My attempt at the 2009 100+ Reading Challenge starts here.
Fate has brought you to this sketchbook - a slice of life behind the eyes of a seventeen-year-old Filipina residing in sunny England.
Title: Peony In Love
Author: Lisa See
Rating: 5/5
Book 13 of 100: (The 100+ Reading Challenge)
Synopsis:
Peony has neither seen nor spoken to any man other than her father, a wealthy Chinese nobleman. Nor has she ever ventured outside the cloistered women’s quarters of the family villa. As her sixteenth birthday approaches she finds herself betrothed to a man she does not know, but Peony has dreams of her own.
Her father engages a theatrical troupe to perform scenes from The Peony Pavilion, a Chinese epic opera, in their garden amidst the scent of ginger, green tea and jasmine. ‘Unmarried girls should not be seen in public,’ says Peony’s mother, but her father allows the women to watch from behind a screen. Here, Peony catches sight of an elegant, handsome man and is immediately bewitched. So begins her unforgettable journey of love, desire, sorrow and redemption.
I do not have any clue on how to start talking about this book. It’s just way out there. I’m giving it a five because it’s awesome. And interesting. And entertaining. And, just like Peony, this historical novel is beautiful.
There is no easy way for me to avoid putting in some spoilers on this blog but, I gotta tell you, Peony died of her lovesickness. Ever since she fell for a young poet about her age, all she ever did was write poems (an activity not normally done by women at that time) and thoughts about The Peony Pavilion (which I think is the opera version of a drug - it makes a maiden addicted upon reading or watching it). She refused to eat or drink and was happy to sustain herself with only thoughts of the play and her love for Wu Ren. At one point, Peony’s father pointed who Wu Ren is but Peony decided not to look just because. She didn’t know that the man her father chose for her was the man, the poet, who she actually fell in love with. It’s silly because she wasted away thinking that she was going to marry a stranger.
If only she looked.
If only - this is probably one of the major themes in the book. I guess it’s true how they say that people die of false thoughts. And it’s sad. Her death, though, does not stop her from being one with Ren. Because she was not able to fulfill this ‘match made in heaven’ and still has other duties to accomplish in life, she roamed the earth as a ‘hungry soul’ - a soul with nowhere to go and is banned from Heaven or Hell.
In death she was able to write, along with her living sister-wives, a very heartfelt commentary on The Peony Pavilion which was acknowledged far and wide. It was as if she understood more about life now that she’s dead compared to when she was still alive and had her future set in front of her.
I saw you waste away as the words sapped your qi… Only after watching you these last few years as you’ve been with Yi have I realized that maybe writing doesn’t require sacrifice. Maybe it’s a gift to experience emotions through our brushes, ink, and paper… You wrote out of desire , joy, and love. We each paid a heavy price for speaking our minds, for revealing our hearts, for trying to create, but it was worth it, wasn’t it, daughter?
There are a lot of Chinese customs and traditions incorporated in this book such as that of foot-binding, ghost marriages and funeral arrangements. It’s very interesting, actually, and I find that the Chinese are very strict in giving respect to their ancestors because, according to them, their ancestors help in giving them good fortune and health. Even up to this day, these activities are still carried out. I really would love to witness one myself, except for the foot-binding part, maybe.
This book really swept me off my feet. It is lovely in every way and I would be more than happy to read it all over again if given the chance. It is based on a true story which I think makes it even more wonderful.
