White Ghost Girls

Strong characters, vivid descriptions of Hongkong scenes, good pacing - I still can't believe this is her first novel. I loved the book and would recommend it to anyone. It's a good book with a powerful ending that I still remember to this day.

Two American sisters Frankie 14 and Kate 13 live with their distant self-absorbed mother in Hong Kong in 1967. Their father is a photographer away covering the war in Vietnam. The girls are often left in the care of their Cantonese amah who is ill-equipped to deal with them. They get into all kinds of mischief. As Frankie becomes wilder and wilder Kate becomes the grown up sensible one who tries to save her older sister from her self-destructive behavior. This novel delicately deals with tragedy, sibling rivalry, first love, and some competition between the girls and their mother for their absentee father's affection. Woven into the background of the novel is the Cultural Revolution that manages to spill over from across the border. Interestingly, there were people in Hong Kong enjoying freedom and a high standard of living who paradoxically supported Mao's austere policies. It's short and easy to read but, beautifully written.

I LOVED this book. The language of the author is so beautiful- it feels like poetry. It is also very sensual- I could feel all of my senses participating in this book. Having never been to Hong Kong, I feel like I have experienced this city because of how beautifully this book is written. Not only was the book carefully crafted by its author in terms of its sensual descriptions, but the characters she created were compelling as well. Kate was someone I liked and Frankie was too- even with their flaws. I wanted so badly for things to be different for these girls (through the course of the story), but I was satisfied with how things ended. A beautifully crafted book with a good story and human characters- what more could a reader ask for?

This is a jewel of a book. From the first paragraph I was drawn in by Greenway's beautifully light and succinct language. Having lived in Hong Kong myself, I could instantly see, smell and hear the mystical atmosphere of the former colony. But "White Ghost Girls" evokes Hong Kong's role as a sensuous backdrop even for those readers who don't know the city. The beauty of the book lies in its shortness. Every phrase is written, every word is chosen with extraordinary talent. The wonderfully poetic language might be perceived as inconsistent with the cruel and heartbreaking events that take place. Yet, it is essential to portray the fragile paradise in which the girls live their carefree lives as well as their relationships to their dreamy yet neglectful mother and their warphotographer father - all of which inevitably leads to disaster. "White Ghost Girls" is both a haunting story of two American teenage sisters experiencing an excruciating incident that changes their life forever, as well as an artistic portray of the cultural, political and social Hong Kong during the Vietnam War. I savored every single page.

American adolescent Kate and her sister Frankie live with their mother in Hong Kong. It is the summer of 1967; their father is mostly away, photographing scenes from the Vietnam War for Time magazine. Through their father's stories and photographs, and also through newspaper articles, the Vietnam War is constantly and immediately present to Kate and Frankie, forming both a backdrop to their lives in Hong Kong and a rival for their father's attention. The atmosphere is sultry. Twelve-year-old Kate and older sister Frankie swim in the ocean and play on the beach. One day while swimming, a dead Chinese woman floats up out of the water. That shocking sight changes the girls, marking the end of their innocence. Hong Kong is full of unrest, with Red Guards planting bombs to encourage the British to leave. There is anarchy in Canton, resulting in corpses in the streets and washing up onto the beaches. With Kate's father gone six weeks at a time, her mother Marianne yearns to protect her daughters, all the while feeling vulnerable. However, Marianne's protective nature is hindered by her profound naiveté and a tendency toward denial. The two girls differ. Frankie is voluptuous, dark and strong; Kate is small, slight, asthmatic and blonde. Their personalities are also dissimilar. Frankie is a daredevil, verging on being out of control; Kate is quiet and takes the time to notice the details of her life. One day the girls are in the marketplace with Ah Bing, their nanny/housekeeper. Frankie persuades Kate to slip away to watch the Red Guards' demonstration. When the police arrive, the girls try to return to Ah Bing, but two rough men grab them. One holds Frankie; the other orders Kate to take a heavy bag, supposedly containing lychee fruit, to the police. Kate, terrified senseless for her sister, drifts toward the police, feeling like gwaimui (white ghost girl) while conscious of the fact that she's being used as a pawn. Hostilities escalate between the police and the Red Guards as she continues on, aware that the bag is too heavy for fruit. What happens next is devastating. Soon the house is awash with guilt, fear, shame, denial and wariness. What happened in the village that day transforms both girls, who react in different ways. Frankie spirals into a wild self-destruction as Kate watches, feeling helpless and angry. Kate hopes someone will notice and attend to their despair. But no matter what they say or do, Kate and Frankie feel invisible, like white ghosts. Their mother is afraid to truly see them; their father can only see Vietnam even when he's physically with them. The suspense builds slowly in this family tragedy, beginning with the first page, as Kate and Frankie hurtle inevitably toward disaster. The reader's every sense is engaged, thanks to a poetic and lushly detailed description of the exotic setting. Reading WHITE GHOST GIRLS feels like drifting, fear-filled, through a foreign land within a sultry dream while being pierced through wi