Book Review: Peony in Love
Bridgette A. Lacy - The News and Observer
Mar 11, 2008
Author Lisa See has woven an intriguing tale about strong-willed women in 17th century China and their relationships, a tale that is as delicate as the flower the main character is named after.
"Peony in Love" tells the story of Peony, a smart, willful 16-year-old girl engrossed by her collection and readings of different versions of the infamous opera "The Peony Pavilion," which was thought to cause "love sickness" and death.
In Peony's case, the opera unravels her fate, unleashes a string of misfortunes and becomes her salvation in the end.
"To me, the heart of this story is the relationship between Peony, her mother and her grandmother," said See during a telephone conversation. It's "these wonderful things that make us who we are. There are tragedies and secrets that have a ripple-down effect," added See.
Like the petals of the peony, this intricate tale has many layers.
On the outer layer, there's love and tragedy. Peony meets a man and falls in love even though she is promised to another. Rather than marry, she starves herself to death only to find the man she's in love with is the same man she was promised to.
In the afterlife, yet another layer, Peony the girl becomes the woman she wanted to be when she was alive. She is fulfilled in a way that she wasn't on Earth. Her relationship with her mother, whom she had seen as stern and obedient, is transformed, and a friendship emerges when Peony learns of her mother's adventures and bravery. All the while, Peony is stuck floating around in the afterlife because her parents haven't dotted her ancestral tablet, which is like a portable headstone.
See explained that the Chinese believe that, after death, a third of you stays on earth in this ancestral tablet and keeps track of what the family is doing, another third goes to the grave and the final third goes to the afterworld as an ancestor.
Peony can't become an ancestor until her tablet is dotted by her family, which in their grief they forgot to do.
"Peony can't go all the way," See says. "She can't complete her journey."
See writes of the Chinese culture in which mothers train their daughters to be subservient to men, meaning to be good wives to their husbands and good mothers to their sons. The mothers and aunts instruct their daughters in foot binding and embroidery.
See, who is the author of five novels, including the New York Times best-seller "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," says her latest book explores various aspects of love, ranging from "pity love, respectful love, love between a man and woman."
While the two books take place in historical times, the needs of the Chinese women in the tales are timeless and transcend cultures.
"All of us have a longing to be heard and understood, to have our perceptions and views of the world heard," See said.
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Copyright 2008 by The News and Observer
