An Empire of Women

Rating:
Summary: Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Review: Like the revolution that forms the subtext of this book, the story of these women while interesting lacked that crucial element - characterization. The three principles were alternately whining, mean and supremely egotistical. The only one I vaguely sympathized with was the mother, Sumin? (Who could have become a person with a mother like she had?) The other two were not fleshed out enought to illicit any real feelings for them (the grandmother (Celine) at best two dimensional through her historied past - the daughter (Cameron) simply a narcissistic brat.

Perhaps I don't understand the Chinese mind well enough to appreciate the strange stinginess of these characters souls...

Rating:
Summary: Unsettling
Review: Talk about a seriously hostile look at familial relationships between women! Disturbing, to be sure, but well-written and thought-provoking.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant beautiful writing, characterization falls short
Review: This book had so much going for it, but I wanted it to be more than it was. The author's writing skills are magnificent. The relationships between the three generations as well as the two outside characters are complex. There is a lot of rich material here including Chinese thought and symbolism I especially found the grandmother's story and interior dialogue sequences compelling. The daughter and granddaughter never fully materialized for me even though there was a lot of dialogue and angst expressed by everyone, as if to spell out the meaning. I found some explanation for the characters' motivation but not entirely and not satisfying enough. I kept waiting for each "ah-ha" moment, and there were many, for it to all make sense, but it never did. Also, the injection of the little girl Alice into the family picture, while supposed to be the key to the family's deliverance, seemed gratuitous. All in all, this is a talented effort that ultimately does not deliver.