Three Sisters
Bi Feiyu's Three Sisters is a novel that follows three sisters as they seek dignity and their own paths amid the social changes from rural China to city life. Through their lives, it portrays the pressures that constrain women's choices and the resilience that survives within them.
Work Information
Through the three sisters' journeys, the novel looks at a changing China and the lives of women within it.
Three Sisters traces the destinies of three sisters while bringing into focus class divisions and family pressures in a changing China. Its restrained narration quietly asks how women carve out a life of their own.
Review Summaries
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Many readers value the novel's portrayal of rural oppression and the sisters' resilience, while others find its detached narration and heavy themes demanding.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Mariner Books
- Published
- 2010-08-09
- Pages
- 288 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.88 x 2.54 x 23.5 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780151013647
- ISBN-10
- 9780151013647
- Price
- 4599 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Family Saga
In a small village in China, the Wang family has produced seven sisters in its quest to have a boy; three of the sisters emerge as the lead characters in this remarkable novel. From the small-town treachery of the village to the slogans of the Cultural Revolution to the harried pace of city life, Bi Feiyu follows the women as they strive to change the course of their destinies and battle against an “infinite ocean of people” in a China that does not truly belong to them. Yumi will use her dignity, Yuxiu her powers of seduction, and Yuyang her ambition—all in an effort to take control of their world, their bodies, and their lives. Like Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, and J.G. Ballard’s Empire of the Sun, Three Sisters transports us to and immerses us in a culture we think we know but will understand much more fully by the time we reach the end. Bi’s Moon Opera was praised by the Los Angeles Times , the Minneapolis Star Tribune , and other publications. In one review Lisa See said: “I hope this is the first of many of Bi’s works to come to us.” Three Sisters fulfills that wish, with its irreplaceable portrait of contemporary Chinese life and indelible story of three tragic and sometimes triumphant heroines.
BI FEIYU, winner of the 2010 Man Asian Prize for Three Sisters , is one of the most respected authors and screenwriters in China today. He was born in 1964 in Xinghua, in the province of Jiangsu. A journalist and poet as well as a novelist, he has been awarded a number of literary prizes, including the Lu Xun Prize for 1995–96. He cowrote the film Shanghai Triad , which was directed by the acclaimed Zhang Yimou.
Reviews
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È uno spaccato in tre storie collegate tra loro, in modo più o meno stretto, che si svolgo a dieci anni di distanza, in una realtà storica che, in quei dieci anni, è cambiata notevolmente. Dal punto di vista romantico mi ha colpito molto il secondo racconto e mi ha attratto e coinvolto nella lettura. Il terzo racconto è molto enigmatico dal mio punto di vista. Lascia, positivamente, tanti spunti di riflessione, ma anche tante domande senza risposta. Lo consiglierei agli amanti della cultura cinese, alle inguaribili romantiche per vedere come una madre, un padre e tre sorelle di due generazioni diverse, per cui tre generazioni a confronto, abbiano vissuto l'amore.
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Three Sisters has been compared to such books as Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Empire of the Sun. While I enjoyed reading the other three novels, this novel was ultimately, very disappointing and boring. I couldn't wait to finish it just to be done with it. This novel centers around the Wang Liafang, a Party Secretary in a tiny village in China and three out of his seven daughters borne by his wife, Shi Guifang-"During the twenty years she was married to Wang Liafang she had presented him with seven girls, not counting three miscarriages." Their eight child is finally a son, a day that Wang Liafang has been eagerly anticipating for over twenty years. Unfortunately, the most amusing part of the book was when you read about all of Wang's extra-marital affairs. He basically sleeps with half of the women in town, while his poor wife is knocked up trying desperately to bear him a son. Everyone basically turns a blind eye to his actions until one day, when he gets caught sleeping with a soldier's wife. He is relieved of his duties as a Party Secretary (they decided that he crossed the line with sleeping with a soldier's wife while he was away at war, fighting for his country). The book then focuses on three of his daughters and how their life transpired after his "big" transgression: Yumi, his eldest daughter, Yuziu, the beautiful but stubborn third daughter (and natural enemy of Yumi), and Yuyan, the seventh daughter. The main problem with this novel is that there is no "heroine", no one you really want to root for. You sort of feel bad for Yumi, as she loses her first true love, but her conniving ways make you not like her. Same flaw with Yuziu. And worst of all, Yuyan's story is so boring you wonder why she was even selected. I do think the author is trying to relay several messages about love, sex, and how status/power effects the first two topics but I think it would have been more effective to tell ONE tale about the entire family versus isolating the tale of three sisters.
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Not an all time favourite book, but had some really interesting chapters. The three sisters do not relate, so anyone coming from a family of three sisters, will be disappointed. I have to admit, I lost interest towards the end and gave up reading it.
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This book was excellent i could not put it down. It describes the life of these young girls the struggles and traumas they experience. It also describes have resilient people can be when faced with such difficult lifes. Highly recommend this book to all.
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Couldn't not read because it was not in English