Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

I just finished reading Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and found it be one of the most beautiful and depressing novels I have read in a while - and I have read a lot of depressing novels (after all, I read mainly teen fiction and that genre is not known to be very Pollyanna-ish). Set in 19th century rural China, it tells the story of two girls (Lily and Snow Flower) who are matched at the age of 7 as laotongs ("old sames"), lifelong friends who experience the rituals of footbinding, marriage, and all sorts of other women's ceremonies and rituals that took place at that time. After the girls are married off to men they have never met, they continue to correspond by letters written on a paper fan, even when Lily's mother-in-law forbids that she communicate with a girl of such low stature. Through their writing (and occasional meetings) Lily and Snow Flower share their experiences of "bed business" with their husbands and their resulting pregnancies and the criticism constantly endured by their in-laws.

It is not a book for the faint-hearted as there are graphic descriptions of footbinding, miscarriages and death by typhoid. But what is most touching is the love that the two women have for each other - a much stronger love than they could ever have for their husbands. No, this is not a lesbian thing - their love is not sexual, even when they share a bed together and write invisible poetry on each other's naked bodies. Yes, that part did remind me a bit of Peter Greenaway's film The Pillow Book, but a little less kinky (and without Ewan Macgregor). The novel brought tears to my eyes on several occasions, and for anyone who knows my reading habits that means that I have to buy the book.

This novel was a nice change from some of the crappy books that I have read recently, and of course from the melodramatic pap I watched last night - the Da Vinci Code movie. Can I just say that Tom Hanks is the most overrated actor in the world, and no amount of Oscars will ever change that? He was good in Joe Versus the Volcano and perhaps Splash or Big, but anything that came after was given much more attention than it deserved. The only good thing about watching a crappy overrated movie like this (besides being able to criticize it mercilessly the entire time) is that now I don't have to read the book but at least I have a vague idea of what the hell it is about. Oh my god, this french chick is the last living descendent of Jesus and Mary Magdalene - it's a miracle! Call the Vatican, the FBI, John Milton and Chris Carter, this is breaking news! Whatfucking ever.