Duncan JepsonBesprekingen

Не ми хареса особено. Според мен не изпълни идеята си - да е книга за майка, съжаляваща за направения избор да изостави дъщеря си. Просто не го усетих. Беше просто мемоар на отчаяна наивна жена, търсеща на кого да разкаже историята си - излишно изпълнена с драматизъм.
Може би щеше да е по-интересно, ако беше филм. Четях я мудно и въпреки десетките заврантулени изрази е книгата с най-малко отметки (само две) от всички книги, които съм чела тази година. Хм...

All the Flowers of Shanghai...Before I give my review of this book, I have to clarify that I've read many books about China, Chinese Women and the Cultural Revolution. Being Chinese my self, surrounded by older Chinese women also gave me invaluable insights into the basic struggles and values of them. The bottom line is that I probably had a higher expectation for the book than most.

The story was told in the voice of Xiao Feng, as a letter to the daughter she never raised, recounting her own and her family's history. I love the beginning of the book, where Feng described her happy childhood in Shanghai during the 1930s, spending the day with her Grandfather around town, visiting public gardens, learning names of flowers in Latin and sampling street delicacies. The author's description of Shanghai, possibly in it's most delightful and successful era of history, where all fancy merchandises from all over the world were purchasable, was accurate and enlightening. I almost didn't want her simple childhood to end. Xiao Feng in this part of the book was naive, simple curious, smart, loving and forgiving. She knew that happiness does not come from beauty or wealth, but within.

I love the last 15% of the book as well, where Feng ended up in a sewing factory during the cultural revolution, being reformed and corrected by working hard and enjoying very little. There was a glimpse into the mind and functions of the Red Army members, who were barely immature teenagers themselves. Feng, in this section, did not talk much about her feelings, yet her actions showed she was loving and forgiving, too. The ending was abrupt, leading lots of questions unanswered.

Now it brings us to the major and middle section of the book, which I found unbearable, and not only because of the boring tone of her monologue and her description of mundane things over and over again. This section begins as Feng was married into one of the richest family in Shanghai, which I could not describe how she ended up without spoilers. Her husband was not good-looking, but loved and treasured her. This part should have had lots of potential for the author to develop conflicts and relationships, whether positive or negative, between Feng and her family...but no. Feng spent all her self dwelling in self-pity, repeating meaningless things around her and describing how she resists performing the marriage ritual with her husband, night in and night out. I had no idea how she transformed from the loving girl in the beginning to this materialistic, hateful, deceitful, angry, loveless and full of revenge character overnight. I did not see the causes or events leading to it. I almost stopped reading a few times to get over the torture. Her resistance of performing wife duties was a bit unrealistic and forceful as well, especially for women of that era.

All in all, there are much better books to understand China, and the mentality of Chinese women with.

Feng is a young woman who is mostly ignored by everyone in her family with the exception of her grandfather who dotes on her. Her older sister is the one everyone’s hopes and dreams ride on but she’s cruel to Feng and the two have never had any sort of relationship. When her sister dies unexpectedly, Feng is forced to marry her fiancé to hold up the arrangements her parents made and Feng finds herself a wife to a son of a well-known and rich family in Shanghai with no idea how to fend for herself or any understanding of what’s expected of her.

All the Flowers in Shanghai interested me because this is a time frame I’m unfamiliar with --- Shanghai in the 1930s --- and I don’t read much historical fiction set in China which was very appealing. While the setting was interesting, I didn’t care for any of the characters. Feng goes from being exceptionally naïve to bitter in an amazingly short time frame. Her mother, the social climber, is not even worth mentioning as she wasn’t much of a mother so much as person bartering away her daughters for social acceptance. In the end, this book is a letter to a daughter Feng doesn’t know but why she would write such awful things to her daughter I just don’t understand. Yes, she was looking for forgiveness in the end, but throwing every hateful thing she’s ever done out into the world --- both to the daughter and to her husband --- doesn’t portray her in a good way.

Oddly, Feng gave her daughter away so that she wouldn’t have to face the life she did but the entire time I was reading, I kept wondering why she couldn’t leave any of her bitterness especially for her children. No, her life wasn’t an easy one but she didn’t want to see any happiness in her life and drove all of it away from her which meant she drove every family member away that she could. In the end of her life, she does begin to understand her hatred and deal with it but the letter feels like a poor apology and nothing more. She spent her whole life looking to get back at people and never sought to understand anyone’s motivation but her own and I couldn’t accept her mea culpa.

Like I said, the setting is really appealing and I wish there had been more about the revolution and the changes China went through. Because the story is told through Feng’s perspective, it’s hard to see the impact of the changes and what little of the revolution Feng does come in contact with she doesn’t understand because of the secluded life she led.

While I had trouble with the characters in this book, the writing is solid and has given me a new time frame for historical fiction to explore.½

All the Flowers in Shanghai by Duncan Jepson

The cover of this book caught my eye at the library and I pulled it from the shelf. Always ready to try something new, I thought this story would be intriguing. I was not disappointed.

Several years ago I watched the movie of Memoirs of a Geisha and was truly captivated by the story. When I found the book it was based upon, it was even better. It is fascinating to learn about other cultures and this book was full of beautiful imagery and heartbreaking realism. Although it's just a novel, I believe the author, Duncan Jones, wanted to capture some of the customs and the powerful history of the Chinese people.

The story is woven through 1930s Shanghai, sweeping through the volatile politics and struggles, traditions and customs that existed for thousands of years. We meet Feng, a young daughter that is cast aside in light of her older sister's chances of marrying into a wealthy family. The mother puts everything she has into molding the eldest daughter into the perfect wife, giving them the opportunity to escalate their own family's standing. The younger daughter is simply there to live with the parents, so she can take care of them in their old age. No one has ever asked what she wants, and perhaps she doesn't know herself. Feng is content in her naïve bubble, simply sharing walks in the garden with her grandfather, never really knowing the sacrifices made for the family. But when tragedy strikes and the eldest daughter dies, Feng is suddenly poured into her sister's mold and marries in her place. Feng tries to break the mold cast for her, but thousands of years of traditions weigh heavily on her fragile situation. Can she break free or will she repeat the sins of the mothers before her?

The book includes a discussion guide and notes from the author about his own upbringing, as well as other suggested reading. All the Flowers in Shanghai is beautifully written and hauntingly portrayed.

Duncan Jepson’s All The Flowers In Shanghai is a coming-of-age saga concerning a young, sheltered woman — a second daughter — and the unexpected path she’s forced to take. I fell in love with Jepson’s descriptions of the lush gardens in which Feng learns about life from her grandfather, and his early presence in the book endeared me to the story. From the moment I started, I felt invested in Feng’s future and eager to learn what became of her.

The emphasis on tradition, “giving face” (paying respect) and the tightly-controlled, measured lives of women in 1930s Shanghai all served to demonstrate how Feng’s fate seemed beyond her control. She falls in love with a young, poor man just before she’s shipped off to the Sang family, and the memory of their brief time together — an innocent time, a “normal” time — never leaves her. It’s Bi, in fact — or the memory of him, anyway — that eventually leads her in a new direction. But not before so much befalls her.

Before we go any further, I’ll whip out my ignorance: I know very little about China’s Communist revolution, civil war and cultural practices. While other readers have devoured books like Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Shanghai Girls, I’ve yet to pick up much literature set in Asia. Jepson’s All The Flowers In Shanghai served, for me, as a nice primer on a very unique time period.

Though many of Feng’s actions seem hard to understand, I feel Jepson did a good job of justifying his narrator’s actions in the context of the era. I was angry at her handling of certain situations, especially regarding the treatment of her own children, but I knew her feelings of betrayal guided these reactions. At a time in which wives were property and a necessary commodity, Feng is thrust into a life she never wanted. The book nicely captured the sense that much of what shapes us isn’t decided by us at all. Quite sobering.

Other readers have mentioned feeling emotionally distant from Feng, and I can understand where they’re coming from — but I actually felt bonded to her through all she’d been through, especially as I realized the drastic lengths to which she had to go to keep from feeling as though the Sangs, and her husband, “owned” her. Though Feng does eventually come to use sex as a weapon, I didn’t find the novel distasteful or graphic. The scenes in which Xiong Fa “visits” his new wife made me feel squeamish and sad for her, but I wasn’t horrified by Jepson’s descriptions. It’s all handled with care.

It might be worth noting that Jepson, a male author, has written a moving novel from the perspective of a broken young woman. Never pandering, Jepson’s accounts of Feng’s life as the woman chosen to give the Sang family an heir resonated deeply with me — and, as the Chinese Revolution spreads, I felt the full weight of its futility. Wealth, privilege and tradition mean nothing in the face of the changing world.

Though ultimately somber, All The Flowers In Shanghai was a story in which I felt invested from the beginning and was eager to finish. Fans of historical fiction, tales of motherhood and those who enjoy peeking at feminine roles throughout history might find something sad, touching and fascinating in Jepson’s debut.

I'll agree with the ER reviewer below who said Feng was hard to get into as a main character. I don't demand my protagonists be imminently likable on all counts--I've liked arrogant and even selfish leads in other books, because they're three-dimensional.

But Feng felt really hard to connect to, distant and without much sense of who she was. It was like there was a wall between me as a reader and her thoughts and persona.

I'd recommend Lisa See's "Shanghai Girls" as a better representative of the setting, and with a much more interesting female protagonist who has her flaws but remains well-rounded.½

I'm not sure what to think about this novel. I had a hard time connecting with the main character, Feng, from the beginning. She seemed so completely set apart from everything that was happening to her. And then in the middle of the story, she suddenly becomes incredibly angry to such an extreme that she makes some really terrible choices, and becomes completely unlikeable.

I found some of the language in this story to be odd (some slang that I don't really think this character would have used), and some of the relationships hard to keep straight. Combined with a huge out-of-the-blue time jump in the latter third, and not feeling any kind of connection to the main character whatsoever, this all added up to a difficult book to stay engaged with.

In 1930s Shanghai, women didn't have much control over their lives. When 18 year old Feng's parents arrange for her to marry into the Sang family, it doesn't even occur to her to object. She must do what is expected of her. Unfortunately, Feng is very naive and doesn't have any idea what her wifely duties will entail. Being visited by her new husband night after night wears her down and turns her bitter. She comes up with a terrible plan to exact revenge on her husband and his family.

All the Flowers in Shanghai is definitely not a feel good book. Feng makes hard choices that I didn't agree with and she really isn't even all that likeable, especially in the middle of the book. I did enjoy Feng's relationship with her handmaiden Yan. I would love it if the author wrote a follow-up about what Yan's private life was like. In spite of my issues with the main character, I found the story interesting and engaging. I appreciated learning what life in China was like, especially for women, in the early 20th century. Learning about all the ritual and ceremony that was part of the culture then was fascinating.

I'm glad I read this book. I'd like to read more books about China to learn even more about the history and culture there.

Set in 1930's Shanghai, this is the story of Feng, second daughter to a middle class, socially ambitious family. Through a quirk of fate, Feng is married off to her older sister's fiancé. Feng felt betrayed by her family and this feeling turned her from a naive amiable young girl into a bitter and resentful young woman obsessed with revenge for what was "done" to her. Such a drama queen!

She then decides to put on a happy face, outwardly at least, and be more sociable. This is not from maturing or trying to be a decent human being; it was more to spite her mother-in-law and to get her own way.

"The beautiful quiet of my childhood had been interrupted forever, and like most people I did not notice its absence until it was too late. I learned to talk,eat chatter, and most seductive of all, found that I loved to be the center of attention. At the time I could sense the trap that Ma had laid for Sister but it was only now that I could see how delicious and irresistable it was. That Sister could have been no othr creature than the one Ma had created, for who could resist the lure of so much adulation?"

At this point, I began to feel sorry for her husband, Xiong Fa. He seemed to be a decent sort even though he had been pushed into marrying Feng by his overbearing mother who kept reminding him of his duty to produce a male heir.

Eventually, her guilt at one of her most heinous actions begins to haunt her. It didn't seem to change her behavior too much and I still found it difficult to like her character. All of her unhappiness was of her own doing as she managed to alienate all around her.

Overall, an okay read, just not a stellar one, mainly due to Feng's unlikeability and the feeling that most of the supporting characters felt like nebulous beings, they were there but not fully fleshed out.

On a positive note, I did like the location, the time frame, Jepson's descriptions of the culture with it's sense of duty in a patriarchal society. Although the Japanese occupation in Shanghai was glossed over, the timeframe when the communists under Mao were in power was interesting. I think I liked the end of the book the best.

At the back of the book are some discussion questions and suggestions for further reading.

Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by William Morrow through LT's early reviewer program.

This book examines the strictures that bound Chinese wives on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. Raised in a loving household, Feng recognizes that marriage marks the end of her girlhood, and the end of the sheltered happiness she feels in her family. Feng's sister's untimely death makes marriage immediate. While she is surprised to discover a tenderness for her husband, Feng finds living in his household terrifying and suffocating. Her mother and father-in-law rule the roost with an iron fist, and Feng finds life a misery.

Much of the book deals with Feng's efforts to live in the Sang household, but the last part of the book takes a surprising turn. With the Cultural Revolution approaching Feng makes an unexpected choice.

This was an enjoyable book, though much of the story, the restrictions and family terrors faced by Chinese wives, was familiar to me. Still, this is a book worth reading, and it reads quickly. I quickly became interested in Feng's character. I found her choice at the end of the book surprising and somewhat unbelievable, but Jepson infuses the book with a strong sense of Feng's heartbreak.

http://girlsjustreading.blogspot.com/2012/01/julies-review-all-flowers-in-shangh...

A wonderful debut novel. I will definitely be keeping my eye on more works from Mr. Jepson. If you are a fan of historical fiction, specifically novels that take place in China, then you can't miss this novel. Fans of Lisa See and Memoirs of a Geisha should take note of it.½

This books shares the story of a very young, very naive girl in pre-revolution China, Feng. She is the second born and all of her mother's energy has been poured into her elder sister. Her mother longs to enter "society" and is using the marriage of her first daughter to try and achieve this goal. When the seamstress comes to make the wedding dress Feng meets his son and imagines herself in love with him as she shares time with him in the family gardens.

When her sister dies Feng is basically sold into the marriage her mother so much desired - to save face. Feng is totally unaware of the world around her except for the Latin names of all the flowers in the garden taught to her by her grandfather. He is against the marriage but he leaves rather than stand up to the force of his daughter in law.

Feng enters into her new family totally unprepared for living in such a rigid household. No one has told her anything about life. My first problem with the book was that a seventeen year old girl, even in this time period could be THIS clueless. Feng did not even know what marriage was let along sex. She didn't realize that she would be leaving her family. I found it hard to believe. She read more like a pre-teen than a seventeen year old.

After she enters the marriage and makes her "terrible revenge" she turns into a femme fatale with her husband. Where did this woman come from? A girl who knew nothing about sex now, with no further conversation or teaching from her husband is suddenly a tease extraordinaire? This change was a bit of a stretch for me.

The back and forth of this woman in her feelings of love and hate were like whiplash. I could totally understand why she would hate her situation but the ways she chose to deal with it were a bit extreme to say the least. It made the book less believable and that's a shame because the writing was so good. I found myself drawn into the time and place with the flow of the words. I felt the emotions when they rang true but so many situations just felt so wrong. Maybe it is cultural? I don't know - I have read many a book that has taken place in China in different time periods and have not felt like this. It was definitely worth reading but I won't read it again.

This was a wonderful debut novel by Duncan Jepson that gives us a glimpse into the life of Feng, a young Chinese girl. Footbinding is no longer practiced in 1930's Shanghai, but women still do not have many rights. Feng did not plan on having an eventful life, as the family had arranged for her older sister to reap all of the rewards from society.

Feng seemed to be content living her life as the younger sister in the family, not having any expectations and being able to live her life as she wanted when the time was right. She had a special relationship with her grandfather who took the time with her almost every day to walk through the vibrant and colorful gardens to introduce her to all of the flowers.

Young Feng has a rude awakening one day when her life takes a drastic change. For reasons that she doesn't understand, her parents decide to marry her into a wealthy family. She truly enjoyed her simple life and was not prepared for the stress and responsibility that came along with her upcoming nuptuals.

Having to live her new life without the true love that she had hoped for, Feng becomes a bitter woman, looking out only for herself and finding small ways to punish those around her. This bitterness seeps into her heart and soul and will leave a mark on her for the rest of her life.

I really enjoyed this novel as it gives me a glimpse into a specific period in China that was so educational. We watch as the various classes of society change as communism is put into place. It is through this change that Feng is brought back to the roots of the person that she is and is able to come to terms with the person that she has become. With themes of China, communism, family, and obligations this was a great novel and I also think it would make a great book club selection. I do not hesitate in recommending this novel.

Despite having finished All the Flowers in Shanghai several weeks ago, I have been finding it difficult to write a review, mostly because I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about the book.

I requested this book fully aware that the premise was not a completely new one. Also, while I have read many books set in China, especially dealing with the nature of relationships and the particular conditions experienced by women in that culture, I enjoy the genre and look forward to new stories along the same line. I was hoping, therefore, for a new perspective from Duncan Jepson, possibly replete with the kind of historical detail I particularly love.

The main character, Xiao Feng, grows up in a household which includes her parents, sister and grandfather. The men are weak and ineffectual, both of them unable to place any constraint on the behavior of Feng’s mother and sister. Feng spends all of her time in the shadow of her more beautiful sister. Their mother places all her hopes of entering ‘society’ on Sister marrying into one of the most powerful and influential families in Shanghai. When this duty is forced on naïve Feng instead, she blames her parents, especially her mother, for the situation in which she finds herself. She becomes very bitter and her behavior leads her to an action which she comes to regret.

One of the biggest difficulties I had with the book was the fact that Feng’s life was so isolated, first by her naivety and then by her absorption into her husband’s household. It meant the history of the time didn’t really come through in the story, because the narrator was woefully unaware of much of it until the end of the book, and even then it was still marginal.

Feng herself is not a very sympathetic character, but at the same time, did understand the author’s intention to show that the situation she was forced into caused her to react the way she did. As much as I didn’t particularly like her, I have to admit that a sense of her character has stuck with me.

I did enjoy the descriptions of the flowers and the use of that theme in the story. It added an element of beauty that threw the character’s personalities and experiences into stark relief. I can’t say I really enjoyed the book, and it is not likely I would ever re-read it … still, for some reason, I can’t completely dismiss it.

China has long enchanted me (all of Asia does, actually) and the historic family dynamics with several generations living under one roof in harmony and in discord in this largest of all countries have long seemed exotic to me. The long history and the unknowns of a society so long closed to the West have always been appealing to learn about. The desire for a son and heir and the lack of worth of daughters is completely foreign but still fascinating to me. So this novel had all the hallmarks of a book I would thoroughly enjoy. Much to my surprise, I was left with a lukewarm reaction.

In 1930's Shanghai, in a world on the verge of massive change, Feng lives with her mother, father, older sister, and grandfather. Her sister is the major focus of her mother's energies, leaving Feng, who, it is assumed, will care for her parents in their old age, to the love and company of her grandfather. While her sister, selfish, spoiled, and unfeeling, commands every bit of attention on herself and her upcoming marriage into a socially superior family, seventeen year old Feng wanders in the next door gardens with her grandfather, meeting a boy, Bi, from a distant village. As she starts to fantasize about life with Bi, she is only partially cognizant of the looming disaster in her own home. And when she, as a dutiful Chinese daughter, must step in and marry the unappealing suitor chosen for her sister, relinquishing all hopes of a quiet country life, she does so unhesitatingly.

When she marries into the Sang family, Feng is young and clumsy, not the polished, slick young woman her sister was, and she suffers scorn and cruelty at the hands of her new in-laws. Her husband is kind enough but he is a dutiful son and under his parents' thumb so does as he is commanded without a thought to his fearful wife's wants or well-being. Feng is miserable having only her maid Yan in whom to confide and to trust for guidance and friendship. And it her maid Yan to whom she confide the terrible act of revenge she plots against her situation and all those who surround her. It is Yan who must carry out her mistress' awful plan, the plan that will haunt Feng for the rest of her life.

Feng is an unlikable character, growing from a naive, uncomplicated young woman drifting through life into a bitter, nasty, warped, and hateful woman. Having been forced to live her sister's life, she finally becomes her cruel sister. Were this dislike on the reader's part intentionally incurred on the author's part, it would perhaps be acceptable but I suspect that in actual fact, we are to view Feng's changed character with sympathy given her situation. Maybe the cultural divide is too great or our experiences too different but I found myself unable to feel any sympathy and this colored how I felt about the novel as a whole. Certainly Feng had a neglectful upbringing, knowing that she was of no worth to her parents. Certainly she was in a loveless arranged marriage. Certainly she was ill-treated by her in-laws, holding no value to them except as a vessel to produce an heir. But the way in which she stewed over the injustices done to her and the life-altering revenge she chose to deny everyone who had wronged her what they had so hoped for (but which she never divulged so only she tasted the bitterness of her horrible, and ultimately regretted triumph) was beyond the pale.

The writing itself is very evocative and draws the rarified world of upper class Shanghai well. As a domestic drama set mainly in the constrained world of women, there is little intrusion from the outside world. Surely there should have been though, as China suffered a brutal occupation and lengthy war with Japan, including the bloody Battle of Shanghai, a civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists, and the rise of Mao Zedong and his harsh policies. There is little mention of these massive changes during the narrative despite the fact that the Sang family, as part of Shanghai's wealthy ruling elite, would have been gravely (and likely very adversely) affected by each of these historical instances. And their passing references glossed over the brutality and hardship that would have accompanied these events.

The characters in the novel are quite simple with only Feng and her husband showing any growth or dimensionality. The setting is interesting but given short shrift and the historical is all but ignored until the very end of the story. There are a few coincidences too fantastic, just a bit too deus ex machina in the plot and the great leap forward in time after Feng's son is born is slightly disorienting. This was a good enough read, spoiled a bit by Feng's character, but it missed out on being so much more given the time and the setting.

All the Flowers in Shanghai by Duncan Jepson is set in 1930s Shanghai and is told by Xiao Feng as she writes down her past, beginning with the courting of her beautiful sister who has been spoiled by her parents. Her mother’s ambitions lie with her sister, and Feng is on the sidelines watching her sister be paraded in front of other families with prominence in society and wonders where their ambitions will lead. The prose is easy to read and captures attentions easily with its bright colors and very descriptive settings, but in many ways, the characters initially seem cliched with the older sister demonstrating her importance over her younger sister and treating her poorly and the younger sister simply accepting the treatment. However, this is a story about Feng and her relationship with her grandfather as much as it is about the ambitions and corruption of a family and its members when disappointment strikes.

Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2012/01/all-the-flowers-in-shanghai-by-duncan-jepson...

Let me start off by saying I love a good dark story, and I have no objections whatsoever to an unsympathetic narrator. So when I note that I found this novel deeply flawed and unlikeable, I'm not including those factors. And I'm judging it based on what I thought it would or could be -- not comparing it to works of Great Literary Merit, but measuring it against other sagas of its kind. And it simply doesn't work on that level, either.

I can see what Duncan Jepson is trying to do -- to craft a story about the traditional roles of daughter, wife and mother in pre-Communist China, and the stresses that creates on the women who are bound by the role. The problem? It's indifferently executed, and the characters (especially that of Feng, despite the first-person narration) never really come alive on the page. By the time I had read 200 pages, I was rolling my eyes in disbelief and despite the downright melodramatic events, I simply didn't care what happened next to Feng or anyone else. The next major plot twist made me laugh, which I don't think was the author's intention.

The flaws are evident from the beginning. Who is Feng? Is she really a subdued, passive younger daughter? Is she fearful and ignorant? It was slightly unbelievable to me that while her grandfather had taught her the Latin names of plants, no one, by the age of 17, had given her a glimpse into the facts of life. After all, this wasn't Victorian England, but China in the 1920s (just guessing at this date, going by subsequent events in the book) when even in middle-class households, it was hard to remain oblivious for long to such matters short of being sent to a convent school. Feng's naivete is just as unconvincing as her later decision to embark on a kind of Jacobean revenge tragedy. Similarly, I kept want to ask the real husband to stand up and be identified. On the one hand he's slightly shy, on the other he ((SPOILER ALERT)) seems to think that violence is part of sex and has no conception that it might be different. Just as Feng's behavior and switch in personalities is incomprehensible, so are those of her husband: they make Jekyll/Hyde look like an amateur. And let's not even get started on the holes in the plot, which I won't discuss for fears of major plot spoilers.

Jepson's concept and ideas drive the whole book, leaving everything else on the sidelines. The result is heavy-handed and sometimes a bit bizarre. About two-thirds of the way through this book, it finally becomes possible to ascribe a rough date to the events when he mentions -- in passing, in the form of Feng's musings on events that have passed -- the war between China and Japan. Now, this very violent and terrifying conflict lasted for the better part of a decade. I note that another reviewer said he/she didn't mind that historical events weren't part of the plot, but I did, because those historical events couldn't help but shape the characters' lives in some way. Yet Jepson's characters might as well have been living on the moon as in China. This context doesn't need to be at the foreground or drive the plot, but it needs to be there, especially because the focus on the plot -- the subservient role of women in Chinese families -- was changing so dramatically at this point. Feng goes to tea dances, so that means the novel had to be set in the 1920s or 1930s, but... It's like writing a novel about slavery from the point of view of a slave in Alabama, when the reader has no sense of whether it's set in 1750 or 1850 until the slaves are suddenly freed. No, it doesn't add a flavor of reality, because the reader is deliberately kept from knowing things that Feng would have known at the time. She would have known about the conflict between Nationalists and Communists, and the war with the Japanese, especially given the presence of military-aged men in her family home. She couldn't have known the outcome, but it's incomprehensible that she would be so caught up in her personal life that she would be as oblivious as she sounds to this.

I won't even address the final bizarre turn this novel takes. Honestly, the whole thing is deeply silly and I regret investing much of my time on reading it. If you want to read a novel about womens' lives in China, there are now MANY great choices. Read "Kinfolk" or "the Women's Pavilion" by Pearl Buck; "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See; "Spring Moon" by Betty Bao Lord; many of Amy Tan's novels. For me, this didn't even rise to the level of brain candy -- fun, fluffy reading with no nutritional value. If it didn't have to back to the library, I would have flung it from my window.½

I have to admit that I did not want to finish this book. The first half, as many other reviewers have mentioned, was good and the relationship between Feng and her grandfather was sweet. I love gardens and plants so I enjoyed reading about Chinese gardens. I knew though that the happy interlude could not last but I was pretty horrified at how Feng's character changed so drastically. It felt like two different books and I can't say I enjoyed it much.

This book has huge strengths and just as big of weaknesses. But I’m in that strange place where the weakness isn’t really a big weakness to me, due to the other reading I’ve done about China during this time period. So – here is the weakness: There really isn’t much information about the historical situation in China, but this isn’t a book that really advertises that it has that information.

This semester in school we talked a lot about history is based around wars and the events leading up to them. There is very little history taught in schools that centers around homemaking methods of women, or the methods of horse-shoeing by men. This is one of those kind of books, however. Historical fiction which takes a look at the way the women of 1930′s China ticked – their honor system, their treatment of daughters, their pride, and their choices.

Duncan Jepson fully explores what might be one possible reason behind the actions of a woman leading to the removal of her daughter from her home. Feng is so sweet and pure at the start of this story as she explores gardens, and deals with grubby hands and the scorn of an older, “wiser” sister. Due to a twist in circumstances, Feng ends up married to a man not of her own choosing, and placed into a home that is, for all intents and purposes, a pit of vipers. My heart broke, not only while watching Feng transform into a woman who could hold her own, but also at the circumstances surrounding that change.

Another slight issue I had with the book, however, was the sheer amount of time spent on things such as the leading up to and impregnating of Feng (which read a little like a sadistic porn novel), and the fact that Feng really had nothing to complain about with her husband, other than the fact of course that she didn’t choose or love him, which I admit is no small thing. Still, he treats her well – there’s no abuse or anything of the sort, so nothing to worry about with that, but.. I guess you’d need to read the book to understand why it bugs me a bit.

Overall – I thought the story was a beautiful look at the history of the woman in China in the 30′s. The focus was so intent on Feng, her choices, her lifestyle, and her family, that everything else falls to the wayside. Lush language makes the book very easy to fall into, and I was up until 2am to finish it last night because I didn’t want to put it down.½

In 1930s Shanghai, Xiao Feng enjoys wandering the gardens with her grandfather while he tells her the names of the plants. Feng is the second daughter, the unimportant one. Sister is first. Sister wears the beautiful dresses and makeup, maintaining an active social life as the perfect husband is sought. The family’s hopes and resources are put to the goal of having Sister marry well and raise the social status of the family. But a tragedy happens and Feng’s world tilts. And with that begins a long slide into bitterness that will affect the family and the generation to come. And along with this begins the upheaval in China with the coming of Mao.

The story, written by a man, was told in the first person of Xiao Feng. And he seemed to do well in capturing the doubts, humiliations and vengeful thoughts of the maturing Feng. This was not a book that I would say I “enjoyed”, as it was a dark tale. But once I started reading the tale held me in its grip.

I enjoyed the novel as a pleasurable read. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary as far as a Chinese novel that follows a young woman being forced into marriage. However, it has a simplistic nature that was very appealing.

I'm sort of baffled about this book. A historical novel set in 1930s Shanghai, the story follows Feng, a naive and excessively innocent woman forced into an arranged marriage with a powerful family. The resulting marriage twists her in to a different kind of woman, and we follow her transformation through the '40s and the Chinese Revolution.

This rich historical setting felt like a total waste as the novel is really about Feng's sexual education and the way her marriage warps her, causing her to become as cruel as those around her. I went through this spate of reading in middle school and high school, Lifetime Movie-esque novels featuring wronged women who wrought their revenge with sex, usually. Anti-romances, they featured lots of tawdriness and little love, and they were delicious, warped garbage. This reminds me of those kinds of books -- Sidney Sheldon, Wideacre-ish Philippa Gregory, Danielle Steele -- and if you're in the mood for that kind of novel, this will satisfy.

Unfortunately, I wasn't expecting it, so I was a bit disappointed -- I was thinking I'd get something meatier. It's not Jepson's fault I had something different in mind, though. His writing style is very easy, fast (I read this book in a few hours), and the characters fairly easy to know -- nothing super nuanced -- but a good old-fashioned salacious family saga. If the holidays are killing you, and you want some fiction that has the same nutritional value as eggnog, but tastes just as good, then this is the book for you!

This is a sad story about an arranged marriage. I enjoyed learning about a time in Chinese history, but the main character's bitterness (while certainly understandable) became difficult to read about for so long. I would recommend this to those with an interest in this particular place and time (1930s China), but other historical novels are better.

I've long been interested in 1930s China so I thought that I'd enjoy All the Flowers in Shanghai. The story focuses on Xiao Feng, a beautiful young girl born into a middle class family with a socially ambitious older sister and mother. Xiao Feng grows up with little interest in wealth, power, or status while her older sister is groomed for a glamorous life and an advantageous marriage. But when the older sister is unable to fulfill the marriage contract that would tie their family to the wealthy and respected Sang family, Xiao Feng is maneuvered into taking her sister's place.

Xiao Feng is intimidated by her husband's family and is unprepared for the role of First Wife to the First Son. As the more powerful members of the Sang family humiliate and bully, Xiao Feng loses the naivete and innocence. Xiao Feng sees that her power lies in the sons heirs that she might bring to the Sang clan. Xiao Feng starts assert herself. Unfortunately, while the younger Xiao Feng was sweet and likable, the new Xiao Feng takes on the same cruelty and spitefulness of her tormentors. Xiao Feng undertakes an act of revenge so cruel that it's hard to comprehend and it destroys much of the sympathy that I had for her.

As the book goes on, we learn more about Xiao Feng's life as a wealthy society matron, the friends that she makes, and the life that she carves out. The first half of the book was reminiscent of Memoirs of a Geisha but instead of developing as a character, Xiao Feng becomes less interesting and less sympathetic as the story develops. I found that I wasn't invested in Xiao Feng - even Duncan Jepson's skilled writing couldn't get me to care about Xiao Feng. Also, I would have enjoyed the story more if Duncan Jepson devoted more attention to the what was going on in Shanghai during Japanese occupation and the Cultural Revolution. We know that the Sang family suffered, but this is told in passing and doesn't move things forward much.

Overall, All the Flowers in Shanghai is very well written but the second part of the story doesn't meet the promise of the book's beginning. Towards the middle of the book, I stopped caring about the main character and began to sympathize with her husband. While I was disappointed in the latter portions of All the Flowers in Shanghai, Duncan Jepson is a talented writer and I plan to read his next novel.

ISBN-10: 0062081608 - Paperback $14.99
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Original edition (December 27, 2011), 320 pages.
Review copy courtesy of the Amazon Vine Program and the publisher.