Little Red Flowers (2006)

A well-made story set against the backdrop of post-revolutionary China that, despite it's strengths, often comes off as boring and exploitative. I have no problem with child nudity in, say, "Let the Right One In," but the movie's obsession with the four-year-old's protagonist's genitals is  not only creepy, but just plain wrong. I've seen less nudity in a Lars Von Trier flick.

   Fang Qiangqiang (Bowen Dong) is a rebellious tyke who is dropped off at a grim boarding school by his father, than left to sink or swim, so to speak. What follows is a kind of brainwashing sicker than anything you'll see in "The Human Centipede" or "Audition."

   The kids are teased with the superfluous exercise of receiving little red paper flowers for good behavior. All Qiang wants is the flowers, but his habitual bed-wetting and daily transgressions make the others immediately dislike him. Hence- no flowers. The boarding school is barren and cold, except for a few toys that don't look like they couldn't make the cut for the Goodwill donation box.

A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei

Irene's three daughters were grown up; the youngest, Sophie, was about the graduate from high school, when her husband Bill walked out, "needing a break." Irene said something when he left, words of bitterness and hurt, which she came to regret when Bill died in a tragic accident. These words drove a wedge between Irene and her daughters. Now, at 55, she finds herself alone, desperate to reconnect with her children.

Daughter of a Taiwanese feminist and revolutionary, who immigrated to America after fleeing civil war, Irene was raised to be an exceptional woman at all costs. Irene became a biologist, immersed in important research that might solve the riddle of Alzheimer's Disease. Yet she was torn between her career and motherhood.

Her mother, Lin Yulan, lives across the country. They are separated by a rift caused by Lin Yulan's expectations of her daughter. Twenty years ago, at age 60, Lin Yulan left her chronically unfaithful husband, and she harbors deep secrets about what she suffered in China.

The legacy of needing to be an exceptional woman, beyond all else, filtered down to Irene's daughters, all high achievers. Nora, now in her late 20s, is a successful financial trader. She overcame a professional subculture of sexism and racism to be respected by her male colleagues. She's in a difficult relationship with her live-in boyfriend, terrified to compromise or commit to him. Kay, in her mid 20s, is living in deplorable conditions in a Chinese dormitory, determined to learn her ancestral language and reclaim her Chinese identity. She drifts among three different men, never settling into a real relationship, and tries to rescue Chinese prostitutes from sexual exploitation. Sophie just graduated from high school. A brilliant student and artist, she has won acceptance to Stanford. She struggles with her relationship with her mother, her attachment to her African American boyfriend, who seems to sincerely love her, and an eating disorder.

On New Year's Eve, Irene reaches out to her sister Susan. A professor and poet who "sees life in moments," focusing on "life crystallized" and ignoring the narrative, the cause and effect, Susan is very different from her sister. Irene plans a trip for herself and her daughters, Susan, and Yu Lin. Ironically they find themselves in their ancestral country on a packaged tour, buying overpriced souvenirs and not understanding the language. There is a great deal of awkwardness, misunderstanding, and frustration among the six women. But in the end, they've achieved something -- not reconciliation, but a bit more acceptance.

Deanna Fei's narrative shifts among six points of view, speaking in the voice of each of these women. Her characters are well drawn, and she does a magnificent job of seeing the world through the eyes of women in three different generations. I was absorbed by the aspirations, fear of intimate commitments, and confusion navigated by gifted, ambitious women in their twenties. I was also captivated by the hopes and losses of midlife and the challenges of old age, when one has a rich history but few people alive who were there with you to bear witness.

This story has many layers. It reflects both the prejudices toward and high expectations of Chinese Americans. In her review, Amy Finnerty of the New York Times, wrote: "It is to Deanna Fei’s credit that she so squarely and honestly takes on a misunderstood ill — the burden of the so-called model minority." It explores Chinese history, including the legacies of the revolution and the tragic holocaust under Japanese occupation. This novel also looks at the complexity of women's issues. Kay is inspired by her grandmother's feminist revolutionary past. She scours personal ads, preparing to rescue Chinese women from exploitation.

"Handsome European male fluent in English and Chinese would like to meet Japanese and Korean girls. NO SPEAK ENGLISH? O.K. I LIKE YOU. WE HAPPY" ... These women couldn't understand how what seemed like romance, or at least mutual attraction, was shameless capitalization; or the historical context of Orientalism; or the subtext of those English ads -- how, for starters, that "Handsome European male" preferred his Asian women inarticulate, if not voiceless; or how such presumptions coiled around people, until they no longer knew how their own identity had been constricted. (pp. 72-73)

Then she discovers the sexually "exploited" women she reaches out to don't want to be rescued, and glimpses the reality that this issue is more complex than she had imagined. For these women, paradoxically, prostituting themselves offers an unprecedented kind of freedom.

Similarly, Deanna Wei captures the complexities of both traditional marriage and modern relationships and of the struggle between a woman's career, and her drive to make a mark on the world, and her desire to be in a "safe" intimate relationship and raise children. She respects her readers enough not to suggest easy answers. And the characters she portrays -- both male and female -- are flawed, vulnerable, and vividly real.

Q & A with the Author: Adoption. Et cetera.

Read More Reviews: Largehearted Boy (includes the author's music playlist for this novel); Book Addiction; Daisy's Book Journal


Rating: 4.5

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me

Betrayal of Love and Freedom by Paul Huljich

 

Betrayal of Love and Freedom by Paul Huljich is an ambitious novel, spanning four decades and four continents. It weaves together three separate stories. The first has overtones of a thriller. It finds Luke Powers, a powerful international businessman, in a courtroom, facing life imprisonment for the murder of a woman he once loved. The second focuses on Luke's previous life. It begins on a tragic day, when he was eleven years old, and ends with him as a middle aged man on trial for his freedom. The third story is about Rick Dellich, another wealthy, successful businessman whose life intersects with Luke's several times. Rick's story begins in medias res, as the New Zealander begins his stay in an American psychiatric hospital. He has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, separated from his wife and two sons, and stripped of his rights as a New Zealand citizen. We learn about the events that led him to this point and about what comes next, as he begins his gradual journey to recovery.

This is largely a character driven novel, relying on narrative and exploration of the characters' thoughts and feelings. Overall, I didn't find the character development as subtle and rich as I might have hoped. On the other hand, Huljich created characters I cared about, which is no mean feat for an author.

Rick's character, and his story, was the most compelling. Perhaps this was because it was loosely based on events in the author's own life. One of the main reasons I agreed to review this book was because it explored a character's battle with bipolar disorder. As some of you know, mental illness is a deeply personal subject for me, and I wanted to get a glimpse of the author's journey through a fictional window. I was not disappointed. While Rick's experiences were vastly different from my own family's struggles, it was a captivating and inspiring story. Rick refused to accept the assumption that his illness was biogenetic and that he would be on psychotropic medication for the rest of his life. Keep in mind that he had no known family history of bipolar disorder and his illness was relatively late in onset. Rick stepped away from the mainstream medical establishment, rehabilitating himself through nutrition, including organic, nonprocessed foods, exercise, and making courageous changes in his life.

One of the things I enjoyed most was the author's exploration of Rick's relationship with his wife, Kate, before and after his "breakdown." While their marriage had been incredibly difficult before Rick's illness was treated, it became even harder in recovery. This is often the case. The problems in Rick and Kate's relationship were fairly complex, and this part of the novel felt real to me.

One of the most interesting things about Betrayal of Love and Freedom is the breadth of scope. It visits several decades and many countries, including the author's home country of New Zealand, Australia, Europe, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States. I discovered interesting cultural details about some of these countries, including a Maori creation story and an exploration of the Chinese sense of duty to ancestors.

My main complaint? This novel took me on so many fascinating journeys, from a pilgrimage to a rocky mountainside in Medjugorje, where the Virgin Mary had appeared, to scuba diving around the Great Barrier Reef. While it included interesting details about the characters' travels, I wanted much more descriptive detail. Perhaps this is the wannabe traveler in me. I was disappointed at having "visited" these places without really "seeing" them.

Furthermore while Betrayal of Love and Freedom is written in an articulate style, the prose seemed labored at times. It struck me that there was a lot of that "telling rather than showing" that's anathema to us writing teachers. :-) The author spent a great deal of time telling us what characters thought and experienced rather than leaving room for readers to explore that for ourselves.

On the other hand, this novel has many interesting facets, especially in its exploration of a man's experience with bipolar disorder and its geographic scope. At times, it was a real page-turner; the plot kept me guessing until the end. I think it will be enjoyed by many readers, and I hope to see it more widely reviewed in the near future.

FYI: The first part of the novel contains explicit sex scenes, in case you're sensitive to that ... or in case it sweetens the deal for you. :-)  

Many thanks to the author and to Eric Glover, publicity assistant with Planned Television Arts, for providing a copy of this novel for review.

Read Another Review: All About Bipolar


Rating: 3

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me