I read this book in November 1999 with my British book club.
For some reason, I never published my review but because I always keep my notes and lists of everything, I stumbled upon them by some coincidence.
I have always remembered this book as one I really liked and my notes tell me the same. Mei Kwei is a Chinese Woman who lives in Malaya (now Malaysia) during the Japanese occupation. She is beautiful but has a mole under her eye that resembles a teardrop and therefore is considered unlucky. She gets engaged but then falls in love with a Catholic priest.
A sad story not only about what women had to endure (and still have in many parts of the world) when they were not considered equal to men.
The book contained lots of details about life at the time, the difference between our cultures, I think that is my main reason for liking it.
From the back cover:
"The Teardrop Story Woman is Mei Kwei, born in Malaya in 1934 and doubly cursed - not only is she female, but she also has a tiny teardrop mole in the corner of one eye: a sign of bad luck that presages disaster. Fate proves kinder to Mei Kwei who inherits her grandmother's extraordinary good looks and gift for storytelling. As she grows up, Mei Kwei must cope with the attention of the men who begin to encircle her, attracted by the intensity of her beauty and by her spirit. She runs from these men to a man who cannot love her back - the charismatic Father Martin, a French Catholic missionary - and the demands of the flesh and the spirit come into fearful collision. Set in Malaya in turbulent 1950s, this is an irresistible story of passion and obligation where no one is safe, least of all those watched by jealous men or exacting gods."
Sounds good, but sad!
ReplyDeleteVery sad indeed, Lark. But still fascinating.
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