Susan
This book was not just well written with amazing characters and vivid clear writing, but it made me stop reading and just think about so many things that I took for granted in my life. In following the life of LeMei and her daughter Lin in this multi-generational novel I saw not only life in China through the latter part of the 20th Century, but my own world in the US and Canada through new eyes. This is a story of women searching for their identity and selfhood dispute everything that was put in their way. LeMei faces growing up in 1960s Shanghai coming into conflict with limitations of her society. This leads her to cultivate in her daughter, Lin, a need to find freedom in the West, especially after the events she experiences in Tiananmen Square and to discount what China can offer. But this too has limitations for Lin, first in the US and then Canada, as she is seeing that what was sold to her via Western ads. This is a story of women seeking a Home that will allow them discover the Present and Future while celebrating the Past. This is a story of learning to have faith in oneself, to recognize the perils of immigration, of the mother daughter connection, and to that connection that we feel to our homeland. Touching on many heavy real life situations, this book is both intensely personal and wonderfully symbolic, bringing together the goddess who is The Immortal Woman, and a celebration of what makes us each an Immortal Woman in our own right.
This is a book that I will be keeping on my shelves and returning to.Thank you to @suchangwrites for this amazing book! To @houseofanansi and @tandemcollectiveglobal this #giftedbook
This book was not just well written with amazing characters and vivid clear writing, but it made me stop reading and just think about so many things that I took for granted in my life. In following the life of LeMei and her daughter Lin in this multi-generational novel I saw not only life in China through the latter part of the 20th Century, but my own world in the US and Canada through new eyes. This is a story of women searching for their identity and selfhood dispute everything that was put in their way. LeMei faces growing up in 1960s Shanghai coming into conflict with limitations of her society. This leads her to cultivate in her daughter, Lin, a need to find freedom in the West, especially after the events she experiences in Tiananmen Square and to discount what China can offer. But this too has limitations for Lin, first in the US and then Canada, as she is seeing that what was sold to her via Western ads. This is a story of women seeking a Home that will allow them discover the Present and Future while celebrating the Past. This is a story of learning to have faith in oneself, to recognize the perils of immigration, of the mother daughter connection, and to that connection that we feel to our homeland. Touching on many heavy real life situations, this book is both intensely personal and wonderfully symbolic, bringing together the goddess who is The Immortal Woman, and a celebration of what makes us each an Immortal Woman in our own right.
This is a book that I will be keeping on my shelves and returning to.Thank you to @suchangwrites for this amazing book! To @houseofanansi and @tandemcollectiveglobal this #giftedbook