Rating: 
Summary: Falling Leaves: The Moving Memoirs of Adeline Yen Mah
Review: Falling Leaves tells the heart-rending story of Adeline Yen Mah. Her story is much like that of Cinderella, only without the predictable fairy tale ending, in that she lost all those who were close to her and suffered miserably as a child. Her mother died shortly after her birth; her aunt chose to stay in Communist China rather than flee with the rest of the family; and her beloved grandparents both died while she was still very young. Adeline's truly heartless stepmother despised her, and her father was essentially a puppet who carried out her wishes. The reader is enthralled by Adeline's tragic yet inspiring story; he continues reading even after he has met his quota for the day in order to find out more about Adeline's life and the direction it took. How did Adeline cope? What will happen to her next? Why would they do that to her? How could they do that to her? These questions consume the reader as he reads the book during every available moment. Adeline Yen Mah's memoirs are extraordinary, yet not so much so that others are unable to identify with some of the obstacles with which she is faced. Her perspective on adversity and her description of her family's nuances make her story especially powerful, as many people can relate to these elements. Indeed, upon reading its conclusion, Falling Leaves fosters that strange feeling of both incredible disappointment and profound inspiration in the reader as only a great literary work can do.
Rating: 
Summary: History through Life
Review: Falling Leaves is life's long struggles and experiences compressed into a tiny book, that could never wholly explain Adeline Yen Mah's life or the tumultuous period in China, where her tale takes place. The historical aspects of China are merely glanced at as Falling Leaves is no history book, but rather a memoir, a telling of her experiences. It does not attempt to display a conclusive, panoramic view of twentieth-century China, but rather a short but focused glance of it through personal experiences. Falling Leaves is an anomaly in many ways. In a time when women were subservient, the two prominent figures that Mah mentions are her Grand Aunt, who establishes her own company and paves career for herself, and Niang, her foreign stepmother, whose omnipotent rule inflicts not only Mah, but her siblings, her grandfather, and even her father. In a time of revolutionary China, where communist ideals are pervading through society, she comes from an affluent capitalist family who seems to be hardly affected by the globally noticed situation that surrounds their lives. The fairy tale outline of this book is complete with a commanding stepmother, her bullying siblings, her indifferent father and brother, and her failing marriages. Despite the difficulties that encumber her, she portrays personal serenity and excels beyond the confines of Chinese tradition, perhaps motivated by her family's record of success. Mah's purpose remains clear throughout the memoir, as she shows her life through the implications of the history of China, rather than China's history through her own life.
Rating:
Summary: ...a captivating, emotional journey...
Review: Falling Leaves is a captivating, emotional journey through the life of an unwanted Chinese daughter, offering a glimpse into the depths of human experience - it is beautiful; it is ugly. But at its heart, it is a story about the clash between the East and the West, Capitalism and Communism, traditional Chinese values and modernism, and filial bonds and outside domination. The author, Adeline Yen Mah, writes vividly and fluidly of her past with the frankness of an intimate friend. She skillfully places the reader into her world, and describes her family with the realism of a movie drama. The book is organized neatly with a prologue in the present, events in the past leading up to the present again, and an epilogue that expands upon the story and provides a much-needed catharsis and epiphany. The ending was "right". The last scene is one with Aunt Baba, the woman who, throughout Adeline's entire life, loved and cared for her like a true mother. It offers a sense of release after she suffered through the hardships caused by her stepmother and her family, and her search for love, belonging, and meaning in her life. The titles of each chapter were thought out carefully, and had a meaning that somehow defined the chapter for the author. Reading this book is like swimming in a cold pool - it might be rather difficult to start, but once you jump in, you are floating in a diverse, colorful reflecting pool of the cruelty and kindness, the hate and love, the trials and tribulations, and the losses and victories found in the human experience.
Rating:
Summary: Falling Leaves book review
Review: Adeline Yen Mah's purpose in writing this extremely moving and potent memoir was twofold. She not only wanted to relate to the reader the unique story of her early misfortunes and later success, but also wanted to expose the reader to the changes that came with the institution of communism in China through the point of view of a capitalist family. Yen Mah succeeds magnificently in both of these goals by weaving her home experiences skillfully with her encounters with communism. Through her incredible description of her home life, and her early hardships, Mah achieves a level of reader interest that is unsurpassed by most memoirs. Although most of the book focuses on the hardships of her childhood, and the hurdles she overcame in her later life, Mah also talks about the effects of the civil war and the subsequent takeover of the communists on her life and her father's business. Mah's memoir not only tells an extremely poignant story about an unwanted Chinese daughter but also provides the reader with a unique glimpse at the communist takeover from a capitalist point of view.
Rating:
Summary: Falling Leaves Review
Review: Falling Leaves is an exquisitely written memoir of Adeline Yen Mah's life growing up in Communist China. It is a haunting tale of lost innocence, of loneliness, and of a life filled with emotional pain and psychological trauma. The story opens with the reading of Adeline's wealthy father's will, which left nothing for Adeline and her four siblings from his first wife. From there, Adeline's narrative brings us back into her family history, weaving an exotic tale of a wealthy family from Tianjin, China. It is a story that brought Adeline from China to Hong Kong and finally to America where she settled down in California as a physician with a family of her own to raise.
Falling Leaves is a poignant story of Adeline's journey into adulthood. It was a journey fraught with personal trauma and emotional abuse. Adeline's mother died giving birth to her, leaving behind a child devoid of any parental love. After her father remarried, Adeline suffered physical and emotional abuse under her manipulative stepmother, Niang. Determined to escape from her parent's oppression, Adeline left home and took up residency as a doctor in America. But no matter how far she went, she could not leave behind her past. Just like "falling leaves that return to their roots," Adeline's journey ended when she returned back home to China for a visit and in the process found peace and reconciliation in her life.
Rating:
Summary: Falling Leaves: A Touching Autobiography
Review: Falling Leaves is the moving autobiography of Adeline Yen Mah, an empowered woman growing up in Twentieth Century China. Unlike most other Chinese families at the time, Adeline's was an affluent one led by an overpowering female, Adeline's stepmother. Growing up as a stepdaughter, Adeline was mistreated and unloved by nearly everyone in her family. Her successes were belittled and her failures were exaggerated. Adeline's story, however, is at times inspiring. Eventually she left China to study in England and moved to the United States where she started a family of her own. Though Adeline finally seemed to be living the life she deserved, her family back in China continued to plague her. In particular, her stepmother found a way to cause Adeline a great deal of pain even after her death. Adeline's poignant tale takes the reader on an incredible journey through her life that is likely to leave the reader with a renewed sense of appreciation of his or her own childhood. Many of Adeline's experiences reflect her Chinese upbringing, giving the reader a taste of Chinese society and culture, while many others transcend national borders. Readers from all countries will be able to relate to the family and personal relationship difficulties Adeline encountered. Falling Leaves is definitely worth the few hours it will take to read.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book I've read in awhile
Review: I absolutely loved this book...I read a lot and I just couldn't put this down... It is a heart wrenching story and It is exactly how I like my books to be... My heart goes out to Adeline Yen Mah, the author and her misfortunes in life that totatly had me compelled.
Rating:
Summary: Heart wrenching tale
Review: I was a bit skeptical when I purchased this book. However, all my doubts quickly flew away as I turn the pages. It tells the story of how the author suffered humilation and hardships from the day she was born. As her mother died several days after giving birth to Adeline, her father started to sow seeds of hatred towards Adeline for causing the death of his beloved wife. He concentrated on building his family business into an empire. Several years later, he met the beautiful but wicked Jeanne and married her. The kids addressed her as Niang. Under the reigned of Niang, the kids did not have much love and care. On the other hand, the kids were somehow not united among themselves. As Adeline grew, she tried ways and means to gain the love and attention of her father but her efforts were in vain. Till the death of her father, he failed to showered Adeline the love she so much craved for. As for Niang, until her last breath, she managed to make life miserable for Adeline.
This story leaves me peeve with anger and at certain times, it was truly tear-jerking. This is a 'must read' book.
Rating:
Summary: Very emotional tragedies
Review: This has to be the best book I have ever read.It made me relize that I'm lucky for having a caring life and to be even more grateful that Adeline Yen Mah wanted to share this moments of tragedy with us.I have to say that this is a very touching,moving book and I will hope you will read it and see that her life wasn't close to perfect like anyone elses.So basically what I'm trying to say is that the book has been best described and I'm urging you to read it.If you are going to read it I hope you enjoy the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Bittersweet but frustrating
Review: I was prepared to love this book and to feel immense sadness, which I did. Emotional abuse and negligence is far worse than any physical blows, and it seems like Ms. Mah got her share of the former. I was frustrated and disappointed when I read how she kept coming back, trying to make her family whole when it was so clear they would not be close-knit, and at times it's hard to pity her. But in the end, I felt happy for her success, and unhappy that she had weathered so much through the years when she could have walked away like her sister, the admirable Susan.
|
