| Women of the Silk: A Novel | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 55 reviews)
Sales Rank: 283635
Category: Book
Author: Gail Tsukiyama
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Studio: St. Martin's Griffin
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
Label: St. Martin's Griffin
Format: Bargain Price
Language: English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
ASIN: B001F0RA9I
Publication Date: October 15, 1993
Release Date: October 15, 1993
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In Women of the Silk Gail Tsukiyama takes her readers back to rural China in 1926, where a group of women forge a sisterhood amidst the reeling machines that reverberate and clamor in a vast silk factory from dawn to dusk. Leading the first strike the village has ever seen, the young women use the strength of their ambition, dreams, and friendship to achieve the freedom they could never have hoped for on their own. Tsukiyama's graceful prose weaves the details of "the silk work" and Chinese village life into a story of courage and strength.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 50 more reviews...
Nice read December 2, 2008
This was a nice read, but I honestly feel that there could be more detail. While some authors do well with a more bare-bones kind of writing, this novel could have used more in the way of detail - it would have been nice to read more about how the silk work was done, for example. Still, this book was a good read, and I am going to buy the sequel.
 Informative, but a little too angelic November 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Good book. Terrific research was done in order to write this. I had no idea there was an amazing, gutsy group of women in China that held a strike before women in America were really even accepted in the work place. The novel follows Pei and how her family "gives her" to the silk life and she then grows up in a girls home and works 14 hour days in a silk factory. I would have liked more information about the actual silk work process. All this novel really told me was they start with cocoons and boiling vats of water and steam is involved. A little more detail on that would have been nice, as my curiosity is picqued now. One thing I found utterly ridiculous: there was never a fight or an unkind word exchanged in the girls home. They were all sweet as sugar to each other and loved each other and well, even nuns have been known to have words amongst each other. Thus, too angelic. Young adults may enjoy this novel, as it was written in a young adult style.
Wonderfully written and interesting tale.......... August 14, 2008
At first blush, I thought this was a sweet, simple summer read, but having finished it I can safely say it is so much more than that. It is deeply moving, wonderfully written, and fascinating in its exploration of women in China in the early 20th century.
As the reader follows the story of Pei, a young girl born to a poor farming family who is sent to the "big city" to become a silkworker, we learn of the constant struggles and hardships faced by women in Chinese society at this time, where it was much more adventageous and acceptable to send a female child away to work and reap the benefit of her income, than to have her at home with the family and face shame from the community. Her story is one of hope, love, tenderness, and loss, and it will continue to follow you long after the book is closed.
I highly recommend this novel to everyone, especially those with interest in womens' issue, Chinese society, the early 20th Century, or silkworkers.
A Road Less Traveled....& A Good Read March 1, 2008
Though the townsfolk regarded the silk workers as odd spinsters, warped, and rejected by society, the portraits of Pei and Lin dare to imply that their lives were actually satisfying alternatives to women's traditional roles of wife and mother. In this well done debut novel, Gail Tsukiyama (who is half Chinese and half Japanese) explores women's relationships within the framework of economic and political change in rural China between 1919 and 1938. Women of the Silk offers a rare window into the details of the silk making process and into the lives led by the women devoted to this industry. Tsukiyama suggests that the beauty and joy the simplicity of the silk working women's lives brought them could not only exist, but could also be fulfilling. Arguably, the author also implies that a kind of satisfaction can be achieved within female bonds that does not exist between men and women.
The story's heroine, Pei, grows up on a struggling fish farm in the Canton countryside. When her parents confirm, through a fortune-teller's assessment, that the intellectually curious and sensitive girl is not marriage material, Pei's father leaves her at Auntie Yee's silk factory to help support the family and to learn the trade for her own future. Throughout her short life, Pei's mother "had to quiet her spirit with scoldings, so that life would be easier for her later. It was hard enough to find a husband of worth, because a girl with such spirit was not wanted by most families." Pei's energy, intellect, and natural curiosity count against her in the marriage market, but they are precisely the traits that enable her to thrive in the life of the silk sisterhood. Pei's spunk and intellect serves her well in her silk work, and she readily rises among the ranks. She also begins to find the company of the women, especially Lin, fulfilling. Pei was only eight when she was given to the silk factory, so she was grateful that Lin almost immediately befriended her and became a substitute for and agreeable alternative to Pei's family. She is able to accept her fate once she feels secure within Lin's friendship, guidance, and support.
The like-minded Lin has come to the silk factory to help support her family, after her well-to-do father is murdered. The two girls' friendship deepens as they face twelve-hour days and overcome the various hardships and tragedies of the silk factory. The relationship eventually becomes so strong that Lin gives up the chance for an advantageous marriage situation that will provide a financially fortunate life for herself and her family in favor of undertaking the "hairdressing ceremony," where she will pledge to devote the rest of her life to the silk sisterhood and thus be able to remain with Pei forever. At age 16, Pei decides to undergo the hairdressing ceremony in order to stay with Lin forever. Their relationship has become as satisfying to them as any marriage might be and is possibly more rewarding as they have had the opportunity to choose one another--whereas Chinese marriages were traditionally arranged by the family, and the couple often had never met each other before the wedding day.
After the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s, Lin is killed in a fire, and the silk factory is forced to close. Pei must leave behind the beauty of the countryside she loves, the sisterhood she cherishes, and her crucial memories of Lin. The book ends with her facing a new life, as she sails for the safer shores of Hong Kong.
Women of the Silk qualifies as a tribute to the road less traveled, where a woman was given to or chose work rather than to marriage and family. For Tsukiyama's heroines in this story, the silk sisterhood offers them a taste of freedom, a sense of self esteem, and a unique and positive experience, suggesting that there can be an upside to an alternative lifestyle.
 What a great read December 27, 2007
I really enjoyed this book. It was a great read, and I learned a few things.
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