Lucy Tan (1)

FROM AMAZON: Set in modern Shanghai, a debut by a Chinese American writer about a prodigal son whose unexpected return forces his newly wealthy family to confront painful secrets and unfulfilled promises.

After years of chasing the American dream, the Zhen family has moved back to China. Settling into a luxurious serviced apartment in Shanghai, Wei, Lina, and their daughter, Karen, join an elite community of Chinese-born, Western-educated professionals who have returned to a radically transformed city.

One morning, in the eighth tower of Lanson Suites, Lina discovers that a treasured ivory bracelet has gone missing. This incident sets off a wave of unease that ripples throughout the Zhen household. Wei, a marketing strategist, bows under the guilt of not having engaged in nobler work. Meanwhile, Lina, lonely in her new life of leisure, assumes the modern moniker taitai-a housewife who does no housework at all. She is haunted by the circumstances surrounding her arranged marriage to Wei and her lingering feelings for his brother, Qiang. Sunny, the family's housekeeper, is a keen but silent observer of these tensions. An unmarried woman trying to carve a place for herself in society, she understands the power of well-kept secrets. When Qiang reappears in Shanghai after decades on the run with a local gang, the family must finally come to terms with the past and its indelible mark on their futures.

From a silk-producing village in rural China, up the corporate ladder in suburban America, and back again to the post-Maoist nouveaux riches of modern Shanghai, What We Were Promised explores the question of what we owe to our country, our families, and ourselves.… (meer)

Dark Secret in Modern Shanghai

Lucy Tan’s debut novel brings into vivid focus the reassessment of life that confronts many when they reach their middle years, and much of it addresses delusion and regret. But the introspection her characters work through leads to a new appreciation of what matters most, family. That she sets it in modern Shanghai adds intriguing texture, however, her theme isn’t local, or solely Chinese, it’s universal, and most readers will identify with the story.

Wei, Lina, and teen daughter Karen have moved back to China from the U.S. to live in Lanson Suites, a full service residence hotel catering to returning Chinese elite expat businesspeople. Wei, who studied mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship, has transitioned into a managing director and executive vice president’s position at an American global marketing company. Lina, who worked in the States, is now something of a discontented taitai, loosely translated as a lady who lunches. Karen attends private school in the U.S. and is home for the summer. The hotel provides maid service to the residents and Sunny, who emigrated from a small village in a nearby province, impresses Lina, who brings her on as the family ayi, something of a head maid, companion, and personal assistant wrapped into one.

Two disruptive events occur that set the story in motion. Rose, an older maid Sunny works with before becoming an ayi, steals a bracelet from Lina’s jewelry box. Since it appeared insubstantial compared to the rest of the collection, she never thought it would get her into trouble. But it does and she puts Sunny, now an ayi, into an awkward position by asking for her help surreptitiously returning the bracelet. Turns out the bracelet holds a significance for Lina tied to the second event: the sudden return of Wei’s younger brother Qiang, once a troubled youth involved in gangs and gambling back in their home village. The bracelet was his gift to Lina back when all three were youths, presented about the time that Wei was about to marry Lina.

Conflict here revolves around Lina’s questioning as to what her life would have been like with Qiang instead of Wei, the pressures on Wei of always being the responsible business leader, husband, father, and brother, and Sunny’s eventual self-realization about a bigger life for herself, and something she’d nearly given up on, someone to love and be loved by and a home life.

Within the story, and it does take a bit of time to reach it, lies questions about China’s Cultural Revolution. This shattering event has a profound effect on the parents of Wei, Qiang, and Lina, and then on the three youths. The first to become aware of what happened to their families was Qiang as a child, and it becomes a secret he carries until he shows up at the home of Wei and Lina twenty years later. And, no, it is not anything you can guess at, but it does contain a brotherly love engendered by the Revolution.

Tan’s What We Were Promised should have wide appeal, and she tells the very intriguing story well.
… (meer)

Dark Secret in Modern Shanghai

Lucy Tan’s debut novel brings into vivid focus the reassessment of life that confronts many when they reach their middle years, and much of it addresses delusion and regret. But the introspection her characters work through leads to a new appreciation of what matters most, family. That she sets it in modern Shanghai adds intriguing texture, however, her theme isn’t local, or solely Chinese, it’s universal, and most readers will identify with the story.

Wei, Lina, and teen daughter Karen have moved back to China from the U.S. to live in Lanson Suites, a full service residence hotel catering to returning Chinese elite expat businesspeople. Wei, who studied mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship, has transitioned into a managing director and executive vice president’s position at an American global marketing company. Lina, who worked in the States, is now something of a discontented taitai, loosely translated as a lady who lunches. Karen attends private school in the U.S. and is home for the summer. The hotel provides maid service to the residents and Sunny, who emigrated from a small village in a nearby province, impresses Lina, who brings her on as the family ayi, something of a head maid, companion, and personal assistant wrapped into one.

Two disruptive events occur that set the story in motion. Rose, an older maid Sunny works with before becoming an ayi, steals a bracelet from Lina’s jewelry box. Since it appeared insubstantial compared to the rest of the collection, she never thought it would get her into trouble. But it does and she puts Sunny, now an ayi, into an awkward position by asking for her help surreptitiously returning the bracelet. Turns out the bracelet holds a significance for Lina tied to the second event: the sudden return of Wei’s younger brother Qiang, once a troubled youth involved in gangs and gambling back in their home village. The bracelet was his gift to Lina back when all three were youths, presented about the time that Wei was about to marry Lina.

Conflict here revolves around Lina’s questioning as to what her life would have been like with Qiang instead of Wei, the pressures on Wei of always being the responsible business leader, husband, father, and brother, and Sunny’s eventual self-realization about a bigger life for herself, and something she’d nearly given up on, someone to love and be loved by and a home life.

Within the story, and it does take a bit of time to reach it, lies questions about China’s Cultural Revolution. This shattering event has a profound effect on the parents of Wei, Qiang, and Lina, and then on the three youths. The first to become aware of what happened to their families was Qiang as a child, and it becomes a secret he carries until he shows up at the home of Wei and Lina twenty years later. And, no, it is not anything you can guess at, but it does contain a brotherly love engendered by the Revolution.

Tan’s What We Were Promised should have wide appeal, and she tells the very intriguing story well.
… (meer)