All the Flowers in Shanghai

Absolutely amazing book!! It was a little slow at the very beginning, however as Feng gently encouraged me to follow her along her journey from being a free-spirited blue collar wild flower to a victim of her own family to the controversial rigid wife and mother, whom I least expected to fulfill such a role, I was gripped and simply could not put this book down for the life of me.
The only element that I did not enjoy was the remaining few chapters that humbled such a fierce being - I felt as though the author had trapped himself in a place and needed (desperately) to escape, leaving the reader lost and disappoint, such as Feng may have been. It seemed a bit out-of-place to denounce on such vague terms.

Very pleasant and easy reading. Almost as good as a Thousand Splendid Suns in the sense that a male author is writing from a female perspective. Strngly recommend as well as The Waiting by Ha Jin

I enjoyed the book more than I thought I was going to. It added perspective for me about the recent history of China.

Many details in the story just did not ring true for me. I also disliked the main character and could not sympathize with the choices she made.