Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter [Anglais] [Broché]

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: Falling Leaves is an Asian Mommie Dearest. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Although the focus of this memoir is the author's struggle to be loved by a family that treated her cruelly, it is more notable for its portrait of the domestic affairs of an immensely wealthy, Westernized Chinese family in Shanghai as the city evolved under the harsh strictures of Mao and Deng. Yen Mah's father knew how to make money and survive, regardless of the regime in power. In addition to an assortment of profitable enterprises, he stashed away two tons of gold in a Swiss bank, and eventually the family fled to Hong Kong. But he was indifferent to his seven children and in the thrall of a second wife who makes Cinderella's stepmother seem angelic. His first wife, Yen Mah's mother, died at her birth, and the child, considered an ill omen, was treated with crushing severity. But she was encouraged by the love of an aunt and eventually made her way to the U.S., where she became a doctor, married happily and, ironically, was the one her father and stepmother turned to in their old age. In recounting this painful tale, Yen Mah's unadorned prose is powerful, her insights keen and her portrait of her family devastating.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

This dramatic autobiography by a writer and doctor begins with the reading of a will that mystifies, then flashes back to recount events in a truly unpleasant family of seven brothers and sisters, a cruel French-Chinese stepmother, and a rich, uncaring father. In 1937, Adeline's mother died giving birth to her in Tienjin, marking her forever as bad luck. The family moved to Shanghai, then Hong Kong, with trips to Monte Carlo, London, and, finally, California for Adeline. In the meantime, with World War II, the Communist takeover in 1949, Maoism, the Cultural Revolution, and the return of Hong Kong to mainland China. Mostly, however, rivalries, jealousies, injustice, neglect, conniving, backbiting, and betrayal dominate this family. An intriguing tale, though it says less about China than about one particular Chinese family; for contemporary China collections.?Kitty Chen Dean, Nassau Coll., Garden City,
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Although the early stories are inspiring and even heartwarming ... Falling Leaves is nothing if not a traditional memoir of a bad childhood. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

In a story that proves that truth is stranger than fiction, Adeline Yen Mah tells the riveting and horrifying tale of her upbringing in China under the control of her malicious stepmother. As the "Fifth Youngest Daughter" in a society that disregards the value of girls, Adeline is the target of her stepmother's rage and her siblings' frustrations, while her father remains aloof. Writing with a calm simplicity, Yen Mah tells of striking out into the world to prove her worth, both to herself and her parents, and creating a life and career in America. Rosenblat matches this amazing story with her delicate and empathetic reading of this triumphant life. Rosenblat steers clear of a melodramatic performance, instead presenting Yen Mah's life as one would expect the author herself would have done--proudly and placidly. H.L.S. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

The contrast between Mah's calm narrative voice and the harshness of her story is both haunting and instructive. Mah's family history has been shaped by the convulsions that rocked twentieth-century China, but it is the presence of strong women that emerges as the driving force in her piercing memoir. Mah's mother died just after she was born, so her female role models were her rebellious grandaunt, who founded a bank run by and for women in an era during which Chinese women were still having their feet bound, and her father's sister, who tried desperately to shield Mah from Niang, her vicious stepmother. Niang also defied the Chinese preference for submissive women, but she used her powers to malignant effect, poisoning her stepchildren's relationships with each other and with their father. But Mah, too, has proven to be indomitable, surviving a childhood of extreme, even surreal lovelessness and abuse to become a woman of profound compassion, and her compelling story is a testament to the transcendence of moral fortitude and forgiveness. Donna Seaman --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

A well-told ``wicked stepmother'' story, with the vicious backdrop of racial inequality. Growing up in a wealthy Chinese family (first in Tianjin, then in Shanghai), Mah, born in 1937, is considered unlucky because her mother died giving birth to her. Her father marries a beautiful Eurasian woman, Jeanne, whom the children call Niang. Niang begrudges her stepchildren train fare to school while her own children are served tea in their rooms and are treated to beautiful new clothes. Mah's father, Joseph, too, mistreats his first wife's children. The family has a racial hierarchy; in marrying a partly French woman, Joseph hoped to improve his social statushis full-blooded Chinese children probably reminded him that he, too, was Chinese. But Mah, more willing than the others to defy Niang, is singled out for cruelty. The other six children, following Niang's lead, pick on her, too. She is physically beaten and constantly insulted; she isn't allowed to have friends; her beloved pet duckling is fed to her parents' dog, deliberately and for sport. Her childhood is only bearable because her aunt Baba loves her and believes she's destined for success. An exceptional student, Mah is allowed to study medicine in England, where, free of her stepmother, she is happier than she's ever been. Eventually settling in the US, she marries, divorces, and finds happiness in motherhood, her work as a doctor, and an eventual second marriage. But the Yen family drama goes on: When Joseph dies, Niang cheats all of the children out of his fortune. Then when Niang dies, Mah, who thought she was on good terms with her stepmother toward the end, finds herself completely and inexplicably disowned. The betrayals and conspiracies surrounding that incident are nearly as chilling as those she suffered in her childhood. A compelling story of family cruelty. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

FALLING LEAVES, Yen Mah's first book, reads as a fresh and haunting account of a childhood that nearly paralyzed its author for life. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Another hotselling, sad autobiography from China. Everyone in China has a story and Adeline Yen Mah's is a profoundly sad and harrowing one. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

"I read for two nights, sleepless, my heart pierced by Adeline Yen Mah's account of her terrible childhood. Falling Leaves is a potent psychological drama pitting a stubborn little girl against the most merciless of adversaries and rivals: her own family. I am still haunted by Mah's memoir."
--Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club

"Painful and lovely, at once heartbreaking and heartening."
--Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

"Brilliant, compelling, and unforgettable. A heartrending modern-day Cinderella story set against the turbulence of twentieth-century China. Autobiography at its best."
--Nien Chang, author of Life and Death in Shanghai

Born in 1937 in a port city a thousand miles north of Shanghai, Adeline Yen Mah was the youngest child of an affluent Chinese family who enjoyed rare privileges during a time of political and cultural upheaval. But wealth and position could not shield Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse at the hands of a cruel and manipulative Eurasian stepmother. Determined to survive through her enduring faith in family unity, Adeline struggled for independence as she moved from Hong Kong to England and eventually to the United States to become a physician and writer.

A compelling, painful, and ultimately triumphant story of a girl's journey into adulthood, Adeline's story is a testament to the most basic of human needs: acceptance, love, and understanding. With a powerful voice that speaks of the harsh realities of growing up female in a family and society that kept girls in emotional chains, Falling Leaves is a work of heartfelt intimacy and a rare authentic portrait of twentieth-century China.

In this poignant, remarkable memoir, Adeline Yen Mah tells the haunting and beautiful story of her painful childhood. The story of one woman's search for love and acceptance in an oppressive family, "Falling Leaves" was a "New York Times" bestseller. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

The emotionally-wrenching yet uplifting memoir of a Chinese woman struggling to win the love and acceptance of her family. Set amidst the political upheaval of a turbulent century, Falling Leaves is an enthralling saga of a prosperous Chinese family that spans this century and that reveals the effects of communism and capitalism on a family caught between East and West. Written in a haunting and compelling prose, this brilliant narrative evokes all the suspense and emotional force of a novel. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

"I read for two nights, sleepless, my heart pierced by Adeline Yen Mah's account of her terrible childhood. Falling Leaves is a potent psychological drama pitting a stubborn little girl against the most merciless of adversaries and rivals: her own family. I am still haunted by Mah's memoir."
--Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club

"Painful and lovely, at once heartbreaking and heartening."
--Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

"Brilliant, compelling, and unforgettable. A heartrending modern-day Cinderella story set against the turbulence of twentieth-century China. Autobiography at its best."
--Nien Chang, author of Life and Death in Shanghai

Adeline Yen Mah is a physician and writer who lives in Huntington Beach, California, and spends time as well in London and Hong Kong.