I traveled west -- along -- on the cheapest bus routes I could findEvery mile took me farther from Plain City, Ohio, where I'd been a fly-speck on the wallpaper of small-town life.
Each new state I passed through loosened another rope around my heart, my legs, my arms, yet my whole body ached and I couldn't shake my vertigo. I lived on aspirin, crackers, and soda pop.
I cried and cried and cried.
Description:
So often books idealize friendships between central characters as unwavering through all circumstances and separation, a constant source of strength for times when a friend is needed. It takes a great writer like Lisa See in her newest historical fiction novel, China Dolls, to explore the truth of friendships, the variations and changes that occur between even the closest of friends over the years and events.
China Dolls opens with three young Chinese women meeting in San Francisco for the World's Fair in 1938. All are seeking employment as they try to escape from their current lives of difficult families, abuse, and dead-end careers. The World's Fair offers a few jobs for Chinese dancers, but eventually it is the new Forbidden City nightclub outside the fairgrounds that hires them for an all-Chinese floor show.
The girls become fast friends despite their different backgrounds. Ruby, defiantly ambitious and worldly; Helen, wealthy and traditional who still lives with her extended family; and Grace, the premier dancer who is fleeing from an abusive parent in a small town in the Midwest and has never met another Chinese person.
Each chapter is narrated by a different woman, offering her own thoughts and interpretation of the world she is starting to learn about. From life in a nightclub as a "pony" (chorus line) dancer to headliner stars, from the temptations of San Francisco to searches for individual identities as Chinese women in a Western world, the women reveal the world of 1938 and later years from three completely different perspectives. Each woman has secrets she keeps from the world and her friends, secrets that destroy their individual secure worlds and drive her friends away.
China Dolls opens with three young Chinese women meeting in San Francisco for the World's Fair in 1938. All are seeking employment as they try to escape from their current lives of difficult families, abuse, and dead-end careers. The World's Fair offers a few jobs for Chinese dancers, but eventually it is the new Forbidden City nightclub outside the fairgrounds that hires them for an all-Chinese floor show.
The girls become fast friends despite their different backgrounds. Ruby, defiantly ambitious and worldly; Helen, wealthy and traditional who still lives with her extended family; and Grace, the premier dancer who is fleeing from an abusive parent in a small town in the Midwest and has never met another Chinese person.
All of us, in our own ways, were doing the best we could to erase who we were.The world of the dance club performer is exciting and tawdry at the same time. Grace becomes an acclaimed dancer, while Ruby develops a Sally Rand-like bubble dance that vaults her to stardom. Helen creates a popular pairs dance act with the handsome Eddie, who has secrets of his own. The love and friendship of these women faces many challenges, and their relationships waver between support and jealousy as opportunities, betrayals, and secrets are introduced.
Each chapter is narrated by a different woman, offering her own thoughts and interpretation of the world she is starting to learn about. From life in a nightclub as a "pony" (chorus line) dancer to headliner stars, from the temptations of San Francisco to searches for individual identities as Chinese women in a Western world, the women reveal the world of 1938 and later years from three completely different perspectives. Each woman has secrets she keeps from the world and her friends, secrets that destroy their individual secure worlds and drive her friends away.
A woman isn't just one thing. The past is in us, constantly changing us. Heartache and failure shift our perspectives as do joy and triumphs. At any moment, on any given day, we can be friends, competitors, or enemies.See is a talented writer fully in control of her characters and plot. She skillfully interweaves historic locations like the Forbidden City nightclub, the Treasure Island World's Fair, and Japanese internment camps into the story, making the world of the 30's and 40's come alive for those of us unfamiliar with the challenges and opportunities Chinese women faced then. And those women -- Ruby, Helen, and Grace -- become permanently etched in our minds as strong survivors, loyal, ambitious, and willing to live life.
I had made it this far without revealing my deepest secrets, and, for a moment, I forgot that to believe in dreams is to spend half your life asleep.Great strong characters, interesting historical research and plot, and most importantly honest, clear writing make China Dolls an engrossing, unforgettable read. Dive into that world and you quickly won't want to break the bubble and return to our modern world.
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
See, Lisa. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Two young girls in nineteenth century China exchange secret messages throughout their lives via notes on a fan they send to each other, sharing events in their lives, their hopes and loneliness, including the experiences of foot-binding, arranged marriage, motherhood and more. Delicately, exquisitely written.
Yutang, Lin. Moment in Peking: A Novel of Contemporary Chinese Life
Sprawling novel follows the lives of two lovers and their families for forty years in old, traditional China from the Boxer Rebellion to the invasion of Japanese in the early twentieth century. A beautiful book full of love, relationships, Chinese history, and traditions.
