Shanghai Girls
By Lisa See
($25.00, Random House)



In "Shanghai Girls" Lisa See paints a vivid picture of many of the faces of Shanghai in the early 1930s. She highlights the bourgeois lives of two girls, the well-educated and serious Pearl Chin and her carefree and flirtatious sister, May. She enhances her narrative by sprinkling it with two dialects of Chinese to evoke more precise descriptors of meaningful items.

As the sisters traverse the city by rickshaw and afoot, we're exposed to the common occurrence, at that time, of stepping over filth and around death and beggars to reach a destination of finery and frivolity.

Their journey to America and lengthy stay awaiting entry to the country could have been tedious reading but for the exquisite writing of Ms. See. She finally introduces us to the immigrant view of this country as she settles the young women into a Chinatown in Los Angeles, illuminating the difficulties of survival and assimilation amid the challenges of new family and businesses.

Lisa See has penned a multi-layered novel that will entertain as a well-written story will, educate with details of life amid historical significance, and encourage voluminous discussions of its profundity and potential hidden meanings. Or the reader may simply agree with the younger sister, May, that, "Everything always returns to the beginning... but sisters are for life."

Mary Burns is the owner of The Bookworks, located at 1510 Third Street, downtown Marysville, 360.659.4997, or online at www.marysvillebookworks.com. Comments or requests are welcome at [email protected].