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Product Reviews:
Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: Wonderful Book
Comments: Although there are hundreds of reviews, I had to review this book because it had such an impact on me. I think this book is wonderful. It is a captivating story. I read it complete in1night, I just could not put it down!!
Adeline is a beautiful story teller, with an exceptional eye for detail. Although I loved the book, there was a strange voice that would creep into the story. Alalmost all as if there was a repressed part of herself that could not hide from this book: it is a young Adeline still hoping to be the apple of her father's eye; and for her family to appreciate, love and respect her.
It is a sad story that shocks readers with the inhumanity that families can inflict on1of their own. It is still beautiful and hopeful, even in its almost all miserable moments.
Highly endorse
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Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: A memorable story that haunts you long after reading.
Comments: This book was beautifully written and gripping from the start. The reviewer who complained of Adeline's "whining" tone, is being unfair. I do not see her as whiny, however rather somewhat detached as she recounts the emptiness of her childhood. In fact, I want her to scream and kick and rebell, maybe even whine, yet she does none of that. Whining is even more emotion than I think she allows herself to feel. She endured a childhood with certain material wealth however vastly lacking in emotional wealth.
Adeline takes the emotional abuse because she knows nothing else. Her father is the true villain for caring more about his trophy wife than his own family's happiness. He is oblivious to his children's emotional needs. He disappoints more than the stepmom for choosing to abandon children that he chose to bring into the world. He manipulates and plays them1against the other for his own selfish desires.
After long periods of thinking about this book, I have come to my own understanding of why she managed to salvage a happy life out of such a miserable upbringing. It is the belief, albeit blatently false, that her family would1day accept her, that makes her continue to push for their love and not give up. Children are frequently unable to find fault with their loved ones. It is that "innocence" that protected her from worse harm, the knowledge that acceptance would never, ever, be forthcoming. |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: Falling Leaves- FANTASTIC read!!
Comments: The heartbreaking story of an unwanted, abused, neglected child who never ceases to try and earn her family's affections. If you have ever experienced these feelings,no matter what your race, you will LOVE this book. It moved me to tears and I could not put it down once I started reading it. |
Rating: 1 (out of 5)
Summary: Would you like some cheese....
Comments: ...with that whine? Self serving, whiney, horrible. I just do not get it. No comparison to anything by Frank McCort, Amy Tan or anyone like them. |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: Doing the right thing is priceless
Comments: Adeline Yen Mah, the youngest daughter of a prominent chinese businessman and his young half-chinese, half-french new wife, shows a poignant and vivid picture of life as a almost all unwanted Chinese daughter growing up during the cultural revolution in mid- 20th century China. Despite horrible mistreatment and abuse by her step-mother, Yen Mah slowly flourished from a sad, quiet girl to a successful physician living in the United States because of the love and encourgement of1unempowered Aunt. A heartwrenching read, this autobiography is proof that even when 'bad things happen to great people', knowing1has done the 'right thing' is priceless indeed. |
