Reviews

• An excellent read on a subject many non-Asians know nothing about.

  I was prompted to read Green Island after learning about it in John Grant Ross’s Taiwan in 100 Books. I’d been fascinated with this former Japanese colony (ceded to Japan from China in the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895 at the end of the first Sino-Japanese War), since I first visited Taiwan and spent a month sailing around its waters. Green Island is a novel about a family caught up in the White Terror (the Feb. 28 Incident) in which the country was plunged into Martial Law on that date in 1947 and after which the KMT imprisoned thousands of people they deemed dissidents. It is on the eve of Feb. 28, 1947 that this novel begins, when the narrator was born. I have to admit that, as much as I enjoyed this book, and Ryan’s beautiful prose, I had problems from the very beginning with an infant narrator. It’s not that it wasn’t an intriguing idea, or that it couldn’t have been pulled off, I just didn’t feel it was executed as smoothly as it could have been. Many sentences made me pause, like this one: “I, lying swaddled on the bed, began to cry….My mother lifted me up and hushed me. She agreed with my complaints in a low voice, repetitive and soothing, like a groove revolving and rasping beneath a stylus.” How can an infant describe the voice of her mother, especially when it is doubtful that, at a few months old, she would have even known what a stylus was? As authors, we must make a conscious choice as to whether we want to be omniscient narrators or not, and it’s difficult to pull off both points of view. There seemed to be such an insistence on this know-all infant in the first quarter of the story, (after which as the author became older, it seemed more reasonable that she could have developed such sophisticated thoughts) that I thought that for sure something, somewhere in the book, perhaps at the end even, there would be some explanation for such a precocious infant. I expected the narrator to find her mother’s diary, for example, that described such events in detail. But nothing appeared, and I slowly began to mistrust the narrator and doubt her reliability. A good portion of the book takes place in the U.S., reflecting the family’s immigration there. This is the point in which the “novel” starts to sound more like a memoir. Well-written, vivid scenes of childbirth, for example, didn’t seem to have much to do with the story and I began to get a bit confused as to whether this was actually a memoir disguised as fiction, or fiction disguised as memoir. I think it’s always a risk to give a book a new theater when the audience has already invested themselves so heavily in the previous, and the writers who do this best are the ones who base as little time as possible in the last theater. I especially liked Ryan’s treatment of the main character’s arranged marriage. It was sensitive, realistic and countered the American-centric stereotype of Asian women being forced to marry against their will. In Ryan’s novel the couple was merely introduced to each other, after which they could make their own decisions whether to continue the relationship toward matrimony. I enjoyed the dynamic between them as they grew together and struggled with decisions. And, the relationship did work, as many such marriages did at the time, and still do. Despite the problems I had with the POV, and a few frustrations here and there with sudden tense shifts within the same paragraph, it was an excellent read on a subject most non-Asians, including myself, know nothing about. Since Ryan is, apparently, Asian American, it’s encouraging to see such rising literary stars penning novels about historical events with knowledge and proficiency. I’d recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in China, Taiwan and the struggle for Taiwan’s independence, a struggle which continues today.

• beautiful story in a beautiful book

  book arrived very fast, was in excellent condition. the story is great; i read it whilst i was on a trip in Taiwan, perfect background to my holiday!

• Compelling modern Taiwanese family saga illuminates real life dilemmas

  "My mother Li Min's labor pains began the night that the widow was beaten in front of the Tian-ma Teahouse." From this beginning of Green Island a family saga unfolds with most key moments impacted by events in the modern history of Taiwan. The novel delves deeply into the dilemma of the narrator and others who would prefer to avoid the dangers of protesting against a dictatorship, but whose lives would be affected anyway by the actions of their more politicized, or perhaps braver or more foolhardy, families. There is more romance than politics, and more about the difficulties of modern marriage than about the Americanization process for immigrants. For most readers this would be the first exposure to criticism of the Chinese Nationalists who were overthrown by the Chinese Communists after World War II. Having once read Hollington Tong's biography of Chiang Kai-Shek (which is laudatory), I pulled it out to refresh my memory. The Japanese were defeated in 1945 and the transfer of Taiwan to Chiang's government seemed like a minor affair. By then Chiang's government, which had started as a pro-democracy, anti-warlord movement, had become little more than a gang of warlords. In 1947 one of Chiang's generals became governor of the island and mistreatment of the native Taiwanese led to protests, which led to massive arrests, murders, and imprisonment. Chiang himself did not move to Taiwan until it was clear the mainland was lost in 1950. On the whole Green Island is the best book I have read in at least a year. It is competently to beautifully written. Interestingly Shawna Yang Ryan appears to have Chinese Nationalist rather than native Taiwanese ancestors.

• It's extremely well written and insightful. As a foreigner ...

  It's extremely well written and insightful. As a foreigner living in Taiwan I find it both educational and entertaining. Well worth a read, even if you don't have any ties to Taiwan.

• Literatura

  Literatura de primeira qualidade.

• I was moved by this book. learned more about ...

  I was moved by this book. learned more about the roots of historical conflicts of Taiwan and the consequences on society and how different cultures treat each other. The characters are real. It's a slice of Chinese history and geography not well known to the world. Worth reading.

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