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"Fan Wu is an exciting
storyteller with an original take on the disarray of family history
and American culture, and, ultimately, how we manage to define ourselves.
Beautiful as Yesterday is a story with intelligence, insight, and
heart." "Fan Wu tells tales
of modern Chinese women without mythologizing or romanticizing their
lives. Her stories are foreign and familiar all at once, her writing
beautiful and spirited." "A delicate and
brilliant novel on the arguments, triumphs, loves and differences
of a Chinese family in America." Praise for February Flowers "Characters, plot,
and Chinoiserie combine in a debut novel that shines…animated by
unforgettable characters, and infused with emotional honesty, Fan
Wu's first novel is moving, sexy, and impossible to put down. Her
style is deceptively simple, her prose confident, clear and precise…a
brilliant debut." "Full of mystery
and misunderstanding...perfectly poignant." "A fresh, original
work that strikes a fine balance between intimacy and restraint,
and shatters several stereotypes along the way….The author's control
of her subject matter is impressive, capturing perfectly the claustrophobia
and obsessive passion that youthful friendships can assume, without
ever rendering Ming's concerns as self-absorption…The novel's ultimate
appeal, however, lies in the universality of its themes-the pain
and pleasure of growing up, and the discovery of sex and the accompanying
wonder and fear; few will not recall their own adolescent pangs
while reading FEBRUARY FLOWERS." "An original and
unforgettable story. Just like the flowers referred to in the title,
Fan Wu's novel is brimming with passion, vitality, and hope. The
girls in this book are the daughters and granddaughters of The Good
Women of China, and are products of the society both modern, expansive,
and communistically introvert." "On its surface
February Flowers is a swift coming of age tale about an obsessive
friendship between opposites at a college in Guangzhou. Ming is
shy, naive, bookish and new to city life while Yan is bold, wild,
magnetic and eager to corrupt. But beneath the surface tension and
attraction between these two memorable young women is a story about
contemporary China and the push and pull between tradition and modernity,
communism and capitalism, constraint and freedom. Fan Wu is a gifted
writer and a promising new voice, and her characters come alive
in this wonderful debut novel. " "A novel that takes
us inside contemporary China by a keen-eyed Chinese writer who knows
English inside out. " "An exquisitely
beautiful book about that uncertain border between girlhood and
womanhood, between passion and desire, a country only too familiar
to all women. Fan Wu's story swept me away." "Not a compfortable
read, but nevertheless full of vitality, and an insight into a world
very different from ours." "Fan Wu quietly
and unobtrusively conveys the seismic shifts that Chinese society
has undergone in a matter of decades...this subtle and deftly paced
novel is, ultimately, less a story about sexual awakening than sheer
awakening. …" "a novel that turns
its eye away from imagined audiences and keeps it trained on the
story at hand...the ease with which it (the novel) shakes off the
voiceover of memoir, with all its intonations of latterly won wisdom,
and enters the past as it was lived, in real-time and without the
props of hindsight. As compelling is the way in which the two friends
become emblematic of China as it was then... …" "This first novel
(February Flowers) commands our attention if we want to understand
contemporary China...Yan is perhaps...the bipolar characteristics
of contemporary China, and its unique brand of market Stalinism,
modernity and tradition. …" "Fresh and original…"
"Gently paced…an
elegant book." "Fan Wu's debut
novel captures the chasm between both the old and the modern of
her motherland" "A finely wrought
first novel…deeply compelling…" "Wu has created
a story full of emotional honesty that has engaging, complex characters
who must negotiate challenging and uncertain situations." "A winning debut…engrossing,
beautifully written…sophisticated blend of lyricism, humour, sexual
titillation and earnest exploration of being and becoming…"
"First-time author
Fan Wu's elegant pacing and tidy, vivid prose captures China on
the cusp of its economic boom, with the characters caught in the
social eddies that curl around it….However universal coming of age
stories may be, few capture a country's zeitgeist, as Wu's work
does." "Engaging…strong
and intransigent…" "Subtle and delicate…a
beautifully written, promising debut, full of light detail and intense
reflection."
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