THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

Set in 1800’s China, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan tells the haunting tale of Lily, her lifelong friend, Snow Flower, and the meaning of the Secret Fan.  Lisa See describes in great detail the brutal treatment which girls experience from their mothers, in the intent to ensure family traditions and please future husbands.  The abuse the girls endure in their young years causes lifelong suffering and debilitation.

 

Lily, an eighty year old lonely widow, saddened by her mistakes and selfish choices in life, begins her story.  She reminisces, remembering her childhood, her sisters, and the love she desired from her mother.

 

Snow flower, her best friend and laotong, “same old”, were paired at age seven at Snow Flower’s request, in nu Shu writing on the secret fan.  This match of laotong between females is a life match, and stronger than a marriage.

The laotong relationship helped women cope with the deep emotional and physical trauma of female servitude, utter seclusion and physical abuse dominant in the culture.  Nu Shu, the secret language developed by women to communicate with one another, was a necessary way for women to bolster each other from the sadness or depression of unhappy arranged marriages, or other disappointments in life.

 

As Lily details her story and her relationship with Snow Flower, she also relates in horrific detail, the process of foot binding, done to young girls in the first years of life, and describes the permanent debilitation of the feet, and the lifelong struggle of walking.

 

An intense novel of culture, history, women and their friendships and the daunting strength and amazing courage to survive the challenges placed upon them.

 

Note:

In 1911, foot binding in China was banned.