Peony in Love

After reading a review of Peony in Love in the People Magazine, I was eager to read the book. It was a truly unique book, I thought. Sometimes I liked it other times I wondered if I could finish it. It could definitely be an Oprah book (depressing at times). Just when you think things are looking up, disaster strikes again. Peony in Love is historical fiction and Lisa See has done a lot of research to bring 17th Century China to the reader. I like books that give you the flavor of another time and country and this one certainly does that. The whole book revolves around an actual play with 52 acts called the Peony Pavilion first produced in China in 1598. The women she writes about are also real. I hate to give away the fact that the narrator of the book is dead, but all the other reviews didn't seem to mind revealing that secret. This is what made the book unique to me because the "ghost" is subject to all the beliefs regarding the afterlife during the Ming Dynasty. Her soul splits in three parts with one becoming a "hungry ghost" roaming earth and haunting her family because certain rituals were left unfinished. Until that ritual is finished she makes the long journey toward fulfillment and eternal rest.

Susan