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Perhaps I took too long to finish reading this book; perhaps the intervals led to me getting bored over the story, I don't know. I'll give the author the benefit of the doubt, seeing how many others have been captivated by this story.The book traces the life of three female Chinese dancers (and a plethora of other characters) through their time together performing at night clubs, being friends, turning enemies and trying to figure it all out. For such a sparkling premise, I expected a moving tal...
Being a huge fan of Lisa See, all I can say is that I'm sorry I had to give this 2 stars. The dialog between the girls doesn't seem like actual conversation, it just didn't work for me. These characters did not come alive to me as real women. And how they related to each other? Maybe it would be possible for their shared career path? Hoping that each chapter might get me interested in these women's outcomes, I stopped and started this book several times. But I never got imbedded in any outcomes
This is a story of three American "Oriental" girls (as they were called at the time) who meet by chance in San Francisco in the late 1930's while trying out as nightclub dancers on the outskirts of Chinatown. Each come from different backgrounds and the story centers around their friendship as it evolves and changes through the next ten years or so. I honestly had trouble really liking this book. I found the writing somewhat mediocre and I really didn't care for any of the characters, even by th...
I'm a Lisa See fan. I preordered this book. I'm kind of disappointed in it. Something about it just wasn't up to her usual standard. I never really understood why these three girls were friends. The only basis for that friendship seemed to be that they were all pretty, and that's it! Is that what the author intended? The jumping back and forth between narrators was disjointed - it didn't flow smoothly at all. And the actions of the characters didn't match what they were thinking, and what they w...
I am, by all accounts, a fairly voracious reader. I love books of a variety of genres and writing styles. I do, of course, have preferences and pet peeves. One thing I do enjoy in fiction books is an ending that ties up loose ends. While I appreciate a reader desiring to create their own version of a character's future, I highly value when an author delivers me to the end of the journey I embarked on when I cracked open the cover. And with certain novels, I become so intimate with characters and...
As World War II begins, three friends find themselves competing for one showgirl role at San Francisco Chinatown’s exclusive nightclub The Forbidden City. Ruby is Japanese and desperate to pass as Chinese so she won’t be sent to a Japanese internment camp, Grace has fled her abusive Mid-western family, and Helen, who grew up in Chinatown, hides her own secret. The author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan beautifully explores the intricacies of friendship.
Pre- and post-Pearl Harbor in San Francisco, and three Oriental-American club dancers are experiencing racial prejudice along with personal success and failures. The prejudice felt very familiar to what Muslims and Mexicans in this country might be experiencing in America now or in the near future (if we allow a certain trumpeter who likes to blow his own horn into office). Prejudice will live throughout history and the future, but books like this can educate us as to its effects on its innoce...
Oh. My. Great. Goodness....and breathe....Lisa See has really outdone herself with this one. I'm not at sure if she shouldn't just put up her pen and call it a day.....this book was just so wonderful! I seriously wonder how she can ever top it....Most people if asked what this book was about would automatic reply with it's about some Chinese and Japanese girls in San Francisco at the time leading up to, during and after WWII....But it's not. To me, that's the whole point. This is a story about 3...
A sparkling wartime saga following three Asian-American girlfriends who meet in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1938. As they grow closer, sharing apartments and gigs, the cardinal virtue of loyalty often seems at odds with the exigencies of stardom.See vividly depicts the bawdy atmosphere of the semi-nude nightclubs where the ‘Chinese Fred Astaire’ and ‘Chinese Frank Sinatra’ got their start. She peoples her Chinatown settings with a mixture of fictional and historical characters (Ronald Reagan an...
This novel was definitely a miss for me. I guess nothing will live up to Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. The premise of the novel was promising (hence why I requested it for Early Reviewers) and I love the historical time period...BUT...these girls seem to despise each other. The early chapters are filled with rude remarks to each other (and snarky thoughts about each other); and then, to help the plotline along, since they have to be friends, the girls just think/say, "Well, we have to stick to...
if it weren't for the author's name staring at me in the upper left corner of every page, you would never have been able to convince me that this is the same author who wrote Snow Flower and the Secret Fan or Shanghai Girls. despite having been a fan of Lisa See for years, I could not have been more disappointed in this book. first, the writing style was uninspired at best and juvenile at worst. you'd think that the concept of 'show, don't tell' was a foreign one to the author, except I thought
