Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

by Lisa See

Copyright 2005
Pages: 263
ISBN: 1-4000-6028-1

The setting is 19th century china–a world of secluded women’s chambers, foot binding, sworn sisterhoods, and the secret written language of nu shu. While there is family life, marriage, tragedies, and every other one of life’s realities, the book is about the friendship that bonds two women.

Lily and Snow Flower are contracted and sworn to one another as “old sames,” a relationship deeper than marriage, although formally arranged in much the same way. As readers we are given a very intimate look at a the private lives of these women through their story and the role that their secret language plays in it, both symbolically and practically.

The novel reads like a memoir, with a very inviting tone. The nu shu messages exchanged in the story are beautifully poetic, and the general structure and word choice of the book give it a special feel, creating a subtle exotic feel that makes it all the more attractive. A feminine book to be sure, but far too graceful for the chick lit label, which tends have a sassier tone. It’s a perfect poolside summer read.

An Instance of the Fingerpost

by Ian Pear

What’s especially cool about this book is that it’s told from four perspectives, and there is no single omniscient narrator who is always telling you the objective truth.

The story centers around a murder that takes place in England in 1663. But each narrator has a different recollection of the events surrounding the incident, and they each assume a different guilty party.

The New York Times compared it to The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. I agree. It’s got the same tension.

The title relates to Francis Bacon’s system of logic that says the essence of something is the process of reduction. The fingerpost refers to the sign at a crossroads: a post with arms or “fingers” radiating from it that point you in the direction to the various places listed. The idea is that to find the truth, you must first find where the stories of the four narrators intersect.

There’s a handy list in the back of all the characters, detailing which ones were real people in history (lot’s of them) and which are fictional—and there are notes that clarify when a character is fictional but inspired by someone real, giving you the story and identity of the person the character was based on.

It’s a little long, but completely fascinating. Absolutely worth reading.