While the plot of the novel is a bit fantastic, it is steeped in the Chinese culture until it appears authentically oriental--as if written in the Chinese language and then translated into English. The author, however, is English but has adopted the Eastern culture as well as a Chinese name. I couldn't gallop through this one at my usual pace; it is a novel to be savored for its rich ideas and detail not easily understood in Western culture, thus the five-star rating. Yik-Munn, like a vulture, swoops in to purchase Pai-ling, a fifteen year-old girl, whose once prosperous family has fallen upon hard times. As the fourth in line wife of this seventy-two year old man her life is dismal.Pai-Ling was an intelligent well-bred young lady who Yik-Munn was determined to "beat that foolishness out of her and change the insolent light in her eyes to one of gratitude and respect..."The hatred of women in this culture is sadly sobering and the ease with which even an infant, for the sad fate of being born a female, is easily killed and buried is despicable. But, every now and then superstition and the constant fear of demons and ghosts works to the saving advantage of a female. Pai-Ling's female baby is saved by the glowing eyes of a ghostly fox. And her life begins as dismally as her mother's ended.That this society would so easily and without conscience treat women as worse than animals to be bought, sold, treated as slaves and as animals is haunting. And that even the women in such a culture will quickly and easily turn on one another is appalling. Rather than supporting and fighting for one another, the wives are ready to hate and abuse each other with relish.The story is for all its sadness, beautifully told and impossible to put down. It is a story set in an exotic place but the lives of the women were bleak and without hope, that this took place a hundred years ago instead of a thousand, adds poignancy.The book is so well written that at almost five hundred pages, time flies and you have reached the end. The book includes some thought provoking questions at the back to make it an easy book club choice.
What do You think about Red Lotus (2009)?
I just couldn' t go through all the pages of the book.
—Tiger9099
It was painful and beautiful. So much joy and pain.
—journal_girl246
