Rebellion

Summary (from the publisher): A luminous cross-generational story that recalls the works of Jane Smiley and Isabel Allende, this sweeping debut novel tells the stories of four women who dare to challenge the boundaries of their circumscribed lives.

It’s 1958, and Hazel’s peaceful world has been upended by the tragic death of her husband. It’s harvest time and with two small children and a farm to manage on her own, this young mother is determined to keep her land and family intact. As she grows closer to the neighboring Hughes family, she realizes the tradeoff for some freedoms is more precious than she expected.

In 1890, we see Hazel’s young mother, Louisa, recently married and relocated to Illinois to what will become her family’s farm. Life in the country is dictated by seasons, so too is Louisa ruled by her “weathers” of good and bad spells. What keeps her grounded is corresponding with her sister, Addie, a Christian missionary in China. The same adventurous spirit that brought Addie to China with her new husband now compels her to leave again. However, with the Boxer Rebellion underway, and violence erupting between Chinese and their unwelcome Christian intruders, Addie’s life takes a mysterious and haunting turn strongly felt by her sister, Louisa, back home.

At the end of the twentieth century, Juanlan returns to her parents’ home in Heng’an after college. With her father falling ill, a new highway being built, and her sister-in-law soon to give birth, Juanlan feels frozen in place, though everyone and everything seems to be rapidly changing. In the search for an outlet for the live wire, a little burning blue coil she feels buried inside, she starts up a love affair with a high-ranking government official.

From rural Illinois to the far reaches of China, these four women are interconnected by actions, consequence, and spirit, each brilliantly displaying the fleeting intensity of youth, the obligation of family, and the dramatic consequence of charting their own destiny. A vibrant story of compassion and discovery set against a century of complicated relations between China and America, Rebellion celebrates those who fight against expectation in pursuit of their own thrilling fate and introduces a rising literary star.

 

Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this novel from HarperCollins.

 

This cross-generational novel follows four women interconnected by their actions and families. In 1890, Louisa is a newlywed living on a farm in Illinois with her new husband, far from her family and home. She finds comfort in the letters she writes and receives from her sister Addie, who is a Christian missionary in China. In China, Addie is increasingly caught up in her own choices and by the eruption of the Boxer Rebellion. Flash forward to 1958, and the reader follows Hazel, Louisa's daughter, who is a recent widow living on her family's farm and trying to care for her two young children on her own. Finally, at the close of the twentieth century, the novel follows Juanlan, a young Chinese college graduate returning to her family home after graduation and struggling to find her place in life.

 

This was a beautiful novel that had passages that were particularly poignant and well written. For instance: "It was that time between night and morning, the time you start calling early rather than late, and the sky was that particular shade of dark turquoise that comes a half hour before the sun starts its slow climb over the horizon. It gives lie to the old saying, 'It's always darkest before the dawn'" (122). And later, "But the hope rests on Juanlan; she feels it teetering on her skull like the elaborate headpiece of a Sichuan opera singer" (171).

 

Yet despite enjoying the writing style and liking most of the characters, this novel failed to come together as I had hoped. It is excessively long (nearly six hundred pages) and for the last several hundred, I was increasingly curious to see how the disparate characters would come together. Yet other than their family ties, the separate parts remained distinct. In particular, the Juanalan character's inclusion seems particularly baffling as she is only tangentially connected to the other three main female characters, who are at least related and share a family. The only other connections seem thematic; like Hazel she becomes entangled with a man she shouldn't be. It was also interesting that the author chose to make Hazel's sections first person and the other women's third person. Perhaps this is to indicate she is the primary narrator, but I'm not sure why that would be the case. In sum, I felt as if I was reading several novels whose chapters had gotten shuffled together and whose characters just happened to be distantly related.

 

This novel explores family loyalties, charting one's own course, and risk taking. In particular, the four women who are at the heart of this novel all struggle with pursuing their own goals and desires while keeping a balance with the needs of their family and other loved ones. There is so much about this novel to like and compliment, I only wish the links between the four narrators felt more clearly defined. Despite its length, in many ways the characters' stories felt as if they were only beginning to unfold with this novel's conclusion.

 

Stars: 3.5