“Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is written with a stately but unremarkable prettiness; it is not a book that will make its mark for reasons of style. But Ms. See has worked enough joy, pain and dramatic weepiness …to give it a quiet staying power. It's liable to be read by women's groups and valued for its quaintness… But what will work best for this book is its own secret message: cultures vary, but old sames and same-olds don't change,” wrote Janet Maslin in the New York Times on August 15, 2005.
Maslin’s scathing review of Lisa See’s fourth novel shocks me because her argument that See’s book is melodramatic, quaint and typical cannot be reinforced with textual evidence. Throughout her review she calls this novel a soap opera and argues that the two main characters Snow Flower and Lily have “sudsy lives” that develop into the “rainstorms of bitchery” commonly associated “with this novel's underlying genre.” Although she wants to label this novel to be a soap opera/melodrama, Snowflower and the Secret Fan belongs to genre of historical fiction specifically and women’s literature more generally. See’s novel provides a fictional but reasonably accurate account of life in Nineteenth Century Chinese life derived from months of research. And even more importantly, the novel chronicles and examines the relationship of two women from early adolescence until death separates them in adulthood.
The two women in question are Snow Flower and Lily who are a laotong pair also called old sames (meaning they were born on the same day in the same year, hold the same place in their birth order, have the same number of living and dead siblings and started their foot-binding at the same age on the same day). A laotong match, which should last a lifetime, is a more intimate and committed relationship than an arranged marriage that allows husbands to have concubines. As Lily’s aunt explains, "A laotong relationship is made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity. A marriage is not made by choice and has only one purpose – to have sons."
Emotional companionship is exactly what Snow Flower and Lily give each through tumultuous changes in their lives. Lily climbs up the social ladder as a result of to her beautiful and tiny “golden lily” feet while Snow Flower slides down tragically into destitution due to her father’s addiction to opium and whores. As their social spheres shift, communication becomes increasingly complicated. But thanks to nu shu (a secret women’s only language that they embroidered on the secret fan) and clandestine meetings in remote villages, their relationship continues, despite the disapproval of Lily’s new family, until a misunderstanding about their “eternal fidelity” triggers a regretful and tragic dispute that unravels their bond.
Snow Flower and Lily’s bond, which was allowed only after both girls completed the torturous process of foot binding, is in some way compensation for the agony that must be endured to become a woman and a wife. The comfort that they find in each other’s arms reinforces their value as females, giving them validation in a culture were girls are oppressed and underappreciated. Their passion for each other glides, over the years, into the areas of tenderness, love, eroticism, jealousy, fury, cruelty, retribution , isolation, regret, reconciliation, grief and repentance. Each emotion moves the narrative forward.
Yes, the action is fast-moving; drama is high in the inner-sanctum of the women’s sitting room; emotions are unbridled, but See does not teeter on the border of melodrama. Instead, she creates a fascinating portrayal of femininity in relation to social status and expected gender roles. The author details all kinds all female relationships: mother/daughter, mother-in-law/daughter-in-law/, aunt/niece, mistress/servant, matchmaker/client, cousins, biological sisters, sworn sisters and laotongs. Each relationship is multifaceted with its own unique rules. Although these relationships seem locked away in distant history, the complexities and intricacies of these female relationships are very much alive today in daily life and in women’s literature.
From start to finish, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a stunning novel that informs with historical facts, enlightens with intensely affecting prose, entertains with suspense and triumph and gracefully astonishes readers with grotesqueness, eroticism and brutality. Joy, sorrow, love, hate, jealously, compassion, life, death…it all exists in Lisa See’s wonderfully haunting and mesmerizing tale of female friendship. This novel is not just an example of great women’s literature it is a flawless novel within the canon of World Literature.
