Peony In Love

By Lisa See




“Peony in Love” is a remarkable book about seventeenth-century China with a deep look into the culture of both the living and the dead.

The reader is immediately transfixed by sixteen year-old Peony’s beauty and innocence. She meets a mysterious young poet in the garden one night, the sounds of her favorite opera in the background. The two have an instant connection but choose to remain distant, as they know they are each betrothed to strangers. Peony pines for her young poet in weeks to come and becomes obsessed with writing about and dissecting the aforementioned opera. As her obsession grows, she wilts. She fears marrying her betrothed and can think only of the opera and the young poet. As Peony is lying on her death bed, her father comes into her room and tells her she was betrothed to the poet. Her heart swells and her sorrow instantly evaporates. But it’s too little, too late. She is taken into the courtyard to die, as was the custom of the time.
From this point in the beginning of the story, the book takes the reader on an emotional journey like no other. The sympathy invoked in regards to Peony’s growth and understanding is tantamount to the vivid landscape of the different realms Peony passes through. Lisa See paints an intricate tapestry of hungry ghosts and mournful lovers, and of the landscape of China and Chinese beliefs.

“Peony in Love” is a book about the relationships between women, and how they can either help or harm. It is a book about secrets and deception, as well as a book about honesty and love.
The style of “Peony is Love” is simple to follow, yet filled to the brim with details that have been carefully researched by Lisa See, who is a self-acclaimed “research fiend,” according to the interview she gives in the back of the book. She traveled to each location she wrote about in China, as well as spoke with top scholars in the field of Chinese women’s history. While reading this story, the reader feels confident that the author is presenting the story as factually as possible.

It is quite normal for the living to wonder about death. The author explains the process of how the Chinese perceive death and believe in it. Peony says, “I had heard that death is darkness, but that’s not how I experienced it. It would take forty-nine days to push me out of the earthly realm and pull me into the afterworld. Every soul has three parts, and each must find its proper home after death. One part stayed with my body to be buried, another part traveled toward the afterworld, while the last part remained in the earthly realm, waiting to be put in my ancestor tablet. I was rent through with terror, sadness, and confusion as my three parts began their separate journeys, each full aware of the other two at all times.”

While death is certainly an ancillary theme in this book, the motif of life is fully infused into the book. The voice the author has given Peony is what draws the reader into the book. When Peony sneaks away from her family’s home, her voice gives life to this passage: “He held my elbow, since some of the rocks were slick with moss. I felt the heat of his hand through the silk of my sleeve. Warm air lifted my skirt as though it were a cicada’s wing carried by the wind. I was out. I was seeing things I’d never seen before. Here and there, bits of vines and branches draped over our compund wall, hinting at what was hidden inside. Weeping willows hung over the lake, their tendrils teasing the water’s surface. I brushed against wild roses blooming on the bank and their scent infused the air, my clothes, my hair, the skin on my hands. The feelings that rushed through my body were nearly overwhelming; fear that I would be caught, exhilaration that I was out, and love for the man who had brought me here.”

Instead of simply saying “the rocks had moss on them,” the author created a more intense image by using the word “slick.” The metaphor likening her skirt to a cicada’s wing illustrates the grace of her skirt blowing in the wind. “The tendrils teasing the water’s surface” strengthens the serenity of the image both with the personification and the alliteration of the phrase.
This is an author who knows what she is doing. The book “Peony in Love” is so very well written, I find myself picking the book back up, weeks after I finished reading it, to glance through the pages at my favorite passages. My only complaint is the title. It sounded more like a cheesy romance than the great work it actually is.

If you choose to read this book, know that you will not be sorry. It is a marvelous read.

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