Shanghai Girls, A Novel by Lisa See

I read this book this weekend during my two 4 hour long plane rides - pretty quick read but in my opinion, not that interesting.

I kept waiting for SOMETHING big to happen, but it was just following the girls' lives from China to the US during the '30s. I guess just because of the nature of the content, I just kept thinking of the "Joy Luck Club" - sad story that jerks at the heart but pretty predictable throughout.

Aside from the obvious Chinese story line, it reminded me of JLC because of the relationships between the parents who immigrated and their children they forced to become as American as possible. The parents want their children to have every opportunity so they push them into fully embracing this new culture but then a division occurs when their American children can't, or won't, relate to them anymore. I know on some level, its the same way for all parents but I can certainly see the wide divide that a culture clash within a family would bring.

The one part that I did really enjoy was towards the end (I don't really think this is a spoiler) when the two sisters who have spent 40+ years together get into a fight and rehash all the grudges and injustices they have felt for each other over the years. In the course of this fight, they begin to discuss the completely different way that they each have percieved different events over the course their lives. The reader is just from the older sister's perspective so it was really interesting to hear how the little sister had seen all the events - gave a very unique perspective to everything you had just read.

Chinese zodiac signs are a very big part of this book - the main character Pearl tries to be "modern" and dismiss her mother's superstitions but in the end she finds herself embracing them and she thinks they dictate the events in her life. I personally don't believe in any astrology but thought it could be fun to find out what I am in Chinese. I've always thought I was a rat but according to http://www.chinesezodiac.com/index.php I am a pig -- oink oink.

What is everyone else?