Day One Hundred and Thirteen

7/24

The Book: The Bonesetter’s Daughter

ISBN: 0-8041-1498-6

Suggested By: Sissy Vaughn

Where: Home

When: 6:6:45P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 227-295 (68)

The Lead In: Interesting the role foreigners (from America and Japan) play in this book. Often they symbolize change or upcoming change. For a culture steeped in tradition (as the Chinese culture is), maybe that makes sense.

The 411 on the 55: When LuLing (Ruth’s mother) finally meets the family she is to marry into, she realizes that it is the family responsible for the death of PA’s husband and father. She doesn’t care, even when PA finds out and throws a fit. PA writes a story, which ends with the information that she is LuLing’s mother, but LuLing doesn’t read it. Instead, she tells PA she doesn’t care about what’s in the book. That night, PA kills herself.

The next day, LuLing read the story and is crushed to find out the news. The family is dealt wave after wave of bad events (cancellation of the marriage, family business burnt down, creditors calling, etc.), they send LuLing to an orphanage.

There, LuLing becomes a teacher in calligraphy (the skill her actual mother taught her), meets a boy, and gets married. Then the Japanese invade China.

Line of the Day: “When you have nothing else to do, you can always busy yourself picking maggots out of rice.” pg 234

Fact on the Fiction: “From June 1937, Japanese troops carried out intensive military training maneuvers in the vicinity of the western end of the Marco Polo Bridge. These maneuvers were held every night, while night maneuvers held by other foreign garrison troops were held very seldom. The Chinese government had requested that advance notice be given, in order that the local inhabitants not be disturbed. The Japanese had agreed to this condition. However, on the night of July 7, 1937, night maneuvers were carried on without prior notice, which greatly alarmed the local Chinese forces. The Chinese, thinking an attack was underway, fired a few ineffectual rifle shots, which led to a brief exchange of fire at approximately 23:00.” Wikipedia