PEONY IN LOVE
Lisa See
Random House
Historical Fiction
ISBN-10: 140006466X
ISBN-13: 9781400064663

• Read an Excerpt
• Author Talk -- June 29, 2007

PEONY IN LOVE is the latest novel by bestselling author Lisa See. Her previous book, SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN, is still riding the bestseller lists and continues to be a book club favorite. I approached PEONY IN LOVE with trepidation, as I often do when faced with a new work by an author whose last book is still on my current favorites list. It turns out there was nothing to worry about. This is a worthy follow-up to, and in many ways surpasses, SNOW FLOWER.

For a number of readers, this haunting novel --- set in 17th-century Qing dynasty-China --- will evoke THE LOVELY BONES, THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD and THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN. For myself, it pulled all the very best parts of these three novels and interwove them with a story of lovesickness and longing to produce a beautiful book about love that reads like an edge-of-your-seat thriller you never want to put down or see end.

Peony is an upper class 16-year-old who lives a life of ease but is surrounded by “940 fingers” in the Chen family villa, almost all of whom, it seems, are there to put Peony in her place. Her feet have been bound, of course, and her mother and Aunties are constantly reminding her about her behavior and the importance of winning the poetry and art contests held continuously in the women’s quarters (yet women could not be too educated). The expression of one’s emotions was encouraged, but only if they were tightly constrained ergo “acceptable” expressions. (This was a time in China when there actually was a large number of female writers being published, but their writings were “lost” and forgotten, which See did much research on.)

Peony’s marriage to “Golden Boy” already has been arranged and inspires jealousy in the numerous cousins who surround her and also play her mother’s game of tough love. Even the servants, of whom there are many, seem to be spies of her mother who constantly prod and rebuke the girl. Only her father seems to treat her with a kid glove, a soft-hearted touch that seems to go against contemporary habit.

Peony’s greatest love, the one that takes her out of her everyday life, is for the popular opera The Peony Pavilion, an actual opera written in 1598 by Tang Xianzu. The original version, which had 55 scenes, was quickly targeted for censorship due to its lasciviousness and, most likely, the fact that the female protagonist chooses her own destiny, which is unheard of in China at that time (and even today in some parts). Peony has collected many versions of the opera and is allowed to hear a presentation of it on her birthday.

During a brief absence from the ladies pavilion, Peony encounters a handsome man and has a short banter with him. Afterwards, knowing that she is betrothed to her “Golden Boy,” the son of her father’s friend, she begins to pine away for the unknown suitor from the opera and eventually dies of “lovesickness,” a not-uncommon death for many young girls of this era. This raises an intriguing question: Is this death by depression? It isn’t outright suicide, yet they basically starve and emote themselves to death. This concept makes the book such a page-turning, thought-provoking story.

The years that ensue show Peony stuck in a limbo phase, unable to travel forward through the afterlife due to her parents’ neglect of her ancestral tablet. She watches life go on without her in her family’s villa and in the villa of her betrothed where she would have lived out her days. She encounters other spirits, including her grandmother and, eventually, her mother. She gains knowledge that perhaps would have saved her this death by lovesickness and enabled her to live a life happier than she ever could have imagined. There are scenes so touching and beautiful it is almost as if Peony’s spirit herself was writing through See’s hands.

PEONY IN LOVE is a haunting treatise about love’s possibilities and the devastating consequences meted out by fear of the unknown. It is also an eye-opening account of women in China after the fall of the Ming dynasty and under Manchu rule. As in SNOW FLOWER, See again retreats to some very vivid foot binding scenes, but I don’t think they are ever gratuitous. It was horrifying and happened for centuries, but it had nothing to do with who individual girls were and everything to do with who they could be, especially from a man’s perspective.

The end of the book fairly soars and had me on the verge of tears. Had I not been in public upon reading the last page, I would have fallen. That hasn’t happened since THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE, which I thought was the most beautiful love story I had read in 20 years. It just fell into the number two position, however, because PEONY IN LOVE has taken over the top spot. This is a book to be read and reread, savored and relived, pored over and relished. Definitely a summer must read!

   --- Reviewed by Jamie Layton

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