Coming of Age

In this story Hang grows from a young obedient girl of eight to a young woman of 20. Examples of the women around her—her mother and her aunt—demonstrate a life that women live to honor their dead. By the end of the novel, she realizes that this path will not bring her happiness and takes the risk to leave behind her familial duties in pursuit of her own happiness.

Even from an early age, Hang is haunted by the images of the village, everything being too bright, to close, too dank with the smells of life. Her family’s lives have been ruined in this village, its decorum suffocating. Hang watches her mother deteriorate in her honoring her brother. Her mother becomes so blinded by her service to him that she neglects Hang. When Hang learns that her mother has sold her rings to provide...