novel by lisa see, "peony in love' | Peony in Love: A Novel

About the Content | Peony in Love: A Novel | Lisa See

books:


	• Peony in Love: A Novel Lisa See Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2008 - 297 pages average customer review:based on 151 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Highly enjoyable ...

Peony In Love is an extremely interesting novel. A storyline unlike no other I have ever read. Having enjoyed Snow Flower and the Secret Fan so much, I was not sure another novel by this author could stand up to it, but Peony In Love certainly does.

The story is sad, to be sure. What it reveals about how the Chinese view the afterlife with complexity makes this book a page-turner.

I felt for Peony throughout the novel and found all the characters and customs to be fascinating. At first blush, it might sound like a peculiar story line that would be too "out there" to seem real, but that is not so.

This is an intriguing novel that I had a hard time putting down when it was time to go to bed at night. I recommend it to teens and adults.

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novel by lisa see, "peony in love'

story of women helping women,women hurting women and women misunderstanding each other and takes place in seventeenth century china.
ordered used, paperback and came in great condition and the time frame expected.

About the Content

Beautiful love story. A classic chinese tragedy. This novel, more than a love story, is almost a thiller, just because you are alwasys chasing the next chapter. Lisa See masters the ability to mix historic backgrounds with fiction. This is a keeper I want to read again.

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A great journey

I thoroughly enjoyed the journey this story took me on. It's the first Lisa See book I've read and I will read more. Great imagination but at the tender age of 16, one can see how a young girl's heart could be broken and the events that lead up to it.

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What's Love Got To Do With It? Peony's Peril!

Peony In Love

This book purports to be an historical novel of China, during or just after the Ming Dynasty (if memory serves me), and may be based on true events of those Chinese women of several hundred years ago.

The book was a bit pretentious, repetitive and at times was so predictable, I really wanted to toss the book out the window as a failed experiment. And there were other times where the novel captured the arrogant men and the subservient women, which women practiced foot-binding, that the author gave in such excruciating detail, that it left nothing to the imagination.

Peony was proud of her bound feet and not to concerned about a few broken bone shards sticking out. She filed them down nicely! Ouch!

The book centers around a Chinese opera called Peony's Pavilion. And our young narrator is also called Peony. And her grandmother is called Peony. The repetition was maddening.

But not only in name but in deed!

Peony is pampered and is allowed to read the love story as depicted in the opera Peony's Pavilion. The character in the tale dies of a broken heart ("love-sick maids") by starving herself to death. The character then haunts her lover and he eventually works it out somehow to bring her back to life.

Peony also knows that men are only allowed to see this opera. The opera can go on for a day or so it is so long. And any women that are allowed to see it, must do so behind a screen so that the men don't see them. Peony wanders and runs into a guy that she immediately falls for.

At the time, her father has arranged a marriage with some man.

[Spoiler: It is so obvious that this man is the same guy that she has been engaged to be married to, it's laughable. So predictable. End Spoiler].

Well, Peony starves herself to death and then haunts her lover, just like in the opera. And, when her lover marries another, Peony's control over this girl is such that this girl (Ze) starts starving to death herself!

Peony is a reclusive, selfish teenage girl, who has made up her mind as to what life is all about and is not about to let others continue to live out their own with her intervention. She wants to be remembered and immortalized, yet has a lot to learn, both in life and in death.

Lisa See writes well regarding Chinese mythology and writes as if these spirits and charms and wards actually work, and show Peony's interaction with hungry ghosts and depraved spirits. I found these caricatures somewhat interesting.

But, not enough to save this sinking ship.

Before you judge the ancient Chinese "tradition" of foot-binding too harshly (and I think it was harsh and horrible, but I digress) I wonder how future generations will look at our present time USA actions of tattooing, piercings and breast augmentation for that elusive socially acceptable "beauty" attainment. Food for thought.

Recommended from a historical perspective as to what Chinese women had to live and strive for when they were looked upon at a level not much above cattle and bags of rice.

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?I finally understand what the poets have written. In spring, moved to passion; in autumn only regret.?

For young Peony, betrothed to a suitor she has never met, these lyrics from The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings. In the garden of the Chen Family Villa, amid the scent of ginger, green tea, and jasmine, a small theatrical troupe is performing scenes from this epic opera, a live spectacle few females have ever seen. Like the heroine in the drama, Peony is the cloistered daughter of a wealthy family, trapped like a good-luck cricket in a bamboo-and-lacquer cage. Though raised to be obedient, Peony has dreams of her own.

Peony?s mother is against her daughter?s attending the production: ?Unmarried girls should not be seen in public.? But Peony?s father assures his wife that proprieties will be maintained, and that the women will watch the opera from behind a screen. Yet through its cracks, Peony catches sight of an elegant, handsome man with hair as black as a cave?and is immediately overcome with emotion.

So begins Peony?s unforgettable journey of love and destiny, desire and sorrow?as Lisa See?s haunting new novel, based on actual historical events, takes readers back to seventeenth-century China, after the Manchus seize power and the Ming dynasty is crushed.

Steeped in traditions and ritual, this story brings to life another time and place?even the intricate realm of the afterworld, with its protocols, pathways, and stages of existence, a vividly imagined place where one?s soul is divided into three, ancestors offer guidance, misdeeds are punished, and hungry ghosts wander the earth. Immersed in the richness and magic of the Chinese vision of the afterlife, transcending even death, Peony in Love explores, beautifully, the many manifestations of love. Ultimately, Lisa See?s new novel addresses universal themes: the bonds of friendship, the power of words, and the age-old desire of women to be heard.

From the Hardcover edition.

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