Club Protocol Release: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan KINDLE MOBI by Lisa See H.A.

[b]Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (2009) is the story of two women of what would now be called the "middle classes", offering a detailed and sympathetic view of the lives of women from a small district in China whose family status differs and then changes radically. Together they go through the pain of foot-binding as "sworn sisters" living cloistered family lives and who communicate when they are both together and apart using a now extinct art of "women's" writing that was only known and taught by otherwise illiterate women to young unwed girls. Their friendship changes as their class status does, and as their lives become those of wives and mothers who are not allowed as well as unable to see each other due to the disabling effects of their foot binding - even as the lengthy, painful shared experience was the founding of their friendship. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan does not judge the tradition of foot binding; for these girls and their families it is truly the only way they can marry "up" or even equally - it is an expected prerequisite to be considered by any "respectable" family looking for a wife for their son or any other relative. While the novel explores the lives of a generally silent history, it is also a sweeping epic set against the backdrop of China's turbulent 19th century: the numerous civil wars brought on by a collapsing Manchu dynasty and the efforts of foreign powers vying for power in the "China Trade". Lisa See here provides us with a female view of life from that time that is rich and rewarding, yet at other times heartbreaking. (H)


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