A review by gemmadee
The Bathing Women by Tie Ning
4.0
I couldn’t resist a story about the intersecting lives of a group of women shaped by the Cultural Revolution. I read it almost in one sitting, gulping down the last chapter hours after my bedtime. I wish I had gone to bed instead of reading the last chapter. I would have loved the book so much more.
it was a beautifully told story about genuinely complex characters who belonged to their time and were affected by politics without being particularly political. Although they are guilty of an almost inconceivable crime, it is easy to hope for their happiness as they make the best of what is left of their damaged lives. It is especially easy to sympathize with Tiao, who like Ethan Allen in The Winter of Our Discontent, realizes that many people live exemplary lives in compensation for past sin.
Until the last chapter. Suddenly, Tiao broke from the hard won life that she had been building in a way that made this down-to-earth human drama feel like a religious parable. It was a baffling and disappointing end to an engaging, richly characterized story.
it was a beautifully told story about genuinely complex characters who belonged to their time and were affected by politics without being particularly political. Although they are guilty of an almost inconceivable crime, it is easy to hope for their happiness as they make the best of what is left of their damaged lives. It is especially easy to sympathize with Tiao, who like Ethan Allen in The Winter of Our Discontent, realizes that many people live exemplary lives in compensation for past sin.
Until the last chapter. Suddenly, Tiao broke from the hard won life that she had been building in a way that made this down-to-earth human drama feel like a religious parable. It was a baffling and disappointing end to an engaging, richly characterized story.