Review: Night of Many Dreams by Gail Tsukiyama.

The story is about two sister’s Emma and Joan who grew up to be very different people with completely opposite opinions of life. As they became of age the war had just got over. The Lewis family was living in Hong Kong and the two Chinese girls discussing what they wanted to do for their careers. Joan the older sister was having trouble with relationships and decided to have a career in Chinese films as an actress. The younger girl whose mentor in her life was her Aunt Go inspired her to stay independent and decided to move to America and live an artistic life in San Francisco.

I loved the character Auntie Go, she was special person, independent, happy, wise, and a great advocate for the two girls. The girls followed their dreams and weren’t traditional as their mother which caused some turmoil between mother and daughters. Through some ups and downs the girls did get to spread their wings and fly but later decided to unite again and story turned out fantastic with the creative writing of Gail Tsukiyama. ( )

A beautiful story about family and the bonds between women. Gail Tsukiyama does not disappoint! ( )

Night of Many Dreams is a simple, slightly sentimental tale of a Chinese family living in Hong Kong. The book covers the years of 1940 to 1965 as two sisters, Joan and Emma, grow up and embark on a quest to fulfill their dreams. For Joan, the beauty of the family, this comes to mean becoming a movie actress. Emma, the serious sister, longs for education and a wider world to discover.

The story plays out against an ever changing Hong Kong. The focus is on the females of the family, all of them strong in their own right. The mother, Kum Ling is a society matron, Auntie Go is a spinster and an enterprising business woman while Foon, the family servant, allows her cooking to speak for her.

I enjoyed learning about these sisters and their family but I did feel the ending was rather abrupt. I checked my kindle a couple of times to be sure the book had actually ended! The author includes a lot of description in her writing that appeals to all the senses which added to my overall enjoyment of the book. ( )

(Disclaimer: I didn't read the book in German. Not sure why the cover is in German)

I love the details of everyday Hong Kong life. ( )

Four women of Hong Kong, spanning two generations, experience life in the turbulent early 20th Century. The story takes the reader from the Japanese occupation to the Viet Nam War and explores the individual ambitions and intertwined lives of four strong-minded Chinese women. The novel is more a slice of life than a story per se but makes engaging reading and the characters, all important in this instance, are well drawn and often compelling. ( )