![]() ![]() Min gives Willow the skeleton of a story: She is forced into marriage with an opium addict, escapes and becomes a newspaper editor in Nanking, marries a Communist Party member, is denounced and imprisoned, meets Nixon during his visit to Pearl’s childhood home in Chin-Kiang. But once the Boxer Rebellion rears its head and Pearl moves on to missionary school in Shanghai, the novel loses steam. ![]() ![]() The early scenes of their childhood, before history gets in the way, are filled with natural lyricism and engaging drama. As Pearl jokes, “My father is a nut and your father is a crook.” Soon Willow and Pearl become inseparable. Yee is a conniver, his motives both self-serving and earnest as he brings converts to zealous missionary Absalom Sydenstricker, Pearl’s father. Portrayed with intriguing moral ambiguity, Mr. She lives with her impoverished grandmother and father, a coolie and seasonal farmhand despite his education and literary aspirations. Narrator Willow Yee grows up in Chin-Kiang at the turn of the century. Min ( The Last Empress, 2007, etc.) offers an adoring fictional biography of Pearl S. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |