A determined Chinese girl pursues her dream of a medical education by leaving her family and attending a university in America in the early 1920s. A companion to Namioka’s Ties that Bind, Ties that Break (1999), this opens with Yanyan’s journey to Shanghai to bid farewell to the earlier novel’s heroine as she embarks for San Francisco. The journey sets up the character’s central conflict: even as she envies her friend for her opportunities, she finds herself attracted to a charismatic friend of her Elder Brother’s, and finds that she must choose between her personal ambitions and her admirer. A melodramatic plot twist aids her choice—her admirer turns out to be part of a conspiracy to return the Manchu emperor to the throne—and off she goes to Cornell, where she encounters cultural difficulties aplenty. While the first-person narration is burdened by awkward historical summaries (“After our defeat in the Second Opium War, various countries discovered how weak China really was”), Yanyan’s struggles in the US are compelling. A patronizing student adviser tries to steer her toward home economics and away from physics (“Here at Cornell, we teach young ladies all the womanly arts in order to make them proper wives and mothers”). At the Chinese laundry, she is mistaken for an employee; when corrected, the customer says, “Well, I’ll be doggoned! I did hear there were Chinks at the university.” Despite these narrative flaws, Yanyan emerges as a highly sympathetic character for whom the reader will find herself rooting as she picks her way through her internal doubts and the obstacles set before her by both Chinese and American cultures. An author’s note provides some background on a particularly exciting and turbulent time in Chinese history. (Fiction. 12-16)
Pub Date: June 11, 2002
ISBN: 0-385-73002-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
The 19th-century tale ``Undine'' by Baron de La Motte-FouquÇ inspired this novel about a spirit-bedeviled romance between a water maiden and a nobleman. At the beginning, Osborne tells the reader what neither lover knows: Undine, one of a race ``not quite mortal, not quite fish,'' was left as a babe on an old fisherman's doorstep by an ``ancient king of the sea'' who hoped ``to mate his kin with humanity.'' Eighteen years later, Lord Huldbrand discovers the maid, and in due course they are wed. Despite evil spirits that hover about her, Undine herself seems as pure as the water to which she is so mysteriously drawn. But the couple's happiness is haunted by strange manifestations, and Huldbrand's certainty of Undine's innocence is invaded by doubt. Soon he rejects her, and Undine vanishes into what seems to be a watery grave; but as Huldbrand prepares to remarry, she reappears to take him with her to a ``piscine life'' in ``an eternity of water.'' The lushly atmospheric narrative will draw readers who enjoy dark, otherworldly fantasies. Osborne sustains the tone of menace, despite occasional lapses into the mundane. Somewhat overwritten, but true to its genre; appreciative readers may enjoy going on to Hudson's Green Mansions. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 1-56402-119-X
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sludgy, overwritten tale of young lovers coming to grief after they protest a proposed mall near their upstate New York town. When Kris and Jason learn of plans to plow down Pinehaven, the closest thing to wilderness near their town, they form a group dubbed Pulse to fight the proposal. Despite the opposition of the school principal—who has political ambitions tied to the development—Pulse attracts many ardent activists and stages a tense but nonviolent demonstration. The planning board nonetheless approves the mall, and Jason and Kris head for the Adirondacks to regroup; Don Lopus, a cartoonish villain, follows them and torches their tent. Kris burns to death before Jason's eyes. These events are related in mawkish prose marked by trite conversations, tedious details, and somewhat purple passages: ``Kris gently blew out her laughter in a long, warm stream that flowed through my sweatshirt like the thin breath of a thousand bees after they'd finished eating honey. My whole body sweetened. . . .'' Heavy foreshadowing leaves the tragic climax unsurprising, and between extraneous characters and sketchy subplots, the book concludes almost before it is underway. Pinehaven is saved by the fortuitous discovery of a burial site; Lopus, Pulse, and the corrupt politicians drop abruptly from the story. Readers with an appreciation for long professions of teenage love may like this, but the superficial treatment of environmental and empowerment issues, plus the unresolved plot elements, won't win many hearts. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-525-45396-2
Page Count: 198
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1996
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