China Dolls - Lisa See

 

I have read all of Lisa See's Novels (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan first got me hooked) and I have been a fan ever since.  I didn't find Shanghai Girls as intriguing as Snow Flower & the Secret Fan but I did enjoy the story of the two sisters and Lisa's follow up on their daughter in Dreams of Joy.

I went into reading China Dolls expecting the same thing as Shanghai Girls & Dreams of Joy.  I was pleasantly surprised.

Lisa weaves a story of three Asian women - Grace, Helen & Ruby - starting before the bombs dropped on Hiroshima until the last part which takes in 1988.  She captures each women's heartbreak, joy and struggles through this era.  She tells each woman's story through interconnecting chapter's from their perspective.  The way she tells the story of the three women in my opinion just totally caught the ever complicated reasons behind our friendships with other woman, the decisions we make within those friendships and after years of closeness, how that bond sticks through everything.

At first all I wanted to read was Grace's chapters but Ruby's pulled me in.  Helen was a mystery to me but the beauty of it all ties together so nicely at the end.  I loved how historically accurate it was, describing in detail behind the scenes of the Asian show girl era.  How truly interconnected show business is and how cutthroat.  There were definite parts where I was outraged on the characters behalf!  She also touches on other areas of human suffering and through the eyes of Grace, Helen and Ruby the reader really begins to understand how much a person can go through even if you've never experienced anything personally.

I would recommend this book to anyone and I know that this book will find a place on my bookshelf for me to pick up and read again and again.