A Satisfying Affair

This seems pretty absurd to me.  Lots of kids use swear words. (If you just said "mine don't!" they probably just don't use those words in front of you.) I agree with the author, bullying (and the language of bullying) is harsh.  It's pointless to focus on the language used in the book and ignore the actual substance of what she is communicating.  

Wow. I tried to read this about a year ago, but only got about a third of the way through before I got distracted and forgot about it. I've never seen the movie, and I didn't know very much about the book apart from the very basic storyline of "There are androids. A bounty hunter has to kill them." When I first started reading it, I assumed this was going to be a simple, fun, sci-fi novel. A quick read. Nothing too heavy.

I. Was. Wrong. This book takes a very serious turn rather quickly. In fact, I just read it, and I'm not even sure I completely "get it." I'm probably going to need to read this at least one more time, or maybe even more, before I figure it out. (Edit to add- I forgot to mention that this is probably the first time I've ever felt horrified at the mistreatment of a spider. I absolutely hate spiders. I guess that just shows how good PKD's writing is.)

(Copied from my blog A Satisfying Affair)(Note: This review contains spoilers for Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. It would be difficult to avoid Shanghai Girls spoilers here, as Dreams of Joy is a sequel to that book, but I promise Dreams of Joy will not be spoiled here.)

 

I have been a fan of Lisa See ever since I first read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan four years ago. I’ve found all of the books by her that I’ve read well-written and engaging, and every time I read something new from Lisa See I find myself raving to my friends- whose eyes quickly glaze over when they realize I’m not going to run out of air anytime soon. I was particularly excited to read Dreams of Joy, as it’s the sequel to Shanghai Girls and I’ve been at the edge of my seat since I finished that book in 2009. I had high expectations, and Dreams of Joy did not disappoint.

 

This book starts where Shanghai Girls left off. It’s 1957, and 19 year old Joy is reeling from her father’s suicide, which she blames herself for, and has just discovered that the woman she thought was her mother- Pearl- is actually her aunt, and the woman she thought was her aunt-May- is actually her birth mother. The man she called her father was not related to her by blood. Her biological father is living in communist China, and has no idea Joy even exists. Angry at her mother and aunt for lying to her, and -thinking she is responsible for the suicide of the man who raised her- angry at herself, she runs away to the People’s Republic of China to meet her biological father shortly before the start of “The Great Leap Forward”.

 

Like a lot of See’s books that I’ve read, Dreams of Joy was difficult to get into at first. I had a hard time relating to Joy at the beginning, and found myself thinking of her as an idiot for the first few chapters, and then beginning to worry about her for the next few chapters, and finally cheering her on for the last half of the book. There were times when I wanted to scream, “What are you thinking!?” for every terrible decision I saw her make. There were times when I wanted to crawl into the story, smack her across the face, then give her a big hug and a piece of bread. Meanwhile, Pearl’s actions to protect and save her daughter- and yes, while Pearl did not give birth to Joy the story makes it clear that Joy is still her daughter- are heroic, and there is a time toward the end where “the Dragon” rises to protect her family that is both heart-stopping in its intensity and beautiful in its emotion. For this reason, it is almost impossible to put this book down for the last few chapters. Though my stomach was grumbling at me and there were chores to be done, the story’s urgency leaked into the real world, and it seemed more important to know how it ended.

 

Dreams of Joy was much more intense than Shanghai Girls. The dangers inherent in the story are much more present throughout, and there is much more at stake. While Shanghai Girls was focused on carefully crafting the characters emotions and relationships, Dreams of Joy focuses more on the outer political and social sphere, and its effect on the characters, while still maintaining the heart and soul of the first book. I found Dreams of Joy to be an incredible and exciting conclusion to Shanghai Girls, and I highly recommend it.

I wish I had known it was a hi-lo book before I ordered it. I saw a review on another website that said it was a really good book, but they didn't mention how short it was. I was disappointed by the lack of detail, and most of the character interactions and dialogue were hard to believe. Mostly it just seemed far too rushed, and I kept picking out parts in my mind that could have led to other interesting scenes that just didn't end up going anywhere. The only things I really liked about the book were the characters, which were believable and interesting. I think, had there been a bit more detail and a longer time span, this could have been an excellent book. As it is though it was hard to keep my interest.