I really enjoyed reading Bound. Embarrassingly, the Cinderella light bulb didn't go on for me until maybe halfway through the book. Maybe even two-thirds of the way through. I doubt that was the case for the rest of you -- even the Evil Stepmother didn't clue me in.
Before you comment on my blindness, please know I thought the story would focus on foot-binding, and kept waiting for the part when Xing Xing's feet would be tied up. Ah, Sarah, there are more ways of being bound.
Did Xing Xing seem younger than 14 to you?
I loved the poetic bits and found the lyrical style evocative of Xing Xing's world.
But what happened at the end? Mr Suave Prince sweeps Xing Xing off her feet? What? It seemed forced and unconvincing, like all of a sudden she was a different person. Did Napoli end it that way just to keep the Cinderella tale complete?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I read some synopsis that mentioned Cinderella, so I kept waiting for the prince's ball and for the fish to be the fairy godmother. When I finally got there, I loved the ending. (The rest of the book was good
too, but I especially liked the ending.)
I think the change in Xing Xing was that she was suddenly determined to get out of the cave, and she wasn't afraid to be defiant. ("She was determined to be no one's fool anymore. She felt strong. A strong woman in a world that tried to deny the very existence of such a thing.)
When the prince showed up, she knew that she either had to marry him or become a wandering crazy person. Luckily for her, he turned out to be a decent guy, the only character who saw some value in her besides her calligraphy and physical strength. He's smart and intrigued and her only chance. I don't think she was a different person than before, just less naive.
But I think you're right. It all happens in the last chapter, all at once. And really, she doesn't even find out about the festival until the lat third of the book, an event that happens in the first 15 minutes of the Disney movie. (Sorry, it's my only reference.)
However, I don't know how she could have stretched it out. Her act of defiance is the climax of the book, and we wouldn't want to read a slow-building of their relationship after that. Before it, she hadn't even met him. Maybe if there had been discussion of what kind of husband she dreamed of through the novel, like why she wasn't enamored with the slave boy down the road?
Like Erica, I really enjoyed the ending. I'll admit I even cried a little. At first I was prepping myself to be mad if Xing Xing actually married the prince (I prefer more of an Atalanta ending -- know that story from Free To Be You and Me?). But it's true that Xing Xing really had no choice in that she was either going to marry the prince or become a wandering crazy person. I love that Napoli gave the two (the prince and XX) a connection -- the teasing, the grinning, the respect -- so that I was more comfortable with her going off with him. For that time and place, too, it seems like they have more of a bond and more of a chance of actually falling in like and then love than most arranged couples.
I also knew it was going to be a Cinderella story before it even began, although I was expecting the foot-binding to be so that Wei Ping would fit into the Cinderella shoe at the end (you know how the old Grimm? tale has the stepsisters cutting off their heels to try to fit and then the birds peck at their eyes at the end -- I was expecting gruesome results like that). But did you read the afterword? The Chinese Cinderella tale seems to differ a great deal from our Disney version, so Napoli probably followed that timeline more (in terms of the climax and wrap-up being in the last chapter).
I don't know if I would have wanted to hear what kind of boy/man XX wanted to meet. She seemed to be very unconcerned with marriage. She had accepted the fact that her stepmother wasn't going to find her a husband, and she just wanted to have a place to live. She seemed resolved that she wasn't going to marry and have children, so even if she secretly wanted that all along, I'm not surprised she didn't let herself think about such things. She seems a pretty sensible, reasonable girl, who didn't want to get caught up in things she couldn't have. I was really touched by her character and thought she was a pretty neat strong female character.
Sarah, I also didn't realize it was Cinderella until embarassingly far into the book. Once I did though, I was relieved because then I knew things would work out happily, what a sap. I think it says something about Napoli's talent at retelling that so many of us didn't realize until near the end, yet if you go back it is obvious. I do really like Napoli and it isn't just because she was so cute at the Institute, okay that might have something to do with it. Anyway, the ending didn't really bother me and I was happily anticipating a neat wrap-up.
Wait a second, Sarah, weren't we sitting in the Borders together when Jo told us about Bound and mentioned that it was a Cinderella tale? Now I know how much you pay attention to conversations with friends. ;-)
Here's me:
1) I usually love fairytale retellings, but only if they manage to surprise me by giving me a fresh perspective on the tale, taking familiar elements and turning them on their sides or giving them a reason to be the way they are. I think Napoli did a far better, far creepier and far more poignant job of that in The Magic Circle (is that what it's called?), the idea of which I liked so much that I forgave the stilted writing. Anyway, I wasn't really surprised by anything in Bound, and I was sort of disappointed at the way the foot-binding worked; I felt like Napoli wanted to have her cake and eat it too; use the motif for symbolic effect, and have it fit into the glass slipper thing too. Except why on earth wouldn't the shoe fit lots of women's feet, if everyone's feet were bound?
2) I liked the characterization a lot. I liked that the two "evils" weren't really evil, and that there were glimpses of what Xing Xing's father and mother were like when they were alive. I like that Xing Xing is smart and thoughtful and sensible.
3) I didn't buy the prince, but I would have if we'd had some way of getting to know him beforehand. Maybe a hint of what he was like through village gossip or something. He was just way too convenient. I almost wanted him to be dumb, but have Xing Xing choose to marry him anyway because she knows she's tough enough and clever enough to be happy with him.
4) I know I'm alone in this, but spare, "poetic" writing like this always makes me itchy, particularly when it's supposed to evoke some kind of "Asian" lyricism. I hated A Step From Heaven because of it. Believe me, Chinese poetry _is_ really spare and beautiful, but it's not spare and beautiful in the way these writers try to make it sound. If it's even possible to create an English version of what these poems sound like, you certainly can't create a whole book of prose that captures it. Sorry. Off my soap-box now.
5) I might have felt totally differently if I hadn't known beforehand that it was a retelling, because I usually enjoy the realization so much that it might have made up for the book's flaws.
Sorry, I meant Erica NOT Sarah. Duh, Elizabeth.
Post a Comment