My Account | RSS
| ||
|
||
Paper Butterfly
by Diane Wei Liang
Reviewed by Shahbano Bilgrami
Following close upon The Eye of Jade, Diane Wei Liang's second novel, Paper Butterfly, picks up where the first left off, and continues the adventures of its intrepid heroine, Mei Wang, one of modern China's first female detectives. Set once again in Beijing, a city of transition and contrast, this second installment in a proposed series of books takes as its focal point a beautiful paper butterfly that holds the answer to a brutal murder.
The story begins when Mei Wang's glamorous and influential sister, Lu, arranges for her to meet Mr Peng, the chairman of the Guanghua Record Company. Mr Peng hires Mei Wang to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Kaili, a beautiful young starlet who vanishes at the peak of her career. The trail leads from the fancy modern high rises of Beijing to its impoverished hutongs with their deeply entrenched rituals and superstitions. As Mei Wang's investigation gathers momentum, she repeatedly puts her life at risk before she comes closer to the truth. Eventually she is convinced that Kaili's disappearance is connected to her relationship with the mysterious "L" whose passionate letters are discovered in the starlet's apartment.
Going through these letters, which were written during the Student Democracy Movement leading up to Tiananmen Square, Mei Wang's old demons (present, too, in The Eye of Jade) come back to haunt her -- namely, the fact that she did not join fellow students in this historic protest and, on a personal level, the betrayal of Ya-Ping, her university sweetheart. But the legacy of the past doesn't end there: Mei Wang is still coming to terms with her family history, which includes the imprisonment of her father during the Cultural Revolution and her own mother's questionable role in his fate. Her family's story is just one of many illustrating how difficult choices made during that time had longterm consequences.
As a counterpoint to the main narrative, Wei Liang's Paper Butterfly shifts between two stories -- Kaili's disappearance and the release of a political prisoner named Lin who was involved in Tiananmen Square. The connection between these two stories remains a mystery till the very end.
As with The Eye of Jade, Wei Liang's novel draws on China's turbulent past to give it breadth and depth. While it is well-crafted detective fiction in its own right, this historical dimension makes the narrative all the more compelling. It remains to be seen if the past will continue to inspire Wei Liang's future writings.
--
Shahbano Bilgrami's first novel, 'Without Dreams', was published in November 2007 and was longlisted for the 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize.
by Diane Wei Liang
Reviewed by Shahbano Bilgrami
Following close upon The Eye of Jade, Diane Wei Liang's second novel, Paper Butterfly, picks up where the first left off, and continues the adventures of its intrepid heroine, Mei Wang, one of modern China's first female detectives. Set once again in Beijing, a city of transition and contrast, this second installment in a proposed series of books takes as its focal point a beautiful paper butterfly that holds the answer to a brutal murder.
The story begins when Mei Wang's glamorous and influential sister, Lu, arranges for her to meet Mr Peng, the chairman of the Guanghua Record Company. Mr Peng hires Mei Wang to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Kaili, a beautiful young starlet who vanishes at the peak of her career. The trail leads from the fancy modern high rises of Beijing to its impoverished hutongs with their deeply entrenched rituals and superstitions. As Mei Wang's investigation gathers momentum, she repeatedly puts her life at risk before she comes closer to the truth. Eventually she is convinced that Kaili's disappearance is connected to her relationship with the mysterious "L" whose passionate letters are discovered in the starlet's apartment.
Going through these letters, which were written during the Student Democracy Movement leading up to Tiananmen Square, Mei Wang's old demons (present, too, in The Eye of Jade) come back to haunt her -- namely, the fact that she did not join fellow students in this historic protest and, on a personal level, the betrayal of Ya-Ping, her university sweetheart. But the legacy of the past doesn't end there: Mei Wang is still coming to terms with her family history, which includes the imprisonment of her father during the Cultural Revolution and her own mother's questionable role in his fate. Her family's story is just one of many illustrating how difficult choices made during that time had longterm consequences.
As a counterpoint to the main narrative, Wei Liang's Paper Butterfly shifts between two stories -- Kaili's disappearance and the release of a political prisoner named Lin who was involved in Tiananmen Square. The connection between these two stories remains a mystery till the very end.
As with The Eye of Jade, Wei Liang's novel draws on China's turbulent past to give it breadth and depth. While it is well-crafted detective fiction in its own right, this historical dimension makes the narrative all the more compelling. It remains to be seen if the past will continue to inspire Wei Liang's future writings.
--
Shahbano Bilgrami's first novel, 'Without Dreams', was published in November 2007 and was longlisted for the 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize.
Available in Asia from Paddyfield.com
|
