Qing Li Wrote This Book Review

Before reading Cong Chong’s “Daughter’s Choice”, I had hardly read any novels about family. I had watched a few TV series, but I didn’t like them very much. I felt that the plot was too stiff and too family-oriented. The conflicts in the drama were mostly for the sake of conflict.

I barely watched a few episodes just to kill time, and it was almost impossible to resonate with them. I am not an old reader of Cong Chong. I started to like her writing after “Children of the World”. Because of this novel, I rarely read serialized novels, so I followed her WeChat platform and started a long journey of chasing her writing.

The title of “Daughter’s Choice” doesn’t sound particularly attractive. So for a long time after following Cong Chong’s official account, I had never read this story. Until one day when I was bored, I clicked on the latest push and read it casually. As a result, I became addicted to it. I stayed up all night to finish the previous chapters in one go. I just felt that it was wonderful.

From then on, I “kept it in my heart and never forgot it”, and began to share the sorrows and joys with the characters in the story, and never missed the subsequent updates. Later, the novel stopped updating, but I was still thinking about the fate of the girls, hoping that they would all have a warm ending.

When I heard that the novel was about to be published, I was even more delighted. I wanted to buy a copy immediately and then jump into the pages to meet Zhang Wenyang and others.

“Daughter’s Choice” tells the story of mothers raising children for their daughters. Cong Chong is the most accurate and delicate writer I have ever seen in describing the mother-daughter relationship. She can always stand at a higher perspective to analyze the relationship between mother and daughter, and tell the entangled grievances and hatreds, which is amazing.

Although the focus is on the mother-daughter relationship, the writing always explains the mothers’ growth background and life experience in detail, and then deduce their attitude towards their daughters, the impact of their words and deeds on their daughters, and finally begin to describe the way mothers get along with their daughters.

Because of this, she can handle every detail realistically and touchingly, which often makes people cry, and often allows readers to “see” the shadow of their own mothers.

“Mom” is a powerful word. To a large extent, the way mothers deal with things and parenting methods will directly affect the fate of their children.

This is particularly evident in the protagonists of “Daughter’s Choice”: Zhang Wenyang has a capable accountant mother. If the mother is too strong, her daughter will seem useless. Since she can’t do everything well, she might as well be lazy and be a sentimental and cowardly literary young woman; Qin Jingshu’s mother Li Yunzhu is calm and restrained, lacking the courage to pursue true love and live out her true self.

Qin Jingshu has seen enough of the polite and indifferent way of getting along between her parents, and has many doubts about marriage and love, and lacks the ability to handle her own emotional life; Che Weiyi’s mother Wang Mei is the pillar of the small town song and dance troupe. She has always been eager to stand out but can only stay in a small place.

She has no choice but to pin her hopes on her daughter, but after Che Weiyi arrived in Beijing, she found that there are mountains beyond mountains, so she took the opportunity to abandon her competitive heart and began to make a living.

Although these three pairs of mothers and daughters come from different places and have different identities, positions and situations, there are all kinds of contradictions between them. The relationship between them is also complicated and heavy, with love and hate intertwined, and various stories are interpreted, all of which are full of a strong breath of life.

In addition to the three pairs of mothers and daughters in the main line, there are many wonderful side branches in the novel. Among them, a character named Sun Tianai is particularly well written. Sun Tianai is the sister of Che Weiyi’s husband and the adopted daughter of the Sun family. She was once a little girl abandoned by her mother.

She is sensitive and strong, and knows how to be grateful. She is extremely outstanding and lovable. Although she is not the protagonist, Cong Chong’s description of Tianai is not perfunctory. From her childhood when she was abused by her stepmother and was full of longing for maternal love, to her efforts to repay her foster mother Li Jinsong after she was adopted, to how she faces marriage and life, every word is moving.

The description of her biological mother in the story is particularly legendary, and it has a sense of fate, which makes people sigh when reading it.

In addition to Sun Tianai, single mother Jia Tingting is also a very outstanding character. After the divorce, Jia Tingting lived in extreme poverty, and even her son’s wish to eat strawberries could not be satisfied. Later, with the help of Qin Jingshu, she unexpectedly became famous because of a “divine song”.

Cong Chong vividly described her embarrassment when she was down and out and her attitude of trying to live when opportunities came, as well as her invincible deeds with a team of single mothers. Reading it has a thousand flavors in the heart.

Although family stories are based on the family, they are often all-encompassing. This is especially true of the stories written by Cong Chong.

Because of the need for plot development, the novel also writes about entrepreneurship, extramarital affairs, and disease, but the development of the plot is set very reasonably, interlocking and fascinating, and there will be no inexplicable abruptness when reading it.

What is more valuable is that the characters in the novel, whether the protagonist or the supporting role, are very full and are constantly growing with the development of the story.

Although I haven’t read the whole text, most readers can guess that at the end of the story, the two generations finally understand each other and achieve reconciliation. This kind of reconciliation is more meaningful than the traditional happy ending. I think that if this novel is made into a TV series, it will be very touching.

There may not be so many exaggerated dramatic conflicts in the play, but there will be no sense of affectation. The female elders in the play are also more three-dimensional and vivid, and they will not be as noisy and stereotyped as the mothers-in-law in many domestic dramas, and they have never grown up from beginning to end.

Cong Chong’s novels are not only interesting stories, but also have great literary beauty and strong philosophical meaning. She often quotes Schopenhauer’s famous sayings in her articles, and expresses her feelings about various issues from time to time.

In the chapter “Accent”, she wrote casually: “A person’s hometown lives in his accent. Beijing is full of people from all over the world. They rush to Beijing with different aspirations and thoughts. They are floating islands. Relatives, classmates, friends, and fellow countrymen are the distant or near connections between these islands.

Some people will feel a sense of intimacy because of the familiar accent of strangers, but only some lonely and enthusiastic young people will rush to recognize their fellow countrymen. People with social experience will not do this. They will look at the other person implicitly, considering whether there is any Necessity of chatting up. When fellow villagers meet, their eyes brimming with tears, which is probably only seen in agricultural society.

In commercial society, what is heard more often is fellow villagers stabbing each other in the back. In fact, the relationship between fellow villagers is not so dramatic. There is no need to hug and cry or to add insult to injury. Most of them just say to each other: I am from there too. Then most of them say politely: I can’t tell, you don’t have an accent at all.

“This passage is written appropriately and sophisticatedly, which makes people feel mixed emotions when reading it, and they have to admire the author’s wisdom and sharp pen. The analysis is so incisive and accurate, which shows that the author is a person who has insight into the world.

At the end of the writing, I still have to mention the famous couplet in “Dream of Red Mansions”: Insight into the world is knowledge, and understanding of human nature is writing. Cong Chong’s writing deserves this comment.

The author’s profound experience of the world, accurate knowledge of people, beautiful words and wonderful writing skills have been melted into a series of novels. In this era of fast food culture, the stories she wrote can withstand repeated readings, and every time you read them, you will gain different warmth.

The novel “Daughter’s Choice” is the most tender among the novels. Whether it is the relationship between mother and daughter, husband and wife, or girlfriends, they are all based on warm colors. Even if there are conflicts and barriers between the characters, they are still willing to warm each other. If I want to make an analogy, I would like to compare this novel to a brocade vest with complex patterns.

There are countless clues inside, but it is not chaotic. Instead, it is clearly integrated into the same brocade fabric. The main and supporting characters with different personalities are the colorful patterns on the material, which are carefully and tightly spread on the thick brocade satin, exuding a natural beauty.

This finely crafted brocade vest is not only beautiful, but also warm. This warmth is the tolerance and acceptance after seeing through the world and the scenery, and it is also the reconciliation between individuals and families, times and fate. In the past cold winter, this brocade vest warmed me, and I hope it will continue to warm you in the chilly wind of early spring.