Book Thoughts: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Here's a book that will make every woman thankful she was not born in 19th century China! Snow Flower and the Secret Fan chronicles the life of two Chinese girls who are paired as laotong - a form of friendship that is meant to be closer than a husband-wife relationship. In a society where women are valued merely for their ability to produce sons, this kind of relationship is important.

In this book Lisa See grants us a peek into what it must have been like for women living in the isolated "inner sphere" of the home. For Chinese women the female world is both a source of great comfort and great strife.  The main character, Lily, finds comfort in her laotong, a wealthy girl named Snow Flower. Yet throughout her life Lily is forced to live up to women's expectations. First, she must satisfy her mother who wants her to marry up, thus securing her future. Second, she must please her mother-in-law, the very proper Lady Lu.  Most importantly however, Lily must live up to her husband's expectation that she will produce sons. If a Chinese woman cannot bear sons she is relegated to a low status among the women of her household. She is often treated cruelly by her mother-in-law, looked down upon by other women in the household, and forced to accept her husband's concubines.

In a society where women are beat down and forced to submit not only to the men, but just as often to other women, they find one method of release for their thoughts an emotions - the written code of nu shu. Nu shu is considered "women's writing" because it is in a slightly more feminine script than man's writing. Nu shu uses less characters and depends heavily on context. For many Chinese women this type of writing was a valued skill and an art form that the most prestigious young wives worked to master. As Lily becomes more adept in this script she finds freedom. Unfortunately, along with the freedom of literacy, comes the greatest mistake of her life, a mistake that leads to the undoing of her closest friendship.

While I have a decent amount of textbook knowledge on the subject, See's novel helped me to really understand two realities of life for Chinese women. First, women had no choice whatsoever. Their friends and their husbands were chosen for them. Lily and Snow Flower were matched by a local matchmaker. Their pairing was, in the eyes of Lily's mother, a tactical move to advance Lily into a good marriage. Later, Lily was paired in marriage with a wealthy man from a nearby town. Like so many women before her she was forced to marry a stranger and live with his family. Second, women were bound by duty. In the filial constructs of Chinese society, performing tasks out of duty is more important than love. It is a mother's duty to bear sons. If she is unfortunate enough to have daughters it is her duty to prepare them for marriage by binding (i.e. mutilating) their feet. Likewise, a woman is forced to serve her husband  and his family out of duty.

As a 21st century female, I found this society extremely hard to comprehend. While I know about filial piety and the low status of women in Chinese culture, it was a rather disturbing glimpse into what it felt like to be a woman. The early part of the book describes the torturous practice of footbinding. Footbinding does not, as many people believe, result simply in a miniature foot. Footbinding is a process by which four toes are bent to meet the heel, leaving the big toe to walk on. Footbinding leaves women with a 3 inch foot, making them severely limited in their movement. Many girls die in the process. The bones break, the feet bleed and are subject to infection and gangrene. And yet, when the painful two-year process is over and they are leave with this 3 inch triangle of deformed flesh it is somehow considered attractive. I have a hard time with that.

This book also addresses what it is to love in this society. Though Lily and Snow Flower were matched to become laotong their love for one another was unconditional. Even during the turbulent periods of their relationship, Lily realizes how much she genuinely cares for Snow Flower. However, the other relationships were purely conditional. Lily loved her mother until she found out that her mother had been scheming behind her back. After Lily comes home from a grueling experience fleeing the Taiping rebellion we see a form of love between her and her husband. Yet, this love is based upon the fact that she is a proper woman who has born sons. I'm still left wondering - did husband-wife relations ever go any deeper? How sad it must be to live in a society where inability to bear sons meant a woman was of low character, where her value was tied to how she conformed to the standards and the amount of love she received was totally dependent on forces outside her control.

Perhaps trying to earn love is part of the natural human condition. I would venture to guess that in most of our relationships there is a level of filial piety. At work, school, church, even among friends we often have to perform a certain way and complete certain tasks to win approval and even affection from others. Yet hopefully most of us have more than one "Snow Flower" in our lives. Hopefully when we come home or talk to our best friends we find a place where duty is eclipsed by love.

Book Thoughts: Notes from My Travels by Angelina Jolie

I recently finished Angelina Jolie's journal from her travels to developing nations in 2001-2002. It was pretty much what you would expect. Basically you take a rich and famous movie star, plop her into a third world country, and tell her to write about what she sees. That's pretty much it. While it wasn't a total waste of time, there was nothing overwhelmingly spectacular about the book. It was not particularly well written, but I won't judge Jolie too harshly for that (after all she does warn us at the beginning that she is not a writer and was quite hesitant to publish her journals.) I was more astonished and appalled by Jolie's lack of research in preparation for her visits. For instance, when she arrived in Pakistan the UN contingent had to immediately find her some acceptable clothing. I mean really, Angelina, I'm sure UN workers have better things to be doing than taking you shopping for a burqa.

Another thing that bothers me about the book is that Jolie seems to grossly oversimplify the problems in the developing world. Basically, it comes down to the fact that we (the U.S? American citizens?) are not doing enough to help. We need to give more money. It keeps coming back to money. Money will fix all the world's problems. There is no appeal to the complicated and deep-seeded problems wrought by decades of colonialism (i.e. lack of industry, soaring population growth, environmental degradation, corrupt and incompetent leaders, tribal rivalries, etc). Jolie's lack of background knowledge about the places she's visiting leads her to the most simplistic answers. Quite frankly, she just sounds stupid.

Where, Angelina, should that money come from? Should we borrow money from China to donate to Africa? Or should it come from citizens? Perhaps if we all stopped going to movies we could make a significant dent in world hunger. And how exactly are you helping by traipsing around in a UN baseball cap? I'd venture to guess that the cost of your trips to "raise awareness" probably could have put a village full of kids into school for at least a year.

So, reader, if you want a truly worthwhile book on this topic let me suggest a few from people who have actually  LEARNED about the developing world, SACRIFICED a good deal of money and comfort and ACCOMPLISHED something tangible.

Probably my top recommendation would be Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. This book chronicles the story of Dr. Paul Farmer, a renown doctor who chose to invest his money and life into building up Partners in Health (PIH), an NGO bringing medical care to the  world's poorest countries. I read this book several years ago and it stuck with me. Dr. Farmer is an incredible man.

Second, try Three Cups of Tea. This is the story of mountain-climber-turned-humanitarian, Greg Mortenson. After getting lost while attempting to climb K2 Mortenson ended up in a small Pakistani mountain village. This experience changed his life. He went on to establish the Central Asia Institute (CAI) whose mission is to build schools in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Over the years Mortenson has risked his life to bring education to Afghani and Pakistani the boys and girls in some of Asia's most dangerous regions. Again, a truly remarkable and courageous figure.

Meanwhile Jolie is back in LA, having an expensive preventative surgery, followed by another expensive reconstructive surgery. All the while thousands of children are dying because they didn't have money for a simple vaccination. Nice work, Angelina. Enjoy those new boobs.

Book Thoughts: The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen

This summer I am enrolled in a course for American History teachers focusing on the use of primary documents in the classroom. As part of our course reading, we were required to read the historical fiction book entitled The Secrets of Mary Bowser. While this book is fiction, it is based on the life of an African-American woman who worked as a spy for the Union. It was a truly fascinated read and it taught me a lot about the Civil War and the years leading up to the conflict.

The book starts off with Mary as a child. She and her mother are owned my the Van Lews, a merchant family in Richmond that originally hailed from the North. Because Mary's mother, Minerva, used to be a slave in the North she was literate and passed this on to Mary. When the Van Lew's Northern-educated daughter, Bet, comes back from Philadelphia spouting grand ideas of abolitionism, she is pretty much ignored until the day she acquires the resources to buy her mother's slaves and offer them freedom. Unfortunately, freedom does not mean much for Mary's mother. Minerva is married to Lewis, a blacksmith enslaved to another Richmond gentlemen. Since freed slaves are not allowed to stay in the state of Virginia at the time, Minerva must make a choice about whether to stay with her husband or go North with her daughter. She chooses to stay. Bet pays for Mary to attend school in Philadelphia were she meets free blacks of all classes and becomes involved in the Female Anti-slavery Society there.

As Mary grows up she realizes that she wants to be more intricately involved in abolition, especially as the country moves closer to war. She also wants to be near her family. She moves South, marries, and work to support the North and the causes of freedom. Through a series of opportune circumstances Mary becomes a "slave" in Jefferson Davis's household. Really, Mary is a spy. She plays into the Davis's stereotypes of a dumb, illiterate slave, all the while ferreting messages out to help the North win the war.

Below I've included a few thoughts in response to some of the discussion questions we were asked to answer for class:

1.       Pick an episode or a detail that you found surprising in the book. Why did this particular facet strike you as unusual?

When Mary is freed by Bet Van Lew she is sent to Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love to attend school. Philadelphia was originally settled by Quakers and in the mid-1800s it remained a major haven for that sect of Christianity. I had always believed that Quakers were rare among Americans for their tolerance and charity toward others races. However, I learned that not all Quakers subscribe to full equality for the African-Americans who attend their churches. When Mary visits the Arch Street Meetinghouse she is directed to a bench in the back reserved for the black attendees. Later, when Mary questions here Quaker friend Zinnie about this practice, Zinnie emphatically declares that not all Quaker meetinghouses are so segregationist. Zinnie is a Hicksite Quaker. Their principles are more consistent with the tolerance and charity that I have always believed characterized the Quakers. What I learned from this episode however, is that no group of people can be painted with such a broad brush. For the sake of time in our classrooms we tend to speak of people groups in generalities, though there is much variance among individuals within those groups. Similarly, most Northern blacks remained poor and servile, but there were some, such as Theodore and Philippa, who came from wealthy black families. Their haughtiness seemed to overcompensate for their race’s inferior position in society. The snobbery and pettiness that characterized those circles mirrored the attitudes of grand houses of the South.

2.       How does The Secrets of Mary Bowser complicate your ideas about slavery, the abolitionist movement, and the Civil War.

One of the qualities that I loved about this book was that it did not draw simple categories of good versus evil. There is a lot of gray in this story. Bet Van Lew, the wealthy, white abolitionist who freed Mary and her mother was well-intentioned, but misguided and vain in some of her pursuits. Throughout the book I believe the reader warms up to her as she remained loyal to the cause and to Mary, and became by the end, a true friend. Another example of such murkiness came about when Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published. We teach that the book sparked controversy in the South and was lauded as a great work of abolitionism in the North. However, among African-Americans there is no such consensus. Some railed against is for its stereotypical portrayal of slaves, others for the fact that Stowe expected slaves to escape to Canada in order to keep them out of the United States. Many blacks criticized Uncle Tom. Some blacks distained his submissive ways and the fact that he chose to stay rather than to escape. This of course engenders fierce opposition from Mary, who understood why her parents chose to stay in the South rather than risk the perilous consequences of the Fugitive Slave Act.

Before reading the book I did not realize that Virginia law in the mid-19^th century required free slaves to leave the state within a year of their freedom. In order to stay with her husband, Mary’s mother, Minerva, could not act upon her freedom, but had to keep up the appearance of being Bet’s slave as long as her husband Lewis remained enslaved to Mahon. Truly, the choice between slavery and freedom during this era was complicated by all sorts of considerations about family ties. Those families who were fortunate enough to remain together often had to do so at the cost of their freedom.

How has the book changed or reinforced your ideas about the role of women and African-Americans in this chapter of American history?

Women play a pivotal role during wartime. This is a fact that I emphasize in my classroom. It was during America’s major wars that women made their greatest strides toward equal rights. They led boycotts during the Revolution and became respected as “Republican mothers.” During the Civil War they acted in many capacities in both the North and the South. Mary’s role was most remarkable. Mary was installed as a slave/spy  in the Davis household. She played into all of the stereotypes of slaves as stupid and illiterate. She uses this stereotype to her advantage and is never suspected (as least by the Davis family) of helping the North win the war. Bet, on the other hand showed the influence that prominent white women could have on both sides of the conflict. Bet herself made it her mission to care for the federal prisoners. Many other women during this time took up jobs in field hospitals where they cleaned and bandaged wounds, administered medicines, and a host of other menial tasks that freed doctors to do the surgeries and amputations. During the Civil War modern nursing was born.

Many others women assisted in less direct ways. Many performed secretarial work during the war. This would open up a new form of “acceptable” employment for women, which would bring the movement forward, allowing women to expand their role in the workplace. Others, such as the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, formed sewing circles. This was perhaps the safest and most passive role for ladies. However, a passionate young girl such as Mary Van Lew was not content to sit on the sidelines. That is why she left the comforts of Philadelphia to aid the Union from the South. 

This book is a truly fascinating adventure into one of our nation's most infamous eras. I've taught AP U.S. history for six years and I still learned a lot about The Civil War from reading this book. I came away full of admiration for the courage and the personal sacrifice of those who fought for the dream of real freedom. Truly, the quest for equality does not end with the end of the the Civil War. We know that blacks would keep on fighting for at least another 100 years. But Mary Bowser and others during the Civil War helped the nation take that next step toward real democracy.

Book Thoughts: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

You may be wondering, 'what on earth is a potato peel pie and what would induce a sane person to make such a thing?' Well, that much I'm not going to explain.  After reading this post you may be able to venture an educated guess as to why such a dish might come about - especially at a time when normal pie ingredients are not readily available. However, to get the whole story, you'll just have to read the book.

It would be well worth your time. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is just as quirky and charming as its name indicates. It is a fictional account of a very real series of events and it is written entirely in letters. The book tells the story of the German occupation of the the Channel Islands during World War II and  how these ordinary, yet heroic islanders leaned on one another to rebuild their lives after the war ended.

The story begins in the years immediately after the war when an author in London happens to receive a letter from a reader in Guernsey. Their exchange of letters leads to a remarkable journey into the lives and reminiscences of a wonderful cast of characters who turned to books to survive the war. This eclectic group of farmers, artisans, and homemakers were, by a remarkable set of coincidences, thrown together in a literary society. They began reading the classics, finding not only something to take their minds off the war, but friendships that would deepen and thrive long after the war ended. When Elizabeth, the real architect of the Literary Society was imprisoned, they became a true family to her daughter Kit. After the war they rebuild their homes and lives, passing their mutually-adopted and much-loved Kit, around from home to home.  Into this scene enters Juliet Ashton, the successful author looking for her next great story. Her chance correspondence with one of the Society's core members, Dawsey Adams, opens the door to a story that desperately needs to be told.

We all know (or should, if we were paying attention in history class) that London was bombed for 57 nights in the Battle of Britain, that Londoners held up under extreme duress, and the Royal Air Force drove the Germans back to the Continent. But history teachers (myself included) do not teach about the British Channel Island which were indeed occupied  by German forces. The islanders' experiences were uniquely harrowing as they lived in complete isolation and deprivation. The book itself is a perfect blend of history, humor, depth, and yes, even a little bit of romance.  The story at times takes a very sobering tone, because really, it is impossible to write a book about WWII without discussing its vast inhumanities. Yet the Germans are not characterized as fully evil, and there is a glimmer of goodness among their ranks.

The Guernsey Islanders remind me a tad of my friends in Avonlea. (Maybe something about living on an island just makes one more charming than most.)  Of course, you also can't help but love the main character, Juliet Ashton, who, though not a Guernsey Islander herself, finds that she belongs there. Juliet is pretty and intellectual (my kind of a heroine). Her blend of wit and sarcasm, along with her rather clumsy forays into romance, give the book a lighthearted feel that counterbalances the backdrop of tragedy. In fact, I think what makes all the characters so endearing is that they really don't take themselves too seriously. That is, I believe, a good quality to possess - and one that makes people far more likable.

Now, I believe I will go and make a potato peel pie.