Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is the story of Lily, a Chinese girl/woman, set during the 19th century. After a diviner sees how perfect Lily's feet are, she fetches a matchmaker from a nearby village who thinks Lily is a perfect choice for a laotong ("old same") match with a girl from another family in her village. A laotong match is between two girls who share 8 "sames," which include year and month of birth, size of their feet, social status, among other things. This bond is a lifelong commitment, stronger even than the bond of marriage, and it is quite an honor.
Lily narrates the story as an 80-year-old woman looking back on her life. Lily meets her laotong, Snow Flower, when she is 6 years old, and the story takes us through their entire relationship, in which a terrible secret is revealed and their relationship is tried.
I loved this book. It's the first book in a while that I have truly gotten lost in, with the outside world passing me by. It should be some indication of how into this book I was that I had 50+ pages left last night and actually read them all without falling asleep! This is a true testament from me!
If you liked Memoirs of a Geisha, then I definitely think you will enjoy this book.
Other reviews can be found at:
Bookin' It
Reading Adventure
5 comments:
This was a great book, wasn't it? My long-distance book club discussed it a few months back and an online book club is discussing it now. I'm also going to suggest it to my local book club.
I think you will like Water for Elephants too - I see you are reading that now. I need to re-read it (also read it for the long-distance group) for next month's local book club as I will be leading the discussion!
Okay, that does it...I absolutely have to add this one to the old wish list now.
Amanda - I'm so far really enjoying Water for Elephants.
Debi - I really think you will like Snow Flower. I can't recommend it highly enough. In fact, I'm bringing it to work tomorrow to let a friend there borrow it.
I had already put this on my list to read for the 888 challenge and thought I would save it until next month.
Not now! Thanks for a great review.
j.c. - I hope you enjoy Snow Flower as much as I did! Thanks for stopping by!
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