Rate this book

The Vine Basket (2013)

by Josanne La Valley(Favorite Author)

3.85 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0547848013 (ISBN13: 9780547848013)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Clarion Books

review 1: An interesting book about a culture most Americans know almost nothing about. The Uyghur people live in an area they call East Turkestan. They are Muslim Central Asians. But this land is now an autonomous region of China, and the Chinese government is slowly trying to destroy the Uyghur culture. In this book, Mehrigul is a 14-year-old Uyghur girl. Her older brother has been forced to flee the country because of his participation in anti-Chinese protests. Even though she has tried to pick up her brother's share of the work on their family farm, she fears she will be "sent south" to become forced labor in a Chinese factory. The author writes that this is one way China is destroying the culture by removing Uyghur girls so the Uyghur men can't marry them. While her father has ... morebecome increasingly mean and her mother has sunk into a deep depression, Mehrigul's grandfather is loving and kind. He has taught her his skills as a basketweaver. When an American tourist offers a huge sum for one of her baskets and asks her if she can make more, Mehrigul thinks she may have a solution to her family's problems, but there will be many roadblocks in the way, not the least of which is her own father.
review 2: This story is more than a look at another culture. It shows the many layers of struggle that an individual might face in any setting: the tangle of family, financial and political dynamics that can drag someone into hopelessness. It is written simply but skillfully. Of course, I love books like this in which a character has a change of heart, but this author shows the forces that created the need for such a change. This book may inspire you to live with a degree of compassion that even impacts the strangers you encounter. Anyone we meet by chance could be in a crisis like the young girl in this story, could be struggling like her father with forces that erode their own decency. This book, that moved me to tears, goes beyond the saying of "Read 'em and weep." Read it and become a better person. less

Download links for: The Vine Basket

Advertising