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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Dreams of Joy

Lisa See has continued the stories of The Shanghai Girls with Dreams of Joy (#82).  Joy is the daughter born to May Chin in that book, but was brought up as her sister Pearl's child in Los Angeles after they escape the chaos of Shanghai during World War II.  Now Joy has just completed her first year as a college student at the University of Chicago when she discovers the truth about her parentage.  She does not react well and runs away to find her birth father in the People's Republic of China in the late 1950s.  She is an idealist in tune with Chairman Mao's message to the people and thinks she can contribute to the people's struggle upwards.  Meanwhile Pearl, her aunt and foster mother, follows her chick to China to bring her home.  Things don't go as planned in the People's Great Leap Forward and both Joy and Pearl find themselves in harrowing situations in their new lives.

Besides writing a darn good story, Ms. See is a mistress of exploring relationships; they are the essence of her books.  Family and adopted family are everything in Dreams of Joy.  Both Joy and Pearl discover that home truly is where their hearts are in surprising ways.

The setting of the book is equally fascinating - Red China in the late 50s and early 60s.  Joy's experiences in the Green Dragon Village commune vividly brought to mind a book I hadn't thought about in almost forty years: Fanshen by William Hinton.  It described life after Communism in a country village very similar to Joy's adopted home.  I remember reading this book in college in the early 70s when it made a great impression on me.  (It's recently been reissued and is available on Amazon if you are interested in reading this classic for yourself.)

A thought-provoking read that deserves the #1 spot on the NY Times Bestsellers list.  You won't be disappointed.

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