MadgeWhitlin

Let's see if I can form coherent sentences yet (I've had the flu and I still feel awful)...

I've wanted to read something by Lisa See for a long time, and I finally decided to do it back in December. So, I read some reviews of a few of her books and eventually chose this one to start. It took me quite a while to get through this, but by the end I think I was enjoying it. Or maybe "enjoying" is the wrong word... I was invested in finishing might be a more accurate description of how I felt by the last 1/4.

I had so many emotions while I read this, most of them not happy feelings. I knew about foot binding, but I had never looked up all the details of how it was done, for example. I knew the center of the foot was broken somehow, but I didn't know exactly how, or about the toes. That was difficult to read about. I've had untreated broken bones in my feet and I can't imagine how much worse the foot binding must have been. I was aware of a lot of the things that happened in this book, but they were always glossed over in history classes or wherever I learned them, so reading about them in great detail wasn't a fun experience. I wouldn't say this book was boring, but it is one of those books that feels like nothing is happening, I guess. Probably because of the way the story is told, from Lily's memories.

This is not a happy book. (I feel like I've heard that Lisa See is known for not writing happy books, but I could be wrong, I'm not sure.) I would not recommend this if you tend to be very sensitive to human suffering in your books, or want a light, joyful book. Definitely look elsewhere.