Ocean City Free Public Library Book Blog

The major criticism of Lisa See's previous book Shanghai Girls was that it ended so abruptly. At long last, with See's new book Dreams of Joy , fans will finally see what wound up happening to sisters May and Pearl and their daughter Joy. Joy picks up immediately where Shanghai Girls left off, where Joy runs away after her father's suicide whereupon she learns that Pearl is actually her aunt and not her biological mother (May is the true mother). Joy flees the United States and returns to China in an effort to find her true biological father, an artist named Z.G. The only problem is that China is undergoing its massive communist program "The Great Leap Forward" and the country is very very different than what Joy is prepared for. Once in China, Joy finds her father and settles into life on the Green Dragon commune and struggles to regain control over her life and what she thought was her family. Meanwhile, Pearl rushes back into the country she fled 20 years a...

As an only child, I think reading about the dynamics of sisters is incredibly interesting (it's that whole "grass is greener" idea). In Lisa See's newest novel, sisters Pearl and May are "beautiful girls" (read: models) living a luxurious life in pre-WWII China. After their father loses all of his money due to gambling/Chinese mafia, he is forced to marry off his daughters to Americans, much to the girls' dismay. About 2 days after the weddings, Japan begins to invade/bomb parts of their beloved city, forcing the sisters to flee to their husbands in San Francisco. The rest of the novel depicts their turbulent relationship as well as their trying times in America as they adjust to a completely new family, culture and way of life. Overall, I did enjoy this book, although the ending was a little rushed.