|
Very gripping story. A sad and poignant tale with a real-life wicked stepmother who destroys the writer's childhood, even to adulthood, with her meanness and emotional abuse. She made her family's life a misery, and got away with it.
I have my own problems without reading sad books. The ONLY reason I bought this book is that I belong to a book club, and they decided they wanted to read Falling Leaves. Besides, this is 2009, and it talks about events from before World War II, the Cultural Revolution -- all that is old. I guess it's OK for a long trip, but the print is so small it gives me eyestrain, and the characters lack personality. I haven't finished the book (I'm on page 80 or so) and sincerely I have not found the book captivating. The characters are more like caricatures, the print is too small, and I don't like to read sad books unless they're classics.
worth reading. A touching story of a spirited child which brought me tears at times. I can see and feel that feelings in the family as I relate that in my Chinese cultural background.
She does this repeatedly and this is a very sad aspect of the memoir because it never works.It is painful to read and at times the reader can get frustrated with the author. She chooses abusers to be her intimates and keeps trying to win her parents over by good grades and accomplishments. However, I still recommend this book as it is a very typical life history of a traumatized child. This is an interesting memoir of an emotionally abused woman in China. Like many traumatized children, she reaches out in her victimhood in hopes of rewriting her life script.Like many adults with a history of abuse, she is attracted to abusers in her adult years.
I have read many memoirs where there has been hardships and abuse but it usually came accross as a poor me. I became to see and appreciate Susans strengths as the story evolved.
Having travelled to these parts of China and Hong Kong it was good to be able to visualise the streets, acknowledge the change that seems to have gone full circle over time and the books relevance in history. The use of chinese proverbs as the chapter headings and introduced at key times during the book highlighted my interest in the history of these terms.
The beginning of this book was great, short interesting chapters. My favourite characters were Great Aunt, Aunt Baba and YeYe.
This is to me what made the book not the details of the story behind it However as the book went on the writing often became poor (and I'm not one to usually pick on these things) and whinny.
This may have been intentional at times because towards the back of the book the acknowledgement that many of us struggle for our parents affection and approval even in our adult lives.
|
