The Jade Bracelet

THE JADE BRACELET
by Wilma Wall

In 1933 missionary families were still allowed in China, and Elsa Meier’s family are serving over there. She and her little brother, Jasper, are cared for by a Chinese nanny while her father concentrates on missions work and her mother teaches at a little school. Elsa doesn’t get along well with her mother, she finds her dominating, and she struggles against her control. Elsa is very much her daddy’s girl.

Phillip Meier is a loving father and husband and loves purchasing gifts for his family. A teddy bear becomes Jasper’s beloved companion, and Elsa gets a beautiful doll. Phillip even buys his wife a set of the most beautiful jade bracelets Elsa has ever seen. She envies her mother the bracelets, but her father encourages her that perhaps she will inherit them someday.

When the Meier family is forced out of their home, they are robbed, and they believe someone had set a trap for them as well, but they survive, even though they lose most of their possessions. They are denied leaving China to come to America, so are forced to find other housing. But the missionary compound they go to is dirty, and full of rats. How much more must this family go through before they are allowed to go to America?

THE JADE BRACELET is the first book I’ve read by Wilma Wall. It starts out well, but around chapter seven it gets quite difficult to read. It was a struggle to keep going for awhile. I grew to care for Jasper and Elsa and it was hard when bad things happened to the family. Elsa’s father is not completely developed, but the mother, a key character, is someone that is difficult to like at first.

Being a missionary story, I was surprised that the faith message was so understated. Although it does give one a good view of what missionaries might have gone through in 1933. The book spans many decades and is really a family saga of sorts, a story of a mother and daughter trying to span the gulfs that separate them. $13.99. 304 pages.

Reviewed by Laura V. Hilton

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