Han Suyin (1917–2012)
Author of A Many-Splendored Thing
About the Author
Series
Works by Han Suyin
China 1890-1938: From the Warlords to World War (A History in Documentary Photographs) (1979) 24 copies
Chine: La terre, l'eau et les hommes 2 copies
La Moisson du Phenix 1 copy
The woman revolution 1 copy
UN PO' D'AMORE 1 copy
HUn Ipo' d'amore 1 copy
DOK ZORA NE SVANE drugi deo 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Han Suyin
- Legal name
- Chou, Kuanghu Matilda Rosalie Elizabeth
- Other names
- Comber, Elizabeth
Chow, Elizabeth Kuanghu
韓素音
Chou, Rosalie Matilda Kuanghu (birth name) - Birthdate
- 1917-09-12
- Date of death
- 2012-11-02
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- China
Switzerland - Birthplace
- Xinyang, Henan Province, China
- Place of death
- Lausanne, Switzerland
- Places of residence
- Beijing, China
Brussels, Belgium
London, England, UK
Hong Kong
Johore, Malaysia
Singapore (show all 8)
Bangalore, India
Lausanne, Switzerland - Education
- University of London (MBBS)
University of Brussels
Peking University - Occupations
- physician
novelist
biographer
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 52
- Also by
- 4
- Members
- 2,221
- Popularity
- #11,541
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 43
- ISBNs
- 242
- Languages
- 11
- Favorited
- 5
by the end, i think i was starting to see that
in the end i still didn't like this, but i do wonder more if i wasn't too quick to judge. i will definitely think about it for a bit, and it was a much faster read than i thought it would be, so perhaps worth it after all.
this felt gross as i was reading: "She said she wanted to be a mother to me. Rhoda had used me, and taught me, and now I was what I was because of her."
as did this, but maybe i'm finally understanding that this says much more about red than it does about what the author thinks of relationships: "When people suffer they take it out on the object of their love, because the object of their love is in their possession. They cannot stop themselves."
"How few of us really try to find out what we're like, really, inside?"
(1 star)
7/28/23:
it says something powerful about this book that i couldn't stop thinking about this for many days after that first read. i started to have a lot of ideas about unreliable narrators and compulsive heterosexuality, but also about the lack of men during the war and women friends practicing for "real" relationships when the men returned, and on and on. so i had to reread this.
it's like it was a different book two weeks later. i fell right into the writing from the start, and thought it was beautifully done, which i hadn't thought last time up until the end. i thought the "romance" between red and mara was much more clear this time as well. i still think red is a pretty awful person, but i understand more where she's coming from this time. it's all fear, really. at and of everything. her friends are trying out lesbian relationships because there is a shortage of men with the war going on, but they are just waiting for the men to come back to have "real" relationships. the girls pair off and have this practice coupling, but it's nothing so much as a placeholder for when the men return. and red doesn't know how to handle that, and maybe even who she is. mara is more comfortable with herself once she's realized who she is, and she's willing to embrace it, and live her life, not wait for life to happen around her. red can't do that, because it's too big a risk for her. this makes for a contentious relationship between the two of them, and neither of them handle it particularly well, but red especially doesn't. she can't envision what it could look like, having never seen it before. whereas mara can.
i don't know, this ended up being much more interesting and well done this time around. i found a line here or there - that i didn't notice before - really highlighted the truth of this story, and it felt so much more real and sad this time around. i really liked it this time.
(3.25 stars)… (more)