When the Sea Turned to Silver
By: Grace Lin / Narrated By: Kim Mai Guest
Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
Beautiful buuuuut Lin’s style is getting old to me…
It’s like this, see. I listened to Starry River of the Sky (Not reviewed and probably won’t get around to listening to it AGAIN for a review any time soon) and was a little bit annoyed. All it was was a string of stories the characters told as they went along Tra La La La Laaa… and it aaaaall went around and there was the rather muddled attempt to bring it together into one cohesive story. >yawn<
Then I went on to listen to Where the Mountain Meets the Moon , and all it was was a string of stories the characters told as they went along… this time with a bit more purpose and action. I gave that one rather a rave review because, tho’ my eyes did indeed glaze over during sooo much storytelling, it totally went around and there was an awesome tying-together of the many threads for a really neat Happily Ever After.
Okay, so here we have When the Sea Turned to Silver, part of this “trilogy”. And the story is of young Pinmei as the Storyteller’s granddaughter. Uh-oooh, thinks I: Mooooore stories upon stories upon stories. Will it be a muddle at the end, will it tie up neatly, will I even care after sitting around and listening to tales based on Chinese folktales being told Every. Single. Time. Pinmei is asked if she knows a story?
Turns out, I kinda don’t care. Okay so, like, that’s TOTally my problem, and you’ll probably find this to be a jolly good Listen. Cuz, don’t get me wrong, author Grace Lin is a fabulous writer, and she has absolutely enchanting imagery. And super kudos and thank-you’s to narrator Kim Mai Guest for delivering action and almost musical poetry, plus story after story without a vocal grimace of: Here we go again. She tells us each story as though we’re all sitting around a table, mugs of ale or hot chocolate warming our hands (And the book is in a very cold Winter that you can most certainly feel from the writing!).
What it is: Pinmei’s grandmother is kidnapped by the tyrannical Tiger Emperor, a man who takes all the men from their villages and works them to death building a vast Wall for him. Pinmei and her young friend, a boy named Yishan (And the Publisher’s Summary calls him “mysterious” so make of that what you will) set off to find the Luminous Stone that Lights the Night, which is the only thing the Emperor will accept in order to return kidnapped loved ones. Along the way, they meet many people, and Pinmei tells stories as, since she’s the Storyteller’s granddaughter, CERtainly she’ll know how to tell a story! And they travel to many exotic locations, and Pinmei tells stories, and they even go deep into the frozen sea (More stories). Three elements are told of in the stories, and they come to be necessary also. Plus, they set upon the extra task of freeing a great tortoise who’s been trapped and shackled by the Emperor, naturally, making it still Winter after all this time.
And it all folds in on itself to make one grand story.
So basically, terrific writing, excellent narration, and I certainly think it all came together pretty well at the end. The little plot devices based in the tales came together in fantastical morphing, no gripes there.
It’s just that I’m sooooo over tale after mythical Chinese tale comPLETEly breaking up the flow of the narrative. Lovely, magical tales, sure, but jeez! I keep feeling like Lin is spoon-feeding Westerners a little bit o’ Chinese culture that, really, I’d just as soon hunt for a Great Courses class if that was what I wanted. Plus, this is s’pposed to be for Kids, but I truly wonder how well they’ll sit and listen to interruption after interruption as the disjointed story carries forth. Nooooo, Adult-Sized Patience needed.
But these are simply m’ own thoughts, dear Accomplice. If you’re new to Grace Lin, it’s a peach of a book to start off with, and then you might want to hit Where the Mountain Meets the Moon for the really clever ending.
Me, however? Okay okay okay. I DID the Trilogy.
Now can I rest and relax into an audiobook that flooooooows?
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