Approaching this review has been difficult for me due to my confusion over this book. There was so much I enjoyed and learned from this book that this easily could have been a top read if only certain incidents didn't take me away from the book. This was my first buddy read and it brought a wonderful level of enjoyment to the read, thanks Jeannette! I loved the moving, poignant and empowering story of Pei and her sister silk workers, their simplicity and strength can't help but move you. Overall the compelling story of the silk workers, their triumphs and sorrows, their independence and freedom, is strong enough to entrance and transport the reader. And set during a time and place, early 20th century China (1919 - 1938), when equality for women was as strange a concept as man going to the moon, only adds to its spell. It is the yo-yo effect, of being yanked out of their lives that kept this from being a five star read.Let me get the down side of the yo-yo out of the way so I can get back to the up side. Let's start with the most bothersome, the foretelling or predictability of events, such as deaths or occurrences, in a character's life. I'm not sure if this was intentional on the author's part or not but they certainly did not come as a surprise and were clearly foreshadowed. Despite this Tsukiyama's writing infused these passages with emotion, making you still care what happened, thus the yo-yo affect. I also found it tiresome to be repeatedly told a character's name and/or relation. On one page, for example, we have Sui Ying's husband, Lau Chen, then in the following paragraph, only four sentences later her husband, Lau Chen. I understand the difficulties for authors to make foreign names accessible to Western readers but this just seemed like overkill. Both Jeannette and I were confused about what the actual relationship was between two important characters and wondered if the vagueness was intentional or not. The last thing, which may have been an editorial issue, were that some of the cultural and foreign concepts unknown to most Western readers weren't described or elaborated upon; like grass widows, vegetarian hall and that giving birth condemned a woman to suffer in purgatory, while most others were detailed. A glossary of Chinese terms like jook, jong, cheong sam, the god Kuan-Yin and such would have been very helpful.The author excels at showing a woman's worth, she clearly illustrates the confining, limited options of being born female along with the hard choices faced by parents. "How often Yu-sung (Pei's mother) had wished one of them were a boy, something Pao (Pei's father) could be proud of, something of value." "Too much knowledge will only lead to heartaches for a female." Tsukiyama has a graceful hand in expressing and making understandable the feelings and motives of her characters, from Pei's parents, Pei finding herself, to the sister silk workers standing up to their boss. The events of the strike, based upon real events, are so visual and potent as they face their omnipotent boss, Chung, who looks down on them as less than human. "Your nothing but failures, female dogs who have just thrown away any luck you could have had in this life!" The author was also able to make the small experiences of life memorable and touching, like receiving the gift of a phonograph player and trying the "white devil" dances or when Pei learns the power and strength of staring back. All of this is deftly interwoven against the backdrop of China's political struggles and Japanese aggression and atrocities. The book finishes with hopefulness and yearning amidst the uncertainty and questions of Japan's ongoing invasion of China . "The Japanese moved like locusts, devouring cities in rapid succession." I think the best way to sum up my experience reading this book is to say it is like sitting down to enjoy some nien kao, a sticky sweet cake for New Years celebration. It is delightful, filling and yummy even though it can get a bit messy and gooey at times.
This is in general a good story, with an interesting setting, fantastic research, and a lovely, smooth syntax. However, it also suffers from some pitfalls, namely: a) clunky, obvious foreshadowing visible miles away (at least what is being foreshadowed comes along within a few pages, rather than being drawn along- this book is very episodic, which isn't really a flaw in my eyes); b) tell-not-show character development, which fits the narration scheme and isn't jarring in-text, but in retrospect leads to somewhat shallow characters with one defining characteristic, ie Lin the Angelic, Pei the Curious; c) odd, disjointed pacing which made things a little incongruous until you realize that time had jumped forward five years again, topical to: d) what the heck with the queer representation. Seriously, what kind of train wreck happened here. *SPOILERS* There was obvious queer subtext between Pei and Lin, treated somewhat episodically like many things in the novel. AND THEN IT WAS TEXT. Literally, two women had sex and physically affirmed their relationship, and then it was NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. Obviously Pei and Lin continued their emotional connection, but never again did it so much as hint that their relationship was queer. This is such a fatal flaw. You don't get brownie points for representation if you stick in fifty pages with good representation and then drop it for the rest of the novel. It's just not okay, especially when you have the rare opportunity to represent queer women of color in a novel. I am very disappointed in that aspect of the book, and it almost bumps it down to two stars for me. Hopefully the sequel is better in that aspect. ETA: This review kind of sounds like I hated the book. That's not true! I actually quite liked it! It had many good qualities, certainly enough for me to recommend the sequel, but the flaws might draw the line for potential readers.
Do You like book Women Of The Silk (1993)?
This review pretty much sums up my thoughts:This book had such potential, yet failed to deliver. It was a good book, yet it could have been better. The characters did not progress. I would have loved to get to know them better, to understand their struggles and to feel what they felt. Maybe it’s the culture and they must remain guarded in fiction also. The synopsis of the book stated that it was about a strike at a silk factory in rural China in the 1920’s and 1930’s, but it was about so much more than that. This was the story of the young girls who were sold by their families into the life of working in the silk factories. Some of the girls were taken back by their families later to be sold in to marriage. Some of the girls chose to stay in the sisterhood, working in the silk factories for the rest of their lives, rather than enter marriage. And who could blame them? They were being given in marriage to men they didn’t know and didn’t love, possibly to be abused or mistreated for the rest of their lives. I was reading this at the same time that I watched part of a documentary on women in Afghanistan. I just wanted to scream, “Women are not commodities to be sold, bartered or traded!!!” The story of this book was so very interesting, but I think Tsukiyama could have taken it even further. The ending also left me deflated. I’ve heard that there is a sequel, but I will not be reading it
—Val
This book had such potential, yet failed to deliver. It was a good book, yet it could have been better. The characters did not progress. I would have loved to get to know them better, to understand their struggles and to feel what they felt. Maybe it’s the culture and they must remain guarded in fiction also. The synopsis of the book stated that it was about a strike at a silk factory in rural China in the 1920’s and 1930’s, but it was about so much more than that. This was the story of the young girls who were sold by their families into the life of working in the silk factories. Some of the girls were taken back by their families later to be sold in to marriage. Some of the girls chose to stay in the sisterhood, working in the silk factories for the rest of their lives, rather than enter marriage. And who could blame them? They were being given in marriage to men they didn’t know and didn’t love, possibly to be abused or mistreated for the rest of their lives. I was reading this at the same time that I watched part of a documentary on women in Afghanistan. I just wanted to scream, “Women are not commodities to be sold, bartered or traded!!!” The story of this book was so very interesting, but I think Tsukiyama could have taken it even further. The ending also left me deflated. I’ve heard that there is a sequel, but I will not be reading it.
—Cortney
Women of the Silk, was the debut novel written by Gail Tsukiyama, and first published in 1991. Ms. Tsukiyama is a new to me author.Pei is one of the several Chinese daughters born to a poverty stricken fish farm family, dominated the father. She is the outgoing and curious child, and according to the fortune teller that her father takes her to, she is the “non marrying” type. When another girl is born to the family (who dies soon after), Pei's father decides her fate. He arranges to sell her to a motherly sort of woman called Auntie Yee who runs a home for silk workers. By doing this Pei's family will get paid for her work in the factory.Initially Pei is hysterical when she realizes that she has been left at this strange place by her father. Before long she adjusts to her new life and actually begins to thrive. Pei finds that she is treated with kindness, and she forms a special bond with another girl named Lin. Pei and the other girls live together, work together, earning money for their families, and they form strong bonds accepting the fact that they will never marry, but instead will retire to spinsterhood at the age of 40.The effects of war with Japan eventually touch the lives of everyone, and there are some tragedies which occur as this book covers a 20 year time span.The author does a wonderful job with this coming of age story. The character of Pei was extremely well developed. I could feel the bond between the girls, as well as the emotional pain suffered by Pei. It was also interesting to learn about the silk process, and about China between 1919 and 1938. I plan to read more books by this author.RATING - 4.5/5 - COMPLETED
—Diane
