Peony
in Love: A Novel ,
by Lisa See and Jodi Long (Narrator)
As her 16th birthday approaches, Peony can hardly
contain her excitement. Her father has arranged to have the
famous opera, The Peony Pavilion, performed in their
garden in her honor. Unlike most of the women of the time,
she is well read and is obsessively familiar with the tragic
love story of The Peony Pavilion. Although she has
never been permitted to leave the grounds of her 17th century
Chinese home, when she spots a handsome young man at her father's
performance, she slips outside to meet him. Since she's been
promised to another in an arranged marriage since childhood,
she realizes he can never be hers. She mourns her fate and
instead of becoming a happy bride, she becomes a lovesick
maiden who wanders for decades as a hungry ghost.
Lisa See's Peony in Love parallels the
events in the 16th-century opera, The Peony Pavilion.
Peony, the lovesick girl of the novel is, in fact, based on
a real character who was one of the authors of The Three
Wives Commentary, published centuries ago and still read
today. In telling this story, Lisa See provides a richly informative
omnibus of Chinese history, culture, traditions, religion,
beliefs and values. From the violence of the Manchu destruction
of the Ming dynasty and graphic descriptions of the agonizing
process of foot binding to jasmine scented gardens graced
by lovely maidens, See creates a symphony of sounds and emotions.
Narrator Jodi Long makes Peony exist for the listener, giving
her first person account believability and compassion. As
Peony relates the other characters' conversations Long adjusts
expertly, so that it seems that many voices are heard as Peony
might have remembered them.
This book is highly recommended on many levels.
It is a detailed and carefully researched source of Chinese
history, ritual and culture. It unveils a previously little
known literary fact-although women were shielded from society
in 17th-century China, they comprised the biggest group of
published female writers in the world at the time. Peony
in Love is a beautiful love story that explores the power
of words and a belief in the afterlife, as it deals with romantic
obsession, familial duty, and eternal devotion. Rarely do
books inform, entertain, intrigue and beguile so seamlessly.
This one is a delight for the mind, the heart and the senses.
Ruth
Mormon
10/1/07
|
