Customer Reviews

White Ghost Girls

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I LOVED this book. The language of the author is so beautiful- it feels like poetry. It is also very sensual- I could feel all of my senses participating in this book. Having never been to Hong Kong, I feel like I have experienced this city because of how beautifully this book is written. Not only was the book carefully crafted by its author in terms of its sensual descriptions, but the characters she created were compelling as well. Kate was someone I liked and Frankie was too- even with their flaws. I wanted so badly for things to be different for these girls (through the course of the story), but I was satisfied with how things ended. A beautifully crafted book with a good story and human characters- what more could a reader ask for?

This is a jewel of a book. From the first paragraph I was drawn in by Greenway's beautifully light and succinct language. Having lived in Hong Kong myself, I could instantly see, smell and hear the mystical atmosphere of the former colony. But "White Ghost Girls" evokes Hong Kong's role as a sensuous backdrop even for those readers who don't know the city. The beauty of the book lies in its shortness. Every phrase is written, every word is chosen with extraordinary talent. The wonderfully poetic language might be perceived as inconsistent with the cruel and heartbreaking events that take place. Yet, it is essential to portray the fragile paradise in which the girls live their carefree lives as well as their relationships to their dreamy yet neglectful mother and their warphotographer father - all of which inevitably leads to disaster. "White Ghost Girls" is both a haunting story of two American teenage sisters experiencing an excruciating incident that changes their life forever, as well as an artistic portray of the cultural, political and social Hong Kong during the Vietnam War. I savored every single page.

What I liked best about this book is the way the author could describe how someone is feeling in the most understandable terms. What I didn't like about this book is sometimes I wanted more information. The author would write about an island or a beach or some location. But I am not familiar with Hong Kong or Vietnam so I didn't know where it was or if it was 10 minutes away or 6 hours. Also sometimes she would write of items that I didn't know about -- for example lychee fruit -- what does it look like? what does it taste like? do you peel it? etc. Sometimes I couldn't visualize the details in my imagination. But I did love the variety of characters and the rich descriptions of their feelings. It was a nice short book.

This book has some beautiful passages, but it never grabs you with a good story or with characters that you want to learn more about. We read it for book club, and about 30% of the group loved it for its lyricism...but the rest of us, while respecting the skill with which it was crafted, were apathetic to the story. And it's the story that brings me to a book and keeps it on my mind. If it weren't for book club, I would not have finished it, honestly.

I picked this book for our book club (end of last year) and had searched and searched for the 'perfect' book. What drew me to the book were the vivid descriptions the book was supposed to have. I agree - that part was true, but the only reason I gave it a 3 was that it just didn't go over big at all with my club. Our of 8 members, only one really liked it. No one else really 'got' the story, though it is hauntingly and beautifully written. I felt bad because I so wanted to pick a book everyone would just swoon over and they just gave me weird looks.

American adolescent Kate and her sister Frankie live with their mother in Hong Kong. It is the summer of 1967; their father is mostly away, photographing scenes from the Vietnam War for Time magazine. Through their father's stories and photographs, and also through newspaper articles, the Vietnam War is constantly and immediately present to Kate and Frankie, forming both a backdrop to their lives in Hong Kong and a rival for their father's attention.

The atmosphere is sultry. Twelve-year-old Kate and older sister Frankie swim in the ocean and play on the beach. One day while swimming, a dead Chinese woman floats up out of the water. That shocking sight changes the girls, marking the end of their innocence.

Hong Kong is full of unrest, with Red Guards planting bombs to encourage the British to leave. There is anarchy in Canton, resulting in corpses in the streets and washing up onto the beaches. With Kate's father gone six weeks at a time, her mother Marianne yearns to protect her daughters, all the while feeling vulnerable. However, Marianne's protective nature is hindered by her profound naiveté and a tendency toward denial.

The two girls differ. Frankie is voluptuous, dark and strong; Kate is small, slight, asthmatic and blonde. Their personalities are also dissimilar. Frankie is a daredevil, verging on being out of control; Kate is quiet and takes the time to notice the details of her life.

One day the girls are in the marketplace with Ah Bing, their nanny/housekeeper. Frankie persuades Kate to slip away to watch the Red Guards' demonstration. When the police arrive, the girls try to return to Ah Bing, but two rough men grab them. One holds Frankie; the other orders Kate to take a heavy bag, supposedly containing lychee fruit, to the police. Kate, terrified senseless for her sister, drifts toward the police, feeling like gwaimui (white ghost girl) while conscious of the fact that she's being used as a pawn. Hostilities escalate between the police and the Red Guards as she continues on, aware that the bag is too heavy for fruit. What happens next is devastating.

Soon the house is awash with guilt, fear, shame, denial and wariness. What happened in the village that day transforms both girls, who react in different ways. Frankie spirals into a wild self-destruction as Kate watches, feeling helpless and angry. Kate hopes someone will notice and attend to their despair. But no matter what they say or do, Kate and Frankie feel invisible, like white ghosts. Their mother is afraid to truly see them; their father can only see Vietnam even when he's physically with them.

The suspense builds slowly in this family tragedy, beginning with the first page, as Kate and Frankie hurtle inevitably toward disaster. The reader's every sense is engaged, thanks to a poetic and lushly detailed description of the exotic setting. Reading WHITE GHOST GIRLS feels like drifting, fear-filled, through a foreign land within a sultry dream while being pierced through with Kate's emotions: love, jealousy, passion, loss and longing. Highly recommended.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

It is 1967 and Kate and Frankie are sisters from America, growing up in Hong Kong while their father is a war photographer for Time Magazine. The girl's mother, often overwhelmed with the war, and reality itself, seeks comfort in painting. In her paintings she created an alternative "now" and she fully embraces it and wishes her daughters would too.

The girls are watched mainly by their amah (a woman employed as a servant) and find it quite easy to escape beyond her attention, and do exploring of this world they live in on their own. While swimming they find a floating body of a Chinese girl and at that point their innocence seems to take a turn. As the summer progresses, Frankie becomes more reckless and an incident causes someone to die and younger sister Kate becomes the keeper of secrets.
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Taking a deep breath, I have to honestly say it took me a couple of times to get going into this book. While written in almost a poetic manner (page one was beautifully written), I found it to almost drone on and I was lost within the words - and not within the story.

The book is told by younger sister Kate. Kate is 12. The sisters left under so little supervision get into a lot of trouble, especially Frankie who lacks the parental attention she needs, starts to find it in the male friends of her fathers. I found myself on one hand angry at their mother for being so absent, buried in her paintings while her daughters strayed into dangerous areas, and on the other hand taking pity on the woman who was obviously overwhelmed by all that had become of her dreams.

While I never found the book riveting, in the end I have to say I am glad I read it. My favorite part of this read was the incredible detailing. Author Alice Greenway writes of a Hong Kong that I could see with vivid colors and descriptive smells that made me feel as thought I was standing outside the bakery myself peering in at two sisters, Kate and Frankie.

A poetic type read that I am glad I picked up and finished. In reality, a wonderful first novel.

Strong characters, vivid descriptions of Hongkong scenes, good pacing - I still can't believe this is her first novel. I loved the book and would recommend it to anyone. It's a good book with a powerful ending that I still remember to this day.

Two American sisters Frankie 14 and Kate 13 live with their distant self-absorbed mother in Hong Kong in 1967. Their father is a photographer away covering the war in Vietnam. The girls are often left in the care of their Cantonese amah who is ill-equipped to deal with them. They get into all kinds of mischief. As Frankie becomes wilder and wilder Kate becomes the grown up sensible one who tries to save her older sister from her self-destructive behavior. This novel delicately deals with tragedy, sibling rivalry, first love, and some competition between the girls and their mother for their absentee father's affection. Woven into the background of the novel is the Cultural Revolution that manages to spill over from across the border. Interestingly, there were people in Hong Kong enjoying freedom and a high standard of living who paradoxically supported Mao's austere policies. It's short and easy to read but, beautifully written.

This is a short book that can be read in a day or two. It is very well written with an interesting setting and plot line. You can see, hear and smell the authors description of Hong Kong, and the references to Viet Nam during the war are very haunting. This book would make a good gift.