What do readers think of All the Flowers in Shanghai by Duncan Jepson? Write your own review.

This is a novel of cultural mores and betrayals. Up until she is seventeen, Feng has been taught her obligation in life is to care for her aging parents. Without any considerations of her desires or preparation, Feng is thrust into the haughty suffocating world of upper class Shanghai in the 1930s. Feeling betrayed by those she thought loved her and hoping to avoid a life of humiliation, Feng puts in place, a plan of revenge, and this is the story the readers will follow.

Despite the slow, slightly confusing, beginning, the author paints a compassionate portrait of Feng that readers will cheer for her as she conquers one trial after another, even when she acts irrationally. This deep characterization is strength of the book and will appeal to readers of women’s fiction.

I was disappointed at the lack of historical detail provided in the storyline, especially since Shanghai was a volatile place in the 1930s and 1940s. When historical detail was provided towards the end of the book, it was to help transition Feng into an act that was out-of-character, and thus unbelievable and upsetting the flow of the story. Overall the story was a little too unpredictable to me, and I left like I was watching a Lifetime movie. However, it is an easy book to read so will help past a rainy afternoon.

This is an interesting book. The author gives us great detail describing courtship and arranged marriage in 1930s China, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Even more interesting were the expectations, duties, and traditions of an affluent Chinese household after the marriage.

I empathized with Feng throughout the book, even as I liked her less and less as the story progressed. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, but only to find out what happens next with Feng. I was desperately hoping she would try to make right her mistakes, and cheer up a little! But easy for me to say, I'm sure her bitterness and anger were insurmountable under such circumstances.

I had really high expectations for this book, particularly as it indicates it is for fans of Lisa See and Memoirs of a Geisha. Those comparisons are highly off the mark so the main character Feng is never fully realized in the book as the author never gives her an opportunity to be fully dimensional in her character. It was highly unrealistic to me for her to go from a naive, positive young girl to such a bitter woman so quickly and never redeem herself. That made the book a disappointment to me along with the lack of historical details a out the Revolution itself that I and other readers would have enjoyed. With that said it was still a well written book but it lacked the sweeping story, detail and history I needed to recommend it to other readers.

Sadly, I was disappointed in this book. I wanted to like it. I wanted to love it. But....something was missing. The author tried to tie up the the loose ends but that made things even more confusing with more story lines added in.

I read the whole book however, I was often annoyed. I had problems with Feng---she never grow while many of the others around her were more nuanced. Yes, Chinese tradition(s) are very different but in Shanghai, there was more awareness of a world beyond---even if one could only see it at a distant. Also, Feng's sudden realization of the world was unconvincing. Overall, however, I found the book provocative and thought about it.

This book was a very slow read and very difficult for me to really get into. None of the characters were very likeable and the subject of this book has been over used. It just wasn't a new subject - I have read too many other books on this subject that were just more interesting and informative. The ending lacked a conclusion and never tied things together.

I was excited to hear about this book because Shanghai in the early 20th century was such a fascinating time--the transition between the old imperial China and the modern one. The description indicated that it spanned many years and centered on the place of the mother in the Chinese family. I hoped for exotic atmosphere, fascinating characters and a real feel for the period. Unfortunately, I got none of this. Instead the main character, Feng, was totally unlikable, very bitter and vindictive, and she hardly left her rooms in her house. The events of World War II and the Cultural Revolution mostly passed her by and she seemed to live in a total vaccuum. I found her motives impossible to understand and her determination to make everyone pay for the difficulties in her life was not attractive, nor did it allow us to see the other people in her life as fully-developed characters in their own right. While she was resentful at her forced marriage (and how was that worse than being raised solely to take care of her parents in their old age?), we never saw what her husband thought of the marriage. He didn't get the bride he expected either, and was pretty much under his parents control for many years, and all his wife did was blame him for her condition and belittle him. As far as examining the Chinese mother's place in the family, there is only one place--the dictator. Each mother lived at quite a distance from her children and seemed set-dressing for Feng's selfishness. All in all, this is one book I cannot recommend.

This cultural novel was a disappointment to me. The novel was extremely narrow in its focus on Feng, the narrator of the story. Although it was set in China in the thirties, there was little detail in the novel about the setting, and I felt that omission was an error on the author’s part. Feng was a passive character that was not easily likeable. She was a kind, innocent child who only seemed to have things happen ‘to’ her. As she grew into adulthood when she did take action, it was mean spirited and bitter. There were times that the language of the novel changed from beautiful to crass and I found those changes distracting and disturbing. Overall, it was a dark book that offered little hope or meaning and left me feeling that it did not live up to its potential.