious part of the novel is when Pearl talks about her conversion experience to Christianity. It struck many of us as a conversion written in good faith (no pun intended) by someone who has not really had one. That is a scary statement to post, because we could be so very wrong in our assessment! However, the character Pearl seems to find Christianity a part of new life in a new country, and she mixes it with the spirituality of her past life.

One criticism that came out of the meeting was that sometimes See seems to be talking to the reader, explaining things that shouldn't be explained in an attempt to make sure we don't miss the point. This one criticism against the whole of the novel is a small one; it is a book worth reading if you aren't looking for neatly wrapped up storylines with pleasant characters and happy endings.

Speaking of happy endings, we enjoyed some in-season Michigan strawberries (hard to beat!) with rich almond bars and dark chocolate brownies. Mmm.

In my last post, I was missing one of the titles that we will be reading in the next year. That title is Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez. Now the book list is complete, and I have promises to keep, and pages to read before I sleep, and pages to read before I sleep.

Shanghai Surprise

The controversial new law in Arizona that requires law enforcement to verify the legality of people who might possibly be illegal immigrants strikes me as yet another dent in our shiny Ford fenders. It seems to me that if someone felt there were too many Dutch illegal immigrants, and such a law were enacted, I would be in quite a pickle. My grandparents came, literally, straight off the boat. I'm an American, but I've been to the Netherlands, and know I look like everybody there. I'd be worried.

It seems that over the years the United States has taken the opportunity to oppress just about every minority that comes its way. Not a very patriotic sentiment, I know, but I spent a lot of years believing we did everything perfectly. Then I started to learn about Jim Crow laws, and women's suffrage. I remember being stunned when I read Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston in college for Adolescent Literature (thanks, Professor Baron!). American citizens of Japanese descent were sent to internment camps? I couldn't believe it; this was not the mighty, benevolent land I knew. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson continued to educate me in that vein.

In Shanghai Girls by Lisa See, which I am currently enjoying (not finished yet--final word later), I am learning about a deep World War II-era prejudice of which I had no earlier inkling. The main characters in this book are illegal immigrants, forced to resort to duplicity because the United States will not allow any Chinese citizens to naturalize. Incoming Chinese are detained at Angel Island to be interrogated regularly until their immigration authorizations are found out to be fraudulent or decided to be authentic. Once in the country, they are despised first for being Chinese and despised later when "Occidentals" mistake them for Japanese.

Lisa See, who wrote another novel of China that I liked, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, writes about female characters who have to find their inner strength in difficult circumstances. She vividly brings Shanghai, war and the immigration experience to life. For a girl whose childhood knowledge of China didn't get far beyond the cartoon "Hong Kong Phooey," it's always eye-opening to read a mile in someone else's shoes.