Rating: 
Summary: A mini-course in Chinese sociopolitical history!
Review: This was a wonderful read! I started it around 6pm and stayed w/it until I finished 5 hours later. Dr. Mah is a poetic writer who skillfully blends Chinese culture and history into an engaging autobiographical work. It took a lot of courage to write this. It was touching without being 'whiney'...the author was very matter-of-fact about her situation in the family. I want to congratulate her for her courage & perseverance, and literary skill! Would recommend this to anyone with the slightest interest in Chinese culture.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read!
Review: I was a bit skeptical, at first, about reading this book - autobiographies are not a favorite of mine. However, I must admit that I was hooked from the first page! It's so amazing that anyone could live a life like that...and to think she rose above it all is so astonishing! Here is a woman to be admired! I thoroughly enjoy her style of writing, also...I was reminded at once of Pearl S. Buck's style in "The Good Earth." Make sure you clear your schedule before starting this book - you won't want to put it down!
Rating:
Summary: I've finished it before Chinese New Year (28 Jan) !
Review: My friend, Aik Teong gave 'Falling Leaves' to me as a present. I start to read three days before Chinese New Year. It is the first time that I finished a book in three days. It is a good book. Story start from Opium War late 19th Century, end '97 Hong Kong return to China. It should be a good score for film or short series.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Heartwarming
Review: This book was by no means the best book I have ever read, but it is pretty close up to the top. I was searching through the "new books" section of my library at school and I saw "Chinese Cinderella" and decided to read it. I couldn't put it down I read for 3 hours straight and was memorized by it. I questioned my friend the librarian about it and said I should read "Falling Leaves", she let me borrow her copy and I started reading right away. This book I could not out down either. This story follows the life of Adeline Yen Mah a Chinese girl born into a very wealthy Chinese family (which is why her life wasn't AS BAD as she makes it to be). Her mother dies a little while after giving birth to her. Adeline's father remarried about a year later to a Eurasion woman about half of his age named Jeanne Prosperi. Jeanne came from a very poor family and wanted to be wealthy. Anyway, Jeanne (called Niang meaning "mother" from the children) treated her step children like dirt but treated the two kids she had with Adelines father like royalty (until later when she disconnects realtionships with here daughter Susan) Anyway I suggest you read Chinese Cinderella first because It focuses more on Adelines child hood and Falling leaves focuses on her later years. This was over-all and enjoyable story and I recommend it a lot!!
Rating: 
Summary: Darkness and light
Review: The writing is not spectacular: Mah after all is a doctor, not an author. But the, episodic narrative, while plain, is well written.This book presents the story of a girl who endured unbelievable cruelty at the hands of her father, siblings, and most especially, stepmother, and yet grew up to be a kind and forgiving woman. The enormity of Mah's stepmother's cruelty left me in shock at times. "How could someone be that emotionally abusive?" I thought. How could any child grow up to be a well-adjusted adult when she was forbidden to go to visit the few friends she had, or to invite them to her home; when she was dropped off at an orphanage as punishment for some triviality; when her rich parents suggested she go to a bank to get a loan so she could afford to buy a plane ticket to the States, where she had a job waiting for her. These are just a few of the many examples that come to mind as I type this. Mah 's stepmother was, in short, pathologically cruel. And yet, as if to disprove all the nurture advocates in the nature/nurture debate, Mah grew up to be a forgiving, generous woman. As she reached financial security as an anesthesiologist, she used her money to help her siblings (and their children), though they'd done nothing but torment her for most of their lives. "Falling Leaves" is a example of how good people are simply good people, no matter how society treats them, and that evil people can be unbelievably dark.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Book
Review: I enjoy reading this book and appreciate the hardwork and persistency of the author during her childhood. In old Chinese, it is definitely not easy to be tough and persistent to do what we want to do or think is right to do.
The author has shown us how she wanted her life to be and at the same time, not to against her parents too much; she was able to handle the conflicting situations well.
We need to stick to our belief and believe what is right or good for us if we want to walk our way to a destination.
However, it would be even more interesting if the author could write a bit more on her life and her siblings' after the death of her "Gu Ba Ba".
This book is really good for leisure reading!
Rating: 
Summary: The truth about Falling Leaves
Review: Adeline Yen Mah's Falling Leaves is a book of a girls journey towards acceptance. love and understanding. When Adeline is born her mother passes away after her birth and grows up without a mother and to a family that didn't appreciate her presence which made her feel that she had to search for love somewhere else. Soon after her father marries Jeanne Virginie Prosperi whose daughter of a French and a mother. Jeanne, Adeline's stepmother beats her and treats her different from the other kids. Adeline later finds a man who she thought was worthy of her love, but ends up being bad to her and also ends up beating her. Her whole life she searches for acceptance and someone who will give her the love she so badly needs.
I thought the book was powerful, but had some weaknesses as well. I think this book is for more of the female gender. What makes this book so powerful is that although Adeline has several problems, she's still able to get through school and her life. The reason why I didn't like it was because at times it got kind of boring and lost its place. If you're a type of person whose sympathetic towards what one has experienced, it being abused, this memoir would be interesting to read.
Rating:
Summary: Touching!
Review: this story shows the painful life of a chinese child. and n the background we can see the negative effect of communism on the lives of children.
Touching and unbelieveable!
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: Having an interest in the sad fate of thousands of Chinese girls, I have been wanting to read "Falling Leaves" for some time. As its subtitle suggests, it is the tale of an unwanted daughter - the youngest of five children, whose mother died two weeks after she was born. She lived with this stigma of causing her mother's death and being mistreated by her family for her entire life. At times what Adeline Yen Mah endured is unbelievable.
Yen Mah begins her memoirs after the death of her father, relating the devastating news from her cruel stepmother, that there was nothing for the children in their father's will; he had died penniless and left them nothing. She then goes back in time, interweaving family stories with her own lifeline. After her mother's death, her father remarried a shrewd woman, who regarded her stepchildren as less than her biological children. She plays her stepchildren against one another and keeps a stranglehold over her husband and his relatives. Everyone is inferior to her, even if it goes against Chinese tradition.
While the other children of the family fail, Adeline succeeds in school but cannot gain the recognition and love from her own parents that some of her siblings have gained. She eventually gains permission to study medicine in England, and finally finds independence and love in America. Yet at the center of her aching heart is the hope that her family will be united and that she will be loved. Her entire life has been spent in the anticipation that her father will applaud her efforts and demonstrate his love for her.
Yen Mah's memoir is elegantly written and astonishingly painful. She naturally weaves in bits of Chinese history and how it affected her family throughout their lives. She has incredible recall into her tormented childhood that will leave readers shaking their heads in disbelief. I could go into a long litany of the abuses she endured throughout her childhood, but they are more poignant when read through Yen Mah's words, tempered with adult wisdom and childish longing. In the end, we hope that Yen Mah receives her wish for recognition and love. "Falling Leaves" is a powerful testament to the importance of the love we all need in our lives.
Rating:
Summary: Chinese Cinderella
Review: After reading this and seeing how many other books Dr. Yen Mah has written which have some variation on "Chinese Daughter" stuck in the title like a Nike Swoosh, I wonder if this is how she introduces herself to new people. "Hi, I'm Adeline the abused Chinese kid, how are you?" The obvious attempt to capitalize on tragedy at the expense of family members put a bad taste in my mouth from the start. Yes, it was a horrible childhood, but I've heard of worse, and the self-pity is only barely restrained in the prose.
However, it isn't *badly* written, and provides a good layman's view of Chinese child-rearing, culture, and, in small doses, a half-decent historical context.
|
