Dreams of Joy

In a post from several months ago, I mentioned one of my favorite "Asian-themed" books, Lisa See's Shanghai Girls.  I enjoyed See's perspectives on World War 2 and the struggles for Asian immigrants, and like many people, I was left wanting more when the book ended.

Shanghai Girls' sequel, Dreams of Joy, picks up right where we left off, in the late 1950s.  Joy, Pearl's daughter from the first novel, has recently learned a deep, dark secret about her family.  Hurt by both her mother and her Aunt May, and still reeling from her father's suicide, Joy decides to go to China to discover her roots and to meet the man who she has learned is her biological father, Z.G. Li.  When Pearl learns where Joy has gone, she has no choice but to go to China herself to bring her daughter home.

What neither Joy nor Pearl could predict was the chaos that was beginning in China.  Under Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward program, China has undergone tremendous changes since Pearl and May fled the country years before.  The Communist regime is in full force and Joy's father, famous Chinese artist Z.G.Li, is being sent to the countryside to teach the peasants how to paint in the "Red" way.  The story follows Joy, as she moves to a commune, falls in love, and  marries, and Pearl, as she fights her way back to Joy and the family she cherishes.

Fans of Lisa See's earlier works will enjoy reading Dreams of Joy, if for no other reason than closure for Shanghai Girls.  Dreams of Joy, however, is a novel unlike those See has written before.  Her past novels, no matter what time period, show both the beauty and the less pleasant side of Chinese life.  In Dreams of Joy, See only shows the ugly side.  This is fitting, because the Great Leap Forward was one of the darkest times in Chinese history.  With individual farms turned into communes, Mao's government sought to maximize the amount of crops produced each year.  What follows is an unmitigated disaster: a combination of droughts, floods and farming requirements from city officials who had no experience with the land leaves China in a state of famine.  By some accounts, as many as 40 million people died of starvation during the three-year period before Mao admitted failure.

See portrays this famine in vivid detail, so much so that it was difficult to read at times.  While her earlier novels have had shocking and painful scenes, it cannot compare to the ravages of famine that See describes in Dreams of Joy.  Lisa See traveled with author Amy Tan to research this novel, and it is clear that her trip to China and what she learned about this time period affected See deeply.

Dreams of Joy is a worthy read, especially if you have read See's earlier works.  There is a happy ending, with a nice big bow.  But a word of warning: beware the title, for "dreams" of joy are the best you can expect this in novel.

In Search of the Perfect Summer Read

Many people believe that winter is the best time for reading.  Curling up on the couch with a blanket and spending the afternoon savoring a book is a fabulous way to spend those dark winter months.  But for me, the perfect season for reading is summer.  Memories of being stretched out on my bed as a girl, reading book after book; as a teen, discovering a new author just in time for days at the pool or a week at the beach; and long afternoons in the public library: that's what summer meant to me.

That hasn't changed.  With the slower pace of life that summer provides, my stack of books is calling to me. There is a lot on my virtual bookshelf right now, but what I want right now is not just any book - I want the elusive "perfect summer read."

There's a lot that goes into the criteria for the perfect book, and each person's list is different.  On my list of criteria is that the book must be enjoyable but not necessarily deep, preferably fiction, long enough to sink my teeth into, and most of all, "unputdownable."  You know what I mean - the kind of book where you look up and two hours have gone by, the kids are tugging at you asking "where's lunch?" and you find yourself daydreaming about it when you're NOT reading.  That kind of book.

My search continues.  There is a new Lisa See book due out (a sequel to Shanghai Girls, which I really enjoyed), a new Ann Patchett, and a few books which have just come into paperback, including The Passage by Joseph Cronin.  When I find that perfect book I will let you know, but I hope you will be looking too - because everyone has their very own summer read just waiting to be devoured.

Flavia de Luce: Nancy Drew, She's Not

Like every other girl I knew growing up, I was a huge Nancy Drew fan.  Nancy Drew seemed to have it all - spunk, loyalty, a quick mind, and above all, fearlessness.  She was everyone's favorite girl detective.  Now, some 60 years later, Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew needs to make room for a different kind of sleuth - Flavia de Luce.

Flavia de Luce is the star of Alan Bradley's mystery series, which began in 2009 with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Flavia does share many of Nancy Drew's characteristics - she's spunky, she's bright, and she doesn't mind sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong.  Most of the similarities end there.  As the youngest of three girls, Flavia spends a great deal of time tormenting her sisters, developing potions and poisons in her private laboratory and causing her sisters great discomfort.   Bradley's series is set in the English countryside in the years following World War One, but Flavia's adventures have a certain timelessness about them that could take place in any period.  With her trusty bicycle Gladys, Flavia tools around town solving mysteries and generally causing mayhem with the local police.  In the most recent novel, Flavia meets a traveling band of gypsies, and between solving old crimes and new ones, manages to outsmart the killer, the police, and her own family.

Of Bradley's series, my favorite is Flavia's first novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, but each of his  novels has their charm, and Red Herring is a highly enjoyable read. The mystery is fun, the violence is present but not gory, and Flavia's adventures never grow old.  Ideally, Flavia's books should be read in order, but each book stands alone.  I hope you will enjoy getting to know Flavia as I have, for she is one of the most charming detectives of the literary world today.

Swamplandia!, Part 2

Swamplandia! update: I finished this fabulous book earlier in the week, and it was well worth it.  I did not have to sleep with the lights on, but remember when I said it was dark?  Oh, I hadn't even gotten to the darkest part yet. Ava's journey, both metaphorical and literal, is breathtaking.  I can't reveal any more without ruining a few plot twists, but Ava's trip will leave her (and you, the reader) changed.

A word of warning - those of you who like a big, fat bow at the end will be disappointed.  The book does wrap up most of the loose ends, but questions remain unanswered.  That being said, Swamplandia! is worth every squirming moment.  Swamplandia! is an ideal candidate for me to slip into book letdown, but Kate Atkinson's newest, Started Early, Took My Dog is calling out for me to dive in!

Swamplandia! Part 1

Every year I wait with great anticipation for Steven King's "Best Books of the Year" article in Entertainment Weekly.  Karen Russell's book Swamplandia! made the cut for 2010, and since Mr. King hasn't steered me wrong yet, I was eager to read it. The advance praise on Swamplandia! described it as both quirky and dark.  The quirky part I got - Swamplandia! is about a family-run wildlife park in Florida where the main act includes wrestling alligators.  But I was about halfway through before I started to see the dark side.  And it is dark, my friends - very dark.

The Bigtree family's matriarch has died of cancer, and the surviving family - father (Chief), son Kiwi, and daughters Ossie and Ava - are left to pick up the pieces and get the park back on track.  With few visitors, the park is forced to close.  The family becomes completely unraveled when Kiwi leaves for the mainland, where he gets a job as a janitor at Swamplandia's largest and nearest competitor, the creepy "World of Darkness" park that features the rings of Hell.  Ossie begins using a Ouija board to start dating ghosts, and goes into a trance on a daily basis. Chief leaves to go find financing to help get the park out of debt. Things take an even darker turn when Ossie begins sneaking out nightly to meet her ghostly date, and 13-year-old Ava must take matters into her own hands.

You know that feeling when you are reading a book and you know whatever comes next is going to be really bad?  I have had that feeling of dread for about 30 pages now in Swamplandia!, and it's only going to get worse.   Russell's descriptions of the primordial swamp where the Bigtree family lives, the malevolent buzzards that reappear throughout  the book, and the World of Darkness park are so vivid, it makes you feel as if you are there yourself.  It all adds up to one really disturbing story.

But how can I stop?  Even though I am literally squirming with anticipation, I have to keep reading - how else will I know what happens to Ava, and the fate of Swamplandia! and the entire Bigtree family?  Stay tuned and  I'll let you know how it all turns out - and how many nights I had to sleep with the light on.  Happy reading!