Shanghai Girls

Shanghai Girls
by Lisa See
Random House, 2009. 314 pgs. Fiction

May and Pearl, two sisters living in Shanghai in the mid-1930s, are beautiful, sophisticated, and live in a well-to-do family. Their world is shattered one day when their father announces that he has gambled away their money and paid his debts by arranging for his daughters to marry “Gold Mountain men” who have come from Los Angeles to find brides. After getting caught in the Japanese invasion of Shanghai and then being detained for months by discriminatory immigration officials in the United States, they finally reach Los Angeles only to find that life there is not anything like they imagined.

This book was beautifully written and the bond between the two sisters was very touching. The descriptions and attention to detail were all well-done and I had a hard time leaving the world the author had created when the book was over. Pearl and May go through some pretty horrific things during their lives, and yet manage to survive all of them while still remaining close to each other. My main quibble with the book was that the ending really left me hanging and now I have to read the sequel.

JC