White Ghost Girls

by Alice Greenway

Summer 1967. The turmoil of the Maoist revolution is spilling over into Hong Kong and causing unrest as war rages in neighboring Vietnam. White Ghost Girls is the story of Frankie and Kate, two American sisters living in a foreign land in a chaotic time. With their war-photographer father off in Vietnam, Marianne, their beautiful but remote mother, keeps the family close by. Although bound by a closeness of living overseas, the sisters could not be more different — Frankie pulses with curiosity and risk, while Kate is all eyes and ears. Marianne spends her days painting watercolors of the lush surroundings, leaving the girls largely unsupervised, while their Chinese nanny, Ah Bing, does her best to look after them. One day in a village market, they decide to explore — with tragic results. In Alice Greenway’s exquisite gem of a novel, two girls tumble into their teenage years against an extraordinary backdrop both sensuous and dangerous. This astonishing literary debut is a tale of sacrifice and solidarity that gleams with the kind of intense, complicated love that only exists between sisters.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club, China, Coming Of Age, Historical, Asia

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 5, 2006

About the author

Alice Greenway lived the itinerant life of a foreign correspondent's child. She grew up in Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Jerusalem, as well as in the United States. She now lives in Edinburgh with her family.

Reviews

[Duane Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

**spoiler alert**

Alice Greenway's first novel, White Ghost Girls, is exceptional. I'm amazed at the quality of some of these first novels that I read these days. This one is set in 1967 Hong Kong, and is the story of two American sisters, Frankie and Kate, both beginning their early teens. Kate is 13, the younger of the two, and is the narrator of the novel. This is a turbulent time in this part of the World. The Maoist Revolution is spilling over into Hong Kong, and neighboring Vietnam is at war with the US. Their father is a war photographer and travels back and forth between Saigon and Hong Kong. Their mother is an artist who pays very little attention to the girls daily life, leaving them free to play and explore as they please.

Alice Greenway describes Hong Kong so well that I feel like I've been there. Frankie's and Kate's story is so compelling, so haunting and tragically sad, that it holds you spellbound right to the end. This is a good sister story. Kate is quiet and cautious while Frankie is daring, almost wild, and you can feel right away that trouble lies ahead. Just a well written story, good characters, good plot, very enjoyable read.

4.5 stars

[Celeste Ng]

When I first read about this book, I thought I would love it: Hong Kong, family secrets, thoughtful and secretive teenagers, loss. Right up my alley, right? Then, as I read it, I really wanted to hate it, because Alice Greenway is writing about the things I tend to write about (family secrets, thoughtful and secretive teenagers, loss). And she does it sooo beautifully. Her prose is so taut that it almost hurts. But I couldn't hate it. It's stark and lyrical, yet pulsing with energy and raw pain. And Greenway is one of the few writers I've seen (Asian or no) to describe Hong Kong and Chinese culture in a way that felt authentic and real, rather than guidebook-y or history-lesson-y.

Simply put, this is a beautiful book. Not a perfect one, by any means, but beautiful. And it's tiny--only 170 pages or so. I always want to know if a novel can be written as tightly and compactly as a short story, and White Ghost Girls suggests maybe so.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenaway is a haunting story about two sisters growing up in Hong Kong. This is another book that I am still thinking about. The younger sister is the narrator and so we see the older sister's actions through a bit of a filter. It has me thinking about the details that were left out that would explain why the older sister acted the way she did. In addition, this author has a poetic way with words. Every once in a while I would stop and reread a sentence or paragraph not for content but because of the way the words flowed on the page.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you read a novel and wonder why it has a lowish GR rating given the generally generous ratings that far too many dish out to otherwise average reads. This is one such, a little treasure of a novel set in Hong Kong in 1967 against the political back drop of both Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution in China - with its dramatic effect on life in HK - and also the Vietnam War.

Kate is a diffident 12 year old American girl living an expatriate life in Hong Kong with her confident, precocious and somewhat wild teenage sister Frankie and their relatively strait-laced artist mother. Their father is a war photographer in Vietnam who is away most of the time. His wife in particular and his two daughters all miss him terribly and compete with each other for his attention when he comes home, but he seems unable to recognise their needs and is drawn inexorably back to the death and damage he witnesses though his job.

Kate narrates the story remembering the past from a present where she is cloaked in a sense of loss with regard to her sister. One wonders about and is teased throughout with what has happened to Frankie. The writing is delicious, painting a lovely portrait of two young girls coming of age in wholly different ways, managing to cope with a new environment and life's changes without any sustained understanding or support from their emotionally distant mother and with an equally emotionally challenged but also physically absent father.

I haven't given it 5 stars only because Kate's ability to recount in detail what her father witnessed in Vietnam was never fully explained. He sent his daughters regular audio cassettes whilst he was away but the one time we hear his words on the little cassette player they are whimsical tales as if he still thinks his daughters are much younger. Kate voraciously reads the newspapers and magazines for any news of the war and maybe her father did tell her about his experiences but I was never quite sure if it was his recollection or her imagination. I wouldn't have minded either way but I just wanted some clearer indication.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

In 1960s Hong Kong, two American sisters live with their artist mother while their photojournalist father commutes back and forth to cover the Vietnam War. The tale is told by the younger sister, Kate, years after the fact, and from the start, it’s pretty clear this tale is going to center on a tragedy.

White Ghost Girls is heavy on facts and details – almost too much so, given its slim length. At the same time, I never felt part of Kate and Frankie’s world. Many of the details and references felt more like inside jokes meant to exclude rather than inform the reader. The style also makes it difficult to get pulled into the story: the short chapters, which jump in time, mimic a story told orally. I like the idea of it, but the problem is that the style makes it difficult to invest in the characters and story. Moments that should have elicited big emotions didn’t really grab me. I felt incredibly divorced from the characters and situations, which is frustrating when you want to feel something, when you want a story to grab you and pull you into its world.

Technically, the book is put together well. But novels need more than technical expertise. Not recommended.

[Holly Otto · Rating 1 out of 5]

Personal Response:
White Ghost Girls is a very hard to understand type of book. In some of the chapters, I would have to reread a couple sentences to fully understand what is happening. It was very hard to understand and remember what happened because they would occasionally change perspectives throughout the book.

Plot Summary
White Ghost Girls takes place in a summer of 1969. It's about two sisters named Frankie and Kate that live in a very crazy lifestyle. The term “opposites attract” is not true with these sisters because they have absolutely nothing in common. Even though these two don't have similarities they both still love each other very much. The girls decided to explore around at a market and have some fun but all of a sudden they bump into Ah Bing and their life turns upside down.

Recommendations:
White Ghost Girls would be perfect for anyone who loves reading high vocabulary type of books. This book contains very complicated sentences and also a really good mystery of trying to figure out what is happening throughout the book. This book would be terrific for teens of a higher lexile or adults.

[Gab · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story set in 1967 in Hong Kong. Two sisters, American, live there with their mother and Vietnam war correspondent father (when he's not in Vietnam taking photos). Frankie, the elder sister, is wild and impetuous. The story is told from Kate's perspective (the younger sister), as she tries to make some sense of Frankie's behaviour. A short novel, but worth reading, especially for a view of HK in the 1960s

[Believeit2seeit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lyrical and haunting tale of two American sisters living in Hong Kong with their expat parents during the Vietnam War. Their dad, a war photographer, is mostly away, and their mom leave them with the nanny. The girls experience a lot on their own, exploring their new city, experimenting and testing their limits. Then something tragic happens.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing in White Ghost Girls is exquisite, its language as rich and precise as a prose poem's. And unlike some prose-perfect short novels, this one also satisfies with story. The plot centers around a tragedy suffered by an American family living in Hong Kong during the Vietnam War (the father is a war photographer). Greenway evokes beautifully the dynamic, generous, possessive, manipulative, and hungry loves shared among spouses, parents, children, and especially siblings. The relationship between sisters Frankie and Kate is at the heart of the book.

We're aware from the first page that Kate, the narrator and younger sister, has suffered a great loss, but we're not told exactly what it is or how it came to pass. This knowledge infuses Kate's memories -- and therefore each scene -- with a sense of impending disaster: reading this book feels like hurtling towards a painful but inevitable conclusion. Each memory, each choice is a clue, a symptom of what's to come. The heightened tension and ominous, fatalistic point of view is perfect for this particular story and storyteller. As readers, we feel acutely Kate's remembered powerlessness (as a teen) to avert disaster and her current powerlessness (as an adult) to change the past.

[Toni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting premise for the book but a little shallow for me. You really don't have to have good knowledge of the Vietnam war even though the story is written in that time. Two white girls (called white ghost girls in Hong Kong) live with their mother in Hong Kong while their father is a photographer who travels to Vietnam for 6 weeks at a time. The story gives a chronicle of the girls, how their lives are affected by the war, living in a foreign country, only having a part-time father, having a mother who is ineffectual in their upbringing and having an amah (nanny) who is sour in personality. A horrible event shapes their being and changes how they live their lives. I think that the book could have been more developed; I always felt like I was on the brink of a excellent book that never quite made it over the edge.

[Stephanie Vogel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Hong Kong set novel I chose from the library when I knew I'd be traveling there. It was wonderful to read this after reading The Piano Teacher as if I'm following a historical trajectory. It is a lovely and desperately sad story of two American sisters being raised in Hong Kong while their father is a news photographer in Vietnam during the American War. The sisters share secrets and each struggle in different ways with their identities and lives as immigrants. There is some beautiful writing here - sometimes more poetry than novel.

[Autumn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt the author was trying to be too artistic and her story got lost in the process. The point of view was not very believable because she seemed to know too much about other characters' thoughts and feelings. It was a short, easy read so I do not feel like I wasted my time.

[Suz Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing tale of sibling angst, and how deeply childhood wounds can affect a lifetime.

[Eda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Leider nach der Hälfte abgebrochen. Die Geschichte war echt langweilig und hat mich überhaupt nicht angesprochen.

Um weiterzulesen hat mir das Interesse gefehlt und die Autorin kann einfach keine guten Geschichten erzählen, dementsprechend war ihr Schreibstil auch nicht unbedingt das beste.
Ich hab mir viele Rezensionen durchgelesen, weil ich wissen wollte, ob es mehrere gibt, die das Buch nicht gut finden.
Erstaunlicherweise gab es wirklich viele gute Kritiken, die ich aber einfach nicht nachvollziehen konnte.
Ich hab mich durch das Buch durchgekämpft und dachte, dass es besser werden würde, was aber nicht der Fall war.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kate erzählt rückblickend die Geschichte von Frankie, ihrer älteren Schwester. Es ist 1967, ein regenarmer Sommer in Hongkong. Die beiden Mädchen, "weiße Geister" werden sie wegen ihrer Hautfarbe von den einheimischen Kindern gerufen, verbringen viel Zeit miteinander, stromern draußen herum oder werden von ihrer Amme Ah Bing getadelt. Der Vater ist als Kriegsfotograf für das Times Magazine in Vietnam und schickt seinen Töchtern Tonbänder, auf denen er ihnen fantastische Geschichten erzählt. Die Mutter versteckt schlechte Zeitungsnachrichten vor den Mädchen und malt zarte Aquarelle, in denen Abfall, Gestank und die Folgen der Kulturrevolution fehlen. Sie wäre gerne zurück in Vermont, aber fürchtet, ihren Mann dadurch ganz an den Krieg zu verlieren. Frankie ist wild und laut, nutzt auch mal ihren aufgeblühten Körper um sich in den Mittelpunkt zu stellen. Als wäre nicht genügend Liebe für sie da. Kate ist schmächtig, liebt ihre Schwester und scheint doch immer stärker unter deren Wetteifern nach Aufmerksamkeit zu leiden: "Ich will nicht deine Geheimnis-Schwester sein, wenn das, was du erzählst, nur Lügen sind. Wenn du mich nie nach den Litschis fragst." (S. 187) Denn den beiden Mädchen ist etwas widerfahren, was sie unterschiedlich verarbeiten und sie voneinander entfernt. - Es ist ein sinnliches Buch, voller Gerüche und Farben, feucht und heiß wie jener entfernte Sommer in Hongkong. Diese Beschreibungen haben die Umgebung lebendig werden lassen, aber es dauerte eine Weile, bis ich mich auch wirklich zur Geschichte der Mädchen einen Bezug aufbauen konnte. Das letzte Drittel ist jedoch sehr intensiv und ist es wert, durchzuhalten.

[okyrhoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first I was somewhat annoyed by the mature tone of Kate the child narrator; there was a faint imbalance between narrative complexity and the naive understanding of the little girl.
Midway I began to see how the novel resembles a poem, where images and emotions have dual meaning; one can interpret them from the child's or the adult (narrator) point of view.
There are several repeated phrases, and if I am not mistaken also a short passage at the end that echoes the opening paragraph of the book, giving the whole a poetic structure.
The push & pull tension between the two sisters I don't think is conveyed successfully, as we only get one side of the story.
Interestingly enough I identified with the way the Vietnam war affected Kate's character and outlook; that is, how it inspired her constant daydreaming (escapism). I found many parallels and shared emotions from the years of my childhood spent in the Middle East. My father, too, was stationed in conflict zones. His lengthy absences were interspersed by short stays filled with fascinating war stories - all this made the young Kate's concept of "Vietcong sisters" particularly poignant as well as "logical."

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I was going to give up reading this book. Though it was written very beautifully, it seemed dull. Many of the war and Vietnam words I didn't understand. But after page 60...BAM! I couldn't put it down.

The story is about sisters Frankie and Kate who live in Vietnam with their parents. The family lives there because the father has to be over seas taking pictures of the Vietnam war. While both sisters are very close, they also compete for their dad's attention when he is home. Frankie (the older sister) acts up and is promiscuous, while Kate (the younger sister) wishes that her sister wasn't. In the end, it is a combination of the parents actions and the war that end up killing Frankie. In remembrance, it is Kate who tells the story of her sister.

Memorable Quotes:

"This summer, the one I'm going to tell you about, is the only time that matters. It's the time I'll think of when I'm dying, just as another might recall a lost lover or regret a love they never had. For me, there is one story. It's my sister's-Frankie's."

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased a copy of Alice Greenway's White Ghost Girls soon after it came out in paperback, and remember feeling quite underwhelmed by it. In recent years, I have been wanting to attempt a reread, but could not find my copy anywhere, and therefore fear I may have taken it to the local Oxfam some time ago. Thankfully, my local library came to the rescue, and I was able to sit down on a quiet weekend afternoon and read this in one go.

It turns out that I remembered the bare bones of the story, but not a lot of detail, and the ending took me by surprise. The social and historical contexts in White Ghost Girls have been well researched, and I very much enjoyed the use of short, fragmented sections and chapters to build what came together as a complete story. On my second reading, White Ghost Girls was far more engaging than I remembered, and Greenway's powerful descriptions evocative of a bygone time. Whilst I only ended up liking this novel, rather than really enjoying it, I am definitely interested enough in Greenway's style to seek out more of her work.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like its characters, this book feels lost and confused. It just doesn't seem to know what it's trying to be. Filled with beautiful but disjoint phrases evoking the scenery of colonial Hong Kong, the novel is one part travel memoir, one part poetry, and one part novel. Unfortunately, the plot doesn't feel developed enough to carry the book, and at times I thought that Greenway would make a much better travel writer than novelist.

At times, the book is overly descriptive, making it hard to follow. But at others, I felt that descriptions were missing, and that it would be hard for the reader to picture the scene without having been there herself. The choppy phrases can inspire a flood of memories in one who's shared similar experiences, but fall short of painting the scene for those who have not.

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Alice Greenway's lush description of childhood in Hong Kong; I could feel the weather, see the landscape, and smell the cooking. But the story about the out of control older sister Frankie told by the younger, well-behaved sister Kate I just didn't care for. I could not understand how two girls could be allowed to grow up so wildly unprotected. My own little brother and sister attended the American School in Tokyo, so I know how wild little white kids can be overseas, and I know how locals have a hard time policing them, and I get that the White Ghost Girls' father is away photographing the Vietnam War and their mom is a delicate flower busy painting and whatnot, but JEEZ! There are household staff members, there are family friends and neighbors and hangers on, and I just think somebody could have paid a little attention to the disaster waiting to happen.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written but haunting story about two teenage American sisters living in Hong Kong during the summer of 1967. The author recounts the experience from the perspective of the younger sister Kate, who is overshadowed by her rebellious, risk taking sister, Frankie. Their father is a war-photographer in Vietnam and their beautiful but remote mother leaves her daughters supervision to their Chinese nanny. The girls find themselves in situations that are confusing and dangerous. Beautifully written, the sights, sounds and smells of Hong Kong, are described in rich detail. The conclusion is unexpected, but all the puzzle pieces fall into place.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short yet evocative, with down-to-earth prose that puts the reader in the scene: the sights, the smells, the sounds of a busy Hong Kong port, sisters playing in an abandoned hideaway, or trapped in a butcher's shop by two men. The disquieted mind of our narrator controls the story and how it is told, and the narrative often slides and dips between her reflections, the events and conversations she's relating from the past, her father's stories, the sister's imaginations, history, and speculation.

Sad, beautiful, evocative of a time and place--in short, what I'd expect from the author after reading her second novel, The Bird Skinner. This one is much shorter and narrowly focused, however.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is such a stupid book. What a waste of time. I don't know why it's on a lot of book club lists. The author writes n such incomplete sentences and thoughts that create an incomplete story. Nothing really happens in this book. She writes about nothing for half the book and then just throws in a bunch of garbage. What a horrible first novel from this author. I'd be surprised if she wrote anything else decent.

[Sundry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I dunno. I liked the beginning of it, but it felt like it wandered around a lot and I didn’t connect with the characters. Wouldn’t recommend it, though the cover’s nice.

[Julie Failla Earhart · Rating 1 out of 5]

could not get into this no matter how hard i tried...the first page is nothing but questions and it lost me...i read to page 30, three times, but could never focus on the characters or the storyline

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very excited to read this because it kept cropping up on book club lists. What a bore!!

[Missy J · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very poignant story of an expatriates' childhood in Hong Kong. It was depressing and maybe something the author experienced or heard of in her surroundings.

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found on this list of the top ten Hong Kong books. Lean and mean.

[kangsol · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I love about this book is the setting of the story. Summer 1967, in the Vietnam war-era Hongkong. I've always been fascinated by movies set in times of war, of course not by the war itself, but by the fate of those who are left by family members and loved ones to go to war.

"The war might be over, but my son still hasn't come back." A longing and griefing father would say.

White Ghost Girls also dealt with the complexity and grief that comes with war. It interests me how the two sisters are Americans living in Hong Kong with a father who photographs the war happening in Vietnam. In this book I was served with the Chinese tradition in dealing with the dead; their beliefs of the fate of those who have passed away and offerings to give to them. How there are angry ghosts, hungry ghosts.

Something I found painful was their mother's coping mechanism. Living in Hong Kong with the threats of war, with a husband who may love the war itself more than herself, and her two children who she can't seem to control, must have been a burden to her. And so she copes with this through her watercolour paintings, through which she transforms her surroundings. There is no war happening.

I give White Ghost Girls 3 stars because there were many Chinese words, names, and political terms I didn't understand the meaning of. Like amah, Viet Cong, the Volunteri, etc. Also because I found the beginning a bit slow and monotonous. But overall I enjoyed reading this book. I loved Greenway's writing style, how she manages to describe something simple with beautiful words and how I have to stop reading and think about what it could possibly mean.

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short literary novel about an American family living in Hong Kong during the US-Vietnam war. Some aspects work rather better than others, but overall it leaves a strong impression. I liked the voice a great deal: that of a woman looking back on the summer she turned 13, trying to piece together memories and secrets and things she never knew in the first place, with a generous connecting tissue of imagination.

At its heart, this is about a breakdown in the relationship between two teenage sisters, Kate (narrator) and tearaway Frankie. Kate, for various reasons, feels responsible for what happens, and examines her memory of events for foreshadowing, for turning-points, for things she could have done differently. At times it's a bit too on the nose in its analysis of Frankie's psychology - I'd prefer if the reader could be trusted to reach certain conclusions by themselves. But I can (mostly) excuse this overegging, since it does have the feel of Kate's own reflections on the situation, and there's nothing to say we have to agree with all her interpretations.

Occasionally of the descriptive prose tips over into the clichés of westerners writing about SE Asia (it's so lush! and colourful! and noisy!), but for the most part it's carefully controlled, focusing on the specifics of time and place.