A review by cyndin
The Bathing Women by Tie Ning
3.0
Follows the lives of two sisters and a close friend as they grow from childhood through to mid adulthood. The title makes no sense (there is no bathing involved) and the jacket says the book follows 4 women, but the 4th is a minor character without her own viewpoint chapters and really the 4th ought to be the sisters' mother who has a secondary role. Blame the translation from Chinese. It may have made more sense in the original.
The story itself is good, showing the structures of life in China and how they changed over time. With insights into the women's thoughts and those of the men in their lives as well. Much of the book is hard for an American to grasp...not the main points, but a lot of the details which seemed to me that they would have meant more had I understood the underlying culture better.
The story itself is good, showing the structures of life in China and how they changed over time. With insights into the women's thoughts and those of the men in their lives as well. Much of the book is hard for an American to grasp...not the main points, but a lot of the details which seemed to me that they would have meant more had I understood the underlying culture better.