Book Review by Heather Anne McIntosh
The book “Peony In Love” by Lisa See takes us back to seventeenth century China and illustrates the life of Peony, a privileged girl living a sheltered life in the city of Hangzhou. Peony, as a wealthy young girl of her time, lives a sheltered life in her beautiful home and is allowed to read a few works of literature including “The Peony Pavilion”, an opera about a “love sick maiden” named Liniang who falls in love (called “ging”) with a man that is not destined to be her husband. Lisa See wrote this novel based on historical events that took place during this time. In her research, she came across the book “The Three Wives’ Commentary” written by the three wives of Wu Ren, which contains the thoughts and feelings of these three women in relation to “The Peony Pavilion” and was published in China during the seventeenth century. The first wife is Peony, and Lisa wrote this novel from her point of view.
The use of historical stories as a basis for fiction is a very effective technique, as it serves multiple purposes for the reader. First, it allows the reader to become educated in a time and place they are not familiar with which adds a whole new level to the fictional novel. Second, it allows the reader to experience the time and place as if they were a character who actually lived during that time, and this allows the reader a level of awareness of history that cannot be found any other way. Lisa See is extremely skilled at uncovering stories buried in time, and illuminating them layer by layer, until the reader transcends time and “becomes” the character from so many years ago. This was the case with her last book, “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”, which allowed the reader to experience rural China in the 19th century, and specifically the experiences of woman of this time, their relationships both with each other and with men, and their “secret” writing that connected it all.
One of the most horrifying themes to both “Snow Flower” and “Peony” was that of the “foot binding” of woman in China. In both novels the main characters and their female loved ones were forced to go through the process of “foot binding” around age eight (interestingly – it seemed that not much had changed between the 17th and 19th centuries when it came to the treatment of women). This process, seemingly cruel and excruciating, was also a “rite of passage” for little girls to become woman, and was executed with love usually by the girl’s mother. Lisa writes: “The written character for mother love is composed of two elements: love and pain. A mother suffers deeply to give birth, bind feet, and say goodbye to a daughter when she marries out.”
The process of “foot binding” involved folding the toes of the foot over, then binding them very tightly and forcing the girl to walk until all the bones break and eventually the foot molds together creating a “lily foot” – a small and graceful (and sexual) object that the woman will be judged upon for the rest of her life, and which her husband will enjoy as a sexual reflection of the woman (both literally and physically). In both novels, Lisa was able to illustrate this custom without judgment, and at the same time allow the reader to experience it from many varied perspectives. The reader becomes fully aware of how many girls die from this procedure (usually of infection) and of how important it is in their perception of identity, both within themselves and their husbands. This is illustrated clearly when Peony is asked by her mother to help with the “foot binding” process of her cousin Orchid. “I rolled the bones under, concentrating so hard that I barely noticed my cousin’s shrieks. Shao’s knobby hands held the legs with such strength that her knuckles went white. In her agony, Orchid vomited… Finally we were done. Mama looked at my work and patted my cheek. ‘You did an excellent job. This may be your special gift. You will make a fine wife and mother.’ Never had my mother offered such approval for anything I’d done.” This scene and many others allowed the reader to move beyond the obvious horror of the situation and understand it from the point of view of the people that lived in that time and place.
Another device Lisa See used to enhance the story was creating an afterlife for Peony, who died of “lovesickness” at age sixteen. Lisa did this in a fascinating way, incorporating the historical customs of the time which pertained to the afterlife. There were many rules that made up the world of the afterlife, and spirits could live, travel, eat, etc. based on their status and gender when they were alive. For Peony, who died before she was officially married, and who’s ancestral tablet was never signed (due to a misunderstanding between her parents), she was destined to be a “hungry ghost” which is the least desirable afterlife one could hope for. After Peony dies (before the middle of the novel), we are told the rest of the story from Peony’s point of view as a “hungry ghost”. As incredulous as this sounds, it provided an extraordinary overview of Chinese culture and customs of the time. In addition, the reader could not help but feel a real compassion for Peony and her plight which included watching the man she loved marry somebody else (twice!).
An important theme of both “Snow Flower” and “Peony” was the historical writings of women in China which were commonplace and even published during a time where woman were not seen as equals with men. Lisa writes: “In the mid-17th century, more women writers were being published in China’s Yangzi delta than in all the rest of the world at that time. By that I mean there were thousands of women—bound-footed, often living in seclusion, from wealthy families—who were being published.” This surprising fact is what ultimately inspired Lisa to write both novels. Her writing began with a simple question which arose from this research: “How could so many women have done something so extraordinary and I didn’t know about it? Why didn’t we all know?” As a writer, I find this enlightening as I too share a fascination with “lost” stories of past times. I wonder if, in every surprising historical fact, there is a question that leads to a story – and the writing of that story ultimately leads to enlightenment, learning and finally a compassion for people that aren’t so different from any one of us.
