Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah

Author : Adeline Yen Mah
Title : Falling Leaves
Published : 2010
Publisher : Penguin
Pages : 288
Genre : Autobiography

     Snow White's stepmother looks like a pussycat compared to the monster under which Adeline Yen Mah suffered. The author's memoir of life in mainland China and--after the 1949 revolution--Hong Kong is a gruesome chronicle of nonstop emotional abuse from her wealthy father and his beautiful, cruel second wife. Chinese proverbs scattered throughout the text pithily covey the traditional world view that prompted Adeline's subservience. Had she not escaped to America, where she experienced a fulfilling medical career and a happy marriage, her story would be unbearable; instead, it's grimly fascinating

     I have read a few books that have covered growing up in China, A world so different from my own. It is a country where the past will always run deep in the blood of those who have born, lived and died there. But this also goes for those who have moved away to live in other countries. There is a pull that cannot be described well in words something more primal. For anyone who has spent time away from there homeland it is a well felt known thing. But for me, it seems to ring especially true for the Chinese at least from what I have read and experienced. So why may you ask do I talk about this in the context of this book? Well For this author she left her homeland and her family but still felt the pull to go back despite the toxic environment she grew up in and came to expect from family life. 

     This is a woman who grew up when China its self was in the middle of a massive upheaval. For the greatest time, their world was twisting at the fate of so many others from political movement in its governing to foreign powers deciding to carve it up piece by piece.   As we have come to see far too often people do not like upheaval it causes stress and anger. This is the setting for a family drama that can cause you to wonder your self if you would not walk away forever. It all starts for Adeline when her mother dies not long after her birth. Her father comes across as a very controlling man who does not cope with this death well. In part, it feels like he blames himself for these events and to some extent that would be true. But it is how he deals with this pain that surfaces to cause much sorrow for the author as she passes through life. 

      This is a hard look at a dysfunctional family, how our actions directly affect our children's world view. When a child tries there best to impress the adults in there lives it can lead to a twisting in how they think. All the more so when no matter how much they try nothing ever seems to be good enough. It can push people ever forward to greater things or it can break them down creating a cycle that will without check be passed on down to there own children.  At times this book becomes a hard read as you are drawn into the emotional pain felt by this women. The struggles of nothing ever being good enough. It draws heavily on what is expected of young chines especially gowning up through the time period.  And for all this, the book makes for an interesting read it is however not completely without fault. Much like a few other reviews I have read the are parts that feel very black and white, a sense of those who were on her side where always in the right and the rest of the family feel a little on the Disney evil stepfamily side. But therein lies the trouble with most autobiography's they can never be truly objective to the events that shape them. None of us can, we can only experience our lives from the inside of our minds. I was not there and rely on author to give me her story in the best way she can.

     There is a lot to take in as your pass time with this book, As a look into the social climate of everyday lives of Chinese people it serves as a reminder of just how bound in tradition and social hierarchy lives can be. While times have moved on something still hold steadfast. As a look into the life of the author it bends and weaves some good and some not so. but overall it gave me a glimpse into a life, I would otherwise have no understanding of.