Snow Flower and The Secret Fan by Lisa See

Lisa See's novels always have a good pace, but I didn't really love this book.  It felt like it was building up to a tragedy that was not as tragic as promised.  And I didn't feel like any of the characters took on any real roundness.  Interesting concepts included that did provoke further research but I didn't think their exploration in the book did them justice (women's secret language, foot binding, chinese relationships to daughters, contracted friendships, etc.).