My Lucky Face

This book portrays one personal story of loneliness and turmoil in the "modern" China. This is a story of the after revolution China and some of the dilemmas of the modern generation. The narrator is an English teacher trying to make sense of her life, past and present. From the outside she is the source of envy, but in reality her life is falling apart. Her husband shuts her down and isolates her from his life and she is forced to separate from her beloved son who is put in a nursery school for six days a week. The strongest feeling I had was of great alienation amidst millions and millions of other people... People seem to be somewhat "afraid" of each other and there is no real true friend. Many people, but they cannot bring an end to your misery. The narrator, a woman with a "lucky face", rides her "flying pigeon" - the bicycle that gives her the freedom to wander around the streets of the crowded city at night, in an effort to postpone her return home. The book begins with the bitter comparison of other bicycle rides, in earlier marriage days, when one hand was holding her husband's hand. There is no escaping the fact that although the dilemmas and conflicts of this book can be called "modern" (myself and my husband/our relationship, who am I, career decisions), this is indeed a very Chinese story. The problematic present life of the heroine, and hence any Chinaman of her generation, is much rooted in the Chinese past and the impact it has and will have for a few more generations on the young people of China. The part of Cynthia, the foreign American teacher, and her Western "voice" pushing the heroine to gain independence reminded me of another Chinese story ("Katherine" by Anchee Min) where the role of the English teacher is much more central and the impact she has on the lives of her students is irreversible. Here too the "foreign" teacher symbolizes another world and other options. For me this book has been another stage in my efforts to understand the very complicated, both enchanting and revolting Chinese world, from a woman's voice...

I enjoyed this book very much. I even learned something about China. The only thing I feel is not correct is when Lin-Jun is saying that Christmas is an American Holiday. I am American and Jewish and do not celebrate the day. Christmas is a Christian holiday. Besides that, I loved the book!