Rebellion

June 19, 2017
Three strong women and their acts of rebellion in disparate circumstances are intriguingly connected in this vividly rendered, impressive debut. Addie, an American missionary in China in the latter part of the 19th century, leaves her husband and children and the confines of a restrictive enclave to venture into the more remote parts of the country with a widowed missionary with whom she has become enamored. Addie’s niece, Hazel, whom we first meet as a feisty senior in 1999, driving the car that her adult children took the keys from, has had a tough life since she became the widowed mother of two children in the 1950s. She asserts her independence by maintaining ownership of her farm and unexpectedly develops an illicit relationship with her neighbor’s husband, while maintaining a connection to the man’s wife. Juanlan, a 1998 college graduate with no job prospects, returns to the small Chinese town where she was born to help with the family-owned hotel. She ends up having an affair with a married, politically connected older man whom her brother introduces her to with the hope that he will give their parents official permission to open up their hotel to foreigners. We see each woman interacting with family and friends, navigating the diverse challenges she faces, achieving a hard-won sense of self worth. Most remarkable is the subtle way Patterson ties all three lives together. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group.

Starred review from June 1, 2017
Patterson's debut novel sprawls across decades and continents, from the American heartland to the far reaches of China, to follow the lives of four women--some related more closely than others--who remake themselves as circumstances allow or require.When 84-year-old Hazel goes into a nursing home in 1999, her children arrive to close up her farmhouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, and find relics of a past they can't fully understand. Abruptly the story shifts to Illinois in the 1890s, as Hazel's mother, Louisa, who has moved from Ohio to farm with her husband, receives letters from her sister Addie, who's living what seems to Louisa an exotic life in China with her missionary husband, Owen, and two sons. Another abrupt shift takes readers to 1998 China as recent college graduate Juanlan reluctantly returns to her provincial hometown to help her parents run their small hotel. While Louisa settles into a mostly contented life, the stories of Hazel, her aunt Addie, and Juanlan, whose physical connection to the others is slim at best, follow a similar thematic arc. Each recognizes that she may have more than one identity, each shrugs off passivity to take control of her life, and each is influenced by a deep relationship with another woman as she falls into an unexpected love affair. Respected widow Hazel carries on a long, secret love affair with her best friend's husband; dutiful daughter Juanlan forges a bond with her rebellious, pregnant sister-in-law while finding herself attracted to several different men; and most dramatically, Addie abandons her family to travel across China beside a woman missionary with whom she's fallen in love. Despite minor quibbles--at times Patterson gets stuck in the weeds of daily minutiae, and outlier Louisa, satisfied in her quiet life, remains undeveloped--Hazel's, Juanlan's, and Addie's stories could each stand alone as an involving novel. A talent to watch, Patterson manages to travel broad swaths of history and geography while creating intimate moments with a refreshing lack of sentimentality; and the novel's sense of adventure makes it addictive reading.

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July 1, 2017
Patterson's remarkable debut follows four women from three generations and in two different parts of the world. Sisters Addie and Louisa grow up on a farm in Illinois. Louisa stays, but Addie marries and leaves with her husband to take up missionary work in China. Later she disappears, perhaps a victim of the anti-Christian uprising known as the Boxer Rebellion. Decades later, Hazel, one of Louisa's daughters, is left with two young children and a farm to manage when her husband dies, and she finds solace in an affair with a married neighbor. In 1998, in fast-changing China, Juanlan has completed her university studies and returns home to the isolated town of Heng'an, where her family owns a small hotel. There seem to be several different novels here; Juanlan's story, in particular, is tied to the others by very slender threads. The title might lead the reader to expect large events, but, though some history lurks in the background, this is a book about the quiet unfolding of lives and the kind of rebellion that comes from following one's heart.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

March 15, 2017

In her highly touted debut, Pushcart Prize winner Patterson links four women over generations to show the ties that bind and how they might be loosened. In late 1950s Illinois, Hazel mourns her husband's death and recalls her mother, Louisa, who found married life on a farm rigorously dictated. Louisa corresponds with her sister Addie, a missionary in China, who's adventurous enough to break free but is then trapped by the Boxer Rebellion. Finally, in late 1990s China, Juanlan escapes her stultifying home life through a risky affair. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

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April 15, 2017

Four women and the paths they take at crucial times in their lives are explored in this intergenerational novel that covers two continents. Addie, a young, idealistic missionary in China, embarks on a dramatic turn from taking care of her husband and children and accompanies Poppy to a mission hundreds of miles away. On an Illinois farm, Hazel prematurely loses her husband and carries on an affair with her best friend's husband. Louisa, Addie's sister, is very concerned when she reads about the Boxer Rebellion in China and the murder of Christians. Juanlan, in present-day China, conducts an affair with a high-ranking government official while deciding what to do after college. In precise, detailed language we experience the beginning of a life; the slow defeat that cancer brings; a sudden, tragic death; and the awakening of the soul in these flesh-and-bone characters. VERDICT The Pushcart Prize-winning Patterson has written quite a debut, truly a page-turner that shows her knowledge of life in China. She's a natural storyteller with empathy for the plight of women, and book groups will have much to discuss with this sweeping, far-flung novel. [See Prepub Alert, 2/20/17.]--Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH

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