July 4th, 2008
Book Review: The Eye of Jade by Diane Wei Liang
I didn’t choose this book because the Olympics Games are coming to China, it was a present to me from my lovely son and his family. It is a story of a young female detective, Mei Wang, seemingly searching for an ancient and valuable artefact.
Interwoven is Mei’s haunting family history, which as the tale unfolds, becomes the main focus. At times the writing seems a gentle insight into the life of modern China, with its warmth and its hypocrisy, but there are also more sinister windows into China’s history.
The story builds in interest and as it does the reader is drawn into complex questions of love and betrayal.
Diane Wei Lang, the author, was born in Beijing. She experienced a labour camp in her childhood and took part in the student protests in Tiananmen Square. This author is new to me but I found I was thinking about the book a couple of days after finishing it, so I’ll be looking out for her next one.
