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Il fiume scorre verso Oriente
Cina, 1920. Bella, orgogliosa e spregiudicata, Catherine Cabot ha vent'anni quando arriva a Tientsin, dopo un'infanzia errabonda per l'Europa al seguito della madre che l'ha concepita nel Palazzo dei Piaceri Celesti, durante la rivolta dei Boxer, ma non le ha mai rivelato il nome del padre, l'affascinante e ambiguo ufficiale dell'lntelligence britannica Henry Manners. A Tientsin dove l'accoglie la famiglia degli Airton, grandi amici della madre - Catherine cerca la verità su suo padre, ma si troverà anche a dover scegliere tra i due fratelli Airton: il solido e timido Edmund e l'affascinante e superficiale George. Intanto nel paese infuriano le lotte fra i signori della guerra e il nuovo esercito nazionalista di Chiang Kai-shek, dietro il quale si muove l'ombra del bolscevismo e si delinea la figura del giovane Mao Tse-tung...
798 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
7 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
About the author
Adam Williams
167 books29 followersThe son of a Hong Kong Taipan, Adam Williams was born and raised in Asia, though educated in the United Kingdom. His family has been in China since the 1880s and he has fulfilled his destiny by joining Jardine Matheson and rising to head its operations in China as well as those of Jardine Fleming. He has undertaken an expedition by camel into the heart of the Taklamaken Desert to seek the lost cities of the Silk Road, and having survived this, competed in the 'Rhino Charge'. He is also an OBE.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 8, 2017
It's taken me 9 months 10 days to finish reading this book and it's nothing compared to the historical background and description Mr. Williams offers in this book.
When you have a story that's 736 pages long and is told over a decade set in a country on the verge of a revolution, then reading it one sitting must count for something right? I'm glad I took my time, cast the book aside and then returned to it, taking in as much as I could before doing something else.
About the book: Beautiful, headstrong and unconventional, Catherine Cabot is 20 years old when she arrives in China. Against an uneasy political background, a bittersweet triangular love affair develops between Catherine, Edmund and George Airton - and, all the while, she tries to uncover the truth behind her past.
I loved the writing style, the long paragraphs the description of the characters and essentially though set in a period of war, opium trade, and espionage, this felt more like
The heroine of the tale is Catherine Cabot, but she's got one friend Yu Fu-Kuei too who I felt did help bring out Catherine's quick thinking and make her more calculative in trying to survive the war.
On love, everyone desires Catherine; The Russian, Lin, George & Edmund Airton, William and the list is endless, but the one who gets her and cares less about her is George. Their marriage is nothing but a business deal for him and she's the trophy wife who jumps when he commands and that pissed me off! Her love for Edmund was the kind where he gave and she took- and I kept wondering how much of it he'd take...(this is the part where I admit that I am a hopeless romantic).
Well, this book was like the Moby Dick whaleto me, because I kept meaning to finish reading it but somehow never did so and to admit that I've read almost a hundred books since I started reading this goes to show something about the pace and the historical details within it.
When you have a story that's 736 pages long and is told over a decade set in a country on the verge of a revolution, then reading it one sitting must count for something right? I'm glad I took my time, cast the book aside and then returned to it, taking in as much as I could before doing something else.
About the book: Beautiful, headstrong and unconventional, Catherine Cabot is 20 years old when she arrives in China. Against an uneasy political background, a bittersweet triangular love affair develops between Catherine, Edmund and George Airton - and, all the while, she tries to uncover the truth behind her past.
I loved the writing style, the long paragraphs the description of the characters and essentially though set in a period of war, opium trade, and espionage, this felt more like
The heroine of the tale is Catherine Cabot, but she's got one friend Yu Fu-Kuei too who I felt did help bring out Catherine's quick thinking and make her more calculative in trying to survive the war.
On love, everyone desires Catherine; The Russian, Lin, George & Edmund Airton, William and the list is endless, but the one who gets her and cares less about her is George. Their marriage is nothing but a business deal for him and she's the trophy wife who jumps when he commands and that pissed me off! Her love for Edmund was the kind where he gave and she took- and I kept wondering how much of it he'd take...(this is the part where I admit that I am a hopeless romantic).
Well, this book was like the Moby Dick whaleto me, because I kept meaning to finish reading it but somehow never did so and to admit that I've read almost a hundred books since I started reading this goes to show something about the pace and the historical details within it.
September 18, 2021
There’s a very specific genre of white man writing epic adventure stories taking place across an “exotic” country, and I’ve been hoodwinked by it before. In fact, the first time I read The Emperor's Bones, I had Unformed Teenage Brain syndrome and wasn’t as staggered by the amount of condescending racism as I should have been.
But I went into this re-read prepared! In the intervening years, I had actually read the first book in the series, and found it atrocious, and was fully ready to cringe at the sequel. My greatest failure is that I could not.
The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure is about the adventures of Helen Frances Delamere, a pale English reminder of Scarlett O’Hara, landing in China and being pushed into a relationship with the wrong man, while having an obsessive and ill-fated affair with a debonair scoundrel. (Henry Manners. He becomes important later.) It’s terrible because so is Helen Frances. She’s a cardboard cutout, an angry and resilient receptacle for trauma porn, and has no charm or wit. She’s a great prototype, though, and I’m glad the series found its footing in the second book.
Because if that one was discount Gone with the Wind, the sequel is what Scarlett should have been. (Stay with me, I’m going somewhere good with this.)
The Emperor's Bones dispatches Helen Frances and Henry’s love story swiftly. They parted on bittersweet terms in the first book, and since then Helen Frances has become a social-climbing, wealthy, career divorcée. She has one brief period of reunion with Henry where they live in Japan until they destroy their own happiness. Since then, Helen Frances has died in opulence, and Henry becomes a traitor to his country, a dissolute, pouchy-eyed alcoholic who is a propaganda machine and body man for the Japanese army in China.
So the story is actually about their daughter, Catherine, who is also Scarlett O’Hara (third time’s the charm) but it works. Because Catherine is a battle nurse and has lived through wars and degradation, and the only reason she’s survived is sheer bloody luck, and not because she was cleverer or special-er than the rest. And plenty of bad things happen to and around her, without her existing just to be a bulls-eye for “”period-appropriate misogyny””.
This is the only thing I ask for from Mary Sues. This book clears this very low bar easily.
(I am grateful, because it has learnt from its predecessor’s mistakes.)
After this, I can deal with every third man falling obsessively in love with Catherine because each one is realistic and different (noble cowards, scrupulous good men, manipulators who beat her at her own game). It’s okay that every woman ends up being her friend because there’s actual common ground and reciprocal kindness in those relationships (surviving being a POW, surviving random violence, respecting women’s rights to make their own choices, suspecting your neighbour is a KGB spy).
It’s even fine that the main villain does everything he does with the side goal of [redacted] Catherine because on page three, we see them meet for the first time, and she brashly flips off a warlord to his face. Character choices! Horrific consequences! You’re never not rooting for her to escape them!
This being in the epic romance genre, there is a carousel of characters. My favourite painted wooden horse on the ride is OF COURSE anti-villain, KGB spy, former POW, leftist agitator Yu Fu-Kuei who lives as the mistress of a Chinese intelligence officer just to sell him out to her handlers. The INTRIGUES. THE TENSIONNNNN. THE FEELING OF BEING RIPPED APART. Yes, it goes exactly how you expect it to, and yes, it’s so satisfying to see this danse macabre play out.
If you hear me talking only about the positives of this book and not the condescending racism… well, it’s been a while since a piece of media shook me to my very core, and it just happened to be this complicated-feelings-inducing doorstepper written by Yet Another Well-Meaning White Man. What of it?
Plenty happens between page one to seven hundred to keep the reading gears turning. There’s politics, romance, manoeuvrings, atrocities, and the daily journal of a Reuters correspondent. It feels like a good, but not overwhelming, book (mostly because Fu-Kuei and Yang Li-Yang needed to be the A-plot and they weren’t and I’m sad) until we get to the ending.
That ending, okay.
It turns out this book isn’t about Scarlett O’Hara. It’s about fathers and daughters, and redemption. Henry doesn’t push Catherine out of the way of a speeding bus, or anything of the kind. Actually, he almost shoots her (on purpose no less). This is the last twenty pages when Catherine has given up hope of reconciling with the only parent who loved her, and Henry is a side character so minor that his plot motivations don’t really matter.
Until that ending. When there is an assassination attempt that only they can thwart but there is no hope of them doing so. When the consequences of doing the right thing are unspeakable and dreadful. (To my heart, and also, of lesser importance, to the characters.) When nothing would have changed for them if they did nothing, and yet they chose to—
It’s a great ending. Just take my word for it. And it will destroy you.
But I went into this re-read prepared! In the intervening years, I had actually read the first book in the series, and found it atrocious, and was fully ready to cringe at the sequel. My greatest failure is that I could not.
The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure is about the adventures of Helen Frances Delamere, a pale English reminder of Scarlett O’Hara, landing in China and being pushed into a relationship with the wrong man, while having an obsessive and ill-fated affair with a debonair scoundrel. (Henry Manners. He becomes important later.) It’s terrible because so is Helen Frances. She’s a cardboard cutout, an angry and resilient receptacle for trauma porn, and has no charm or wit. She’s a great prototype, though, and I’m glad the series found its footing in the second book.
Because if that one was discount Gone with the Wind, the sequel is what Scarlett should have been. (Stay with me, I’m going somewhere good with this.)
The Emperor's Bones dispatches Helen Frances and Henry’s love story swiftly. They parted on bittersweet terms in the first book, and since then Helen Frances has become a social-climbing, wealthy, career divorcée. She has one brief period of reunion with Henry where they live in Japan until they destroy their own happiness. Since then, Helen Frances has died in opulence, and Henry becomes a traitor to his country, a dissolute, pouchy-eyed alcoholic who is a propaganda machine and body man for the Japanese army in China.
So the story is actually about their daughter, Catherine, who is also Scarlett O’Hara (third time’s the charm) but it works. Because Catherine is a battle nurse and has lived through wars and degradation, and the only reason she’s survived is sheer bloody luck, and not because she was cleverer or special-er than the rest. And plenty of bad things happen to and around her, without her existing just to be a bulls-eye for “”period-appropriate misogyny””.
This is the only thing I ask for from Mary Sues. This book clears this very low bar easily.
(I am grateful, because it has learnt from its predecessor’s mistakes.)
After this, I can deal with every third man falling obsessively in love with Catherine because each one is realistic and different (noble cowards, scrupulous good men, manipulators who beat her at her own game). It’s okay that every woman ends up being her friend because there’s actual common ground and reciprocal kindness in those relationships (surviving being a POW, surviving random violence, respecting women’s rights to make their own choices, suspecting your neighbour is a KGB spy).
It’s even fine that the main villain does everything he does with the side goal of [redacted] Catherine because on page three, we see them meet for the first time, and she brashly flips off a warlord to his face. Character choices! Horrific consequences! You’re never not rooting for her to escape them!
This being in the epic romance genre, there is a carousel of characters. My favourite painted wooden horse on the ride is OF COURSE anti-villain, KGB spy, former POW, leftist agitator Yu Fu-Kuei who lives as the mistress of a Chinese intelligence officer just to sell him out to her handlers. The INTRIGUES. THE TENSIONNNNN. THE FEELING OF BEING RIPPED APART. Yes, it goes exactly how you expect it to, and yes, it’s so satisfying to see this danse macabre play out.
If you hear me talking only about the positives of this book and not the condescending racism… well, it’s been a while since a piece of media shook me to my very core, and it just happened to be this complicated-feelings-inducing doorstepper written by Yet Another Well-Meaning White Man. What of it?
Plenty happens between page one to seven hundred to keep the reading gears turning. There’s politics, romance, manoeuvrings, atrocities, and the daily journal of a Reuters correspondent. It feels like a good, but not overwhelming, book (mostly because Fu-Kuei and Yang Li-Yang needed to be the A-plot and they weren’t and I’m sad) until we get to the ending.
That ending, okay.
It turns out this book isn’t about Scarlett O’Hara. It’s about fathers and daughters, and redemption. Henry doesn’t push Catherine out of the way of a speeding bus, or anything of the kind. Actually, he almost shoots her (on purpose no less). This is the last twenty pages when Catherine has given up hope of reconciling with the only parent who loved her, and Henry is a side character so minor that his plot motivations don’t really matter.
Until that ending. When there is an assassination attempt that only they can thwart but there is no hope of them doing so. When the consequences of doing the right thing are unspeakable and dreadful. (To my heart, and also, of lesser importance, to the characters.) When nothing would have changed for them if they did nothing, and yet they chose to—
It’s a great ending. Just take my word for it. And it will destroy you.
September 7, 2018
The sequel to The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure, which was set in 1899 China. Read the first novel while on sabbatical in Beijing, where I had a chance to hear an entertaining talk by the author, an Englishman whose family had lived and worked in China from the 1890. Though not a great fan on historical fiction, I rather enjoyed The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure, a guilty pleasure a bit like watching Korean historical drama. The sequel is set in the battle between warlords in the 1920s. It has a large cast of British, Chinese, and Japanese characters, ranging from villainous to venial, foolish to heroic... I was within 130 pages of finishing but got put off by the rape and torture. Decided to give it one more try, easier once past the Nanking Outrage and Shanghai massacre of 1927. The final episodes were melodramatic, but brought the saga to a satisfying ending. There is a useful afterword by Adam Williams about his sources (historical and personal).
April 20, 2018
The Emperors Bones
by Adam Williams
Published in 2006 by Hodder Paperbacks, Hodder and Stoughton London
ISBN 9 780340 8281521
Adam Williams author of The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure, The Dragon’s Tail and The Book of the Alchemist is the fourth generation in his family living and working in China.
The Emperors Bones, is a well-researched, historical epic novel written by an author who has first hand knowledge of the psyche and customs of this intriguing land. He has interwoven fact and fiction, taken someone’s ordinary life and thrown it into a tumble washer-dryer then added a laundry list of political treachery, barbaric responses by arrogant, egocentric, power hungry warlords and revolutionaries to discover the emperors bones.
The story takes place in Northern China in places like: Shanghai, Harbin, Tientsin, Peitiho, Mukden and Dairen. If you’ve not heard of these places you’ll love the maps at the front of the book to help you navigate your way around this huge country.
There is a prologue, epilogue and afterword. All are essential to the enjoyment of this complex story. I love the way chapter one opens with the heading—‘Written from the Journal of William Lampsett, a Reuters correspondent 1922 Tientsin. ’It begins with, ‘The beauty of the countryside as nurse Cabot takes a minute’s break only to contrast sharply with the dying, wounded inside the makeshift hospital. She was an Englishwoman but the soldiers treated her like their own. They called her ‘the little ginger angel (angelock).
I often referred to the list of 80 characters set out in categories. This included: Marshal Chang Tso-lin a warlord of Manchuria, General Chiang Kai-shek – leader of the Northern Expedition and would be president of China if it had not fallen to the Communists led by Mao Zedong. Also, Major Yang – counter-intelligence, Yu Fu-keui his mistress and revolutionary friend of Catherine Cabot. Foreigners included: Mikhail Borodin a Stalinist emissary and advisor to Dr Sun Yat-sen who was the leader of the Nationalists, Henry Manners ex-British intelligence now working for the Japanese, the Airtons - a British family working for the Railways and their beautiful, headstrong Goddaughter—Catherine Cabot, a nurse and veteran of the Great War.
As China teeters on the verge of civil war, Catherine Cabot is drawn into the struggle between warlords and Nationalists who are literally tearing each other apart. Japan invades. Catherine becomes a pawn of men who will stop at nothing to get revenge
How Catherine found herself caught up in this war and went on to experience horrific events that she miraculously managed to survive is beyond normal understanding. Meanwhile her ex-pat British friends continued their lives like spectators looking but not seeing the horror across the road from their British or other foreign Concessions. Lets not forget that the introduction and perpetuation of opium trade by Britain was the catalyst for this upheaval and tremendous loss of life.
Highly recommended all 717 pages, essential reading to make sense of China and the world. Some wonderful love scenes and horrible recollections of man’s inhumanity to prisoners of war.
by Adam Williams
Published in 2006 by Hodder Paperbacks, Hodder and Stoughton London
ISBN 9 780340 8281521
Adam Williams author of The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure, The Dragon’s Tail and The Book of the Alchemist is the fourth generation in his family living and working in China.
The Emperors Bones, is a well-researched, historical epic novel written by an author who has first hand knowledge of the psyche and customs of this intriguing land. He has interwoven fact and fiction, taken someone’s ordinary life and thrown it into a tumble washer-dryer then added a laundry list of political treachery, barbaric responses by arrogant, egocentric, power hungry warlords and revolutionaries to discover the emperors bones.
The story takes place in Northern China in places like: Shanghai, Harbin, Tientsin, Peitiho, Mukden and Dairen. If you’ve not heard of these places you’ll love the maps at the front of the book to help you navigate your way around this huge country.
There is a prologue, epilogue and afterword. All are essential to the enjoyment of this complex story. I love the way chapter one opens with the heading—‘Written from the Journal of William Lampsett, a Reuters correspondent 1922 Tientsin. ’It begins with, ‘The beauty of the countryside as nurse Cabot takes a minute’s break only to contrast sharply with the dying, wounded inside the makeshift hospital. She was an Englishwoman but the soldiers treated her like their own. They called her ‘the little ginger angel (angelock).
I often referred to the list of 80 characters set out in categories. This included: Marshal Chang Tso-lin a warlord of Manchuria, General Chiang Kai-shek – leader of the Northern Expedition and would be president of China if it had not fallen to the Communists led by Mao Zedong. Also, Major Yang – counter-intelligence, Yu Fu-keui his mistress and revolutionary friend of Catherine Cabot. Foreigners included: Mikhail Borodin a Stalinist emissary and advisor to Dr Sun Yat-sen who was the leader of the Nationalists, Henry Manners ex-British intelligence now working for the Japanese, the Airtons - a British family working for the Railways and their beautiful, headstrong Goddaughter—Catherine Cabot, a nurse and veteran of the Great War.
As China teeters on the verge of civil war, Catherine Cabot is drawn into the struggle between warlords and Nationalists who are literally tearing each other apart. Japan invades. Catherine becomes a pawn of men who will stop at nothing to get revenge
How Catherine found herself caught up in this war and went on to experience horrific events that she miraculously managed to survive is beyond normal understanding. Meanwhile her ex-pat British friends continued their lives like spectators looking but not seeing the horror across the road from their British or other foreign Concessions. Lets not forget that the introduction and perpetuation of opium trade by Britain was the catalyst for this upheaval and tremendous loss of life.
Highly recommended all 717 pages, essential reading to make sense of China and the world. Some wonderful love scenes and horrible recollections of man’s inhumanity to prisoners of war.
August 18, 2017
English review below
***
Ik vond dit boek minder leuk dan de vorige. Hoewel er zeker nog spannende dingen gebeuren, vond ik het langzamer lezen en vond ik het moeilijk om er doorheen te komen. De politieke bewegingen spelen een grotere rol in dit boek dan in de vorige, en de auteur probeert dingen uit te leggen, maar het was nog steeds te ingewikkeld voor mij (plus, ik vond de Chinese/Japanse namen moeilijk om te onthouden, hoe stom dat ook klinkt). Sommige personages vond ik leuk, maar andere voelde ik niets voor, en andere personages uit het vorige boek die ik daar wel leuk vond, vond ik hier minder leuk. Er is minder overdreven (seksueel) geweld dan in het vorige boek als ik me goed herinner, maar het is nog steeds een donker boek. Alles bij elkaar is het geen slecht boek, maar te gecompliceerd voor mij, en met te weinig personages die me wat deden.
***
I enjoyed this book less than the previous one. While definitely some exciting things still happen, I had the feeling the pacing was slower and I had difficulty getting through it. The political movements played a bigger role in this book than in the previous one, and while the author attempted to explain things, it was still too complicated for me (plus, I couldn't keep track of the (Chinese/Japanese) names, as stupid as that sounds). I enjoyed some characters, but others just felt flat, and some characters I enjoyed in the previous book I came to dislike here. There is less graphic (sexual) violence if I remember correctly, but this book is no less dark than the previous one. The ending disappointed me somewhat. All in all, it was not a bad book, but too complicated for me, and with too few characters that appealed to me.
***
Ik vond dit boek minder leuk dan de vorige. Hoewel er zeker nog spannende dingen gebeuren, vond ik het langzamer lezen en vond ik het moeilijk om er doorheen te komen. De politieke bewegingen spelen een grotere rol in dit boek dan in de vorige, en de auteur probeert dingen uit te leggen, maar het was nog steeds te ingewikkeld voor mij (plus, ik vond de Chinese/Japanse namen moeilijk om te onthouden, hoe stom dat ook klinkt). Sommige personages vond ik leuk, maar andere voelde ik niets voor, en andere personages uit het vorige boek die ik daar wel leuk vond, vond ik hier minder leuk. Er is minder overdreven (seksueel) geweld dan in het vorige boek als ik me goed herinner, maar het is nog steeds een donker boek. Alles bij elkaar is het geen slecht boek, maar te gecompliceerd voor mij, en met te weinig personages die me wat deden.
***
I enjoyed this book less than the previous one. While definitely some exciting things still happen, I had the feeling the pacing was slower and I had difficulty getting through it. The political movements played a bigger role in this book than in the previous one, and while the author attempted to explain things, it was still too complicated for me (plus, I couldn't keep track of the (Chinese/Japanese) names, as stupid as that sounds). I enjoyed some characters, but others just felt flat, and some characters I enjoyed in the previous book I came to dislike here. There is less graphic (sexual) violence if I remember correctly, but this book is no less dark than the previous one. The ending disappointed me somewhat. All in all, it was not a bad book, but too complicated for me, and with too few characters that appealed to me.
February 12, 2024
This book reinforced to me why I persevere and don’t mark a book DNF. A third of the way through I hated it. Hated the lead character who I found shallow frivolous. The dialogue for some characters at that point I found pretentious and cringeworthy. BUT I persevered with the book and I’m glad I did! By 3/4 the way through I couldn’t put it down. It was definitely an epic, a twisting tale. For a big book like this, I didn’t find any sections that rambled on or could have been left out. The changing of perspectives throughout maintained the intrigue.
I did struggle to keep track of the names of general this and that, but I didn’t have any impact on following the story.
If you’re interested in historical fiction set in Asia, this book might be for you.
I did struggle to keep track of the names of general this and that, but I didn’t have any impact on following the story.
If you’re interested in historical fiction set in Asia, this book might be for you.
February 15, 2019
Epic read. Epilogue is fascinating. Found structure tricky as multiple story lines running concurrently and each chapter takes about 90 minutes to read. Just felt like too much story for a single book. Reminds me of Wild Swans in terms of being an epic.
December 18, 2023
I'm sure it's an excellent book - if you're very interested in China and Russia in the 20's. Difficult to remember all the strange names, too. The story is nice, also the language and the description of the persons. However -I managed 200 pages of 700, then gave up
June 28, 2020
A good story, but too long.
February 7, 2017
I should probably start off by saying this is way outside of my usual genre. I do enjoy historical fiction from time to time, but this was verging on literary in its style and I didn't get on with it at all - in fact I DNF'd it at roughly halfway (326 pages).
I found it a very densely written book, with long sentences, long paragrahs, long passages of description without break. Unfortuantely, though there were clearly some interesting things happening around the characters, they were described with the same detachment as the settings or the history interludes. To be fair, much of the description was very lyrically and beautifully written, but there was so much of it became unbeliveably wearing. I couldn't engage with any of the characters because we were so often told what they thought, felt and did by the authorly voice of authority rather than really experiencing how they were affected by the events surrounding them. When actual dialogue was involved, they had distinct, vivid voices - but it was such a small portion of their time on page, it wasn't enough to shift the tone of the overall book.
And despite this, it was clear the characters and their entanglements are suppose to be the focus of the book. The politics, the civil war and espionage all serve a a backdrop to two sets of entangled lives - a set of rather unpleasant ex-pat socialites and their various - often tawdry - affairs, and a set of young Chinese men and women with varying degrees of association to the revolutionary cause. The connections between the two groups are set up early on and their lives bounce off each other from time to time, but by the stage I gave up there was no clear sense of the stories coming together.
I also found it very irritating the way 'extra' points of view sould sometimes be dropped into the story. People who aren't major players in either storyline would have one or two brief snatches of narrative attention which as far as I could see served the author's convenience rather than the story.
So in summary: Ugh. If you're a fan of this style of historical fiction, don't let my experience put you off. But if you're used to a more immediate, engaged style of writing, or if you're looking for something a bit different, or even if you've been sucked in by a pretty cover and clever blurb (guilty!) - you have been warned.
Oh, also, the writing is tiny in this edition. Those you could easily add another hundred or so pages to these 710 if they were printed like most books. And I read big books with small print all the time.
I found it a very densely written book, with long sentences, long paragrahs, long passages of description without break. Unfortuantely, though there were clearly some interesting things happening around the characters, they were described with the same detachment as the settings or the history interludes. To be fair, much of the description was very lyrically and beautifully written, but there was so much of it became unbeliveably wearing. I couldn't engage with any of the characters because we were so often told what they thought, felt and did by the authorly voice of authority rather than really experiencing how they were affected by the events surrounding them. When actual dialogue was involved, they had distinct, vivid voices - but it was such a small portion of their time on page, it wasn't enough to shift the tone of the overall book.
And despite this, it was clear the characters and their entanglements are suppose to be the focus of the book. The politics, the civil war and espionage all serve a a backdrop to two sets of entangled lives - a set of rather unpleasant ex-pat socialites and their various - often tawdry - affairs, and a set of young Chinese men and women with varying degrees of association to the revolutionary cause. The connections between the two groups are set up early on and their lives bounce off each other from time to time, but by the stage I gave up there was no clear sense of the stories coming together.
I also found it very irritating the way 'extra' points of view sould sometimes be dropped into the story. People who aren't major players in either storyline would have one or two brief snatches of narrative attention which as far as I could see served the author's convenience rather than the story.
So in summary: Ugh. If you're a fan of this style of historical fiction, don't let my experience put you off. But if you're used to a more immediate, engaged style of writing, or if you're looking for something a bit different, or even if you've been sucked in by a pretty cover and clever blurb (guilty!) - you have been warned.
Oh, also, the writing is tiny in this edition. Those you could easily add another hundred or so pages to these 710 if they were printed like most books. And I read big books with small print all the time.
Read
April 24, 2013I found the historical background of the novel quite magical set in the 19th Century and the storyline kept me interested throughout the whole novel. The characters were well developed and you could easily be drawn into the storyline, becoming one of the characters easily.
You can easily get the sense that the author has a deep knowledge and understanding of the country and also as we read this novel, we get educated in the politics of China in the 1920s. You see that the author has done thorough research to write this novel and I can always appreciate the work of an author who goes through such length to produce quality novels for us to read. I have read this “over 700 page” novel about two times.
For my full review:
https://bookshelvesandwindowseats.wor...
You can easily get the sense that the author has a deep knowledge and understanding of the country and also as we read this novel, we get educated in the politics of China in the 1920s. You see that the author has done thorough research to write this novel and I can always appreciate the work of an author who goes through such length to produce quality novels for us to read. I have read this “over 700 page” novel about two times.
For my full review:
https://bookshelvesandwindowseats.wor...
December 4, 2015
Normalmente me gustan los libros de ese estilo, al principio me enganchó es decir, que os voy a decir era un tema que me gustaba. Pero no pude encajar con los protagonistas, se que es una tontería ya que las protagonistas son distintas a esas damas en apuros que se ven en muchos libros, pero esta vez no, esta vez he podido conseguir pasar de la página 200? me parece que llegue a la 200 o 198 y lo dejé de lado. Las protagonistas me parecían demasiado " fáciles " o que lo tenían todo por la belleza, y a veces la única que me gustaba de las protagonistas, tenía tan poco protagonismo que nada más parecía una secundaria.
May 21, 2016
This is a big book but do not let that put you off. The story revolves around Catherine and her journey in China. It takes in the brits in China and the unrest surrounding China in the 19th century. It is very well written, the characters are so well drawn that you become immersed in the story. His understanding of the country and its politics is excellent. I have read this book at least three times and pick up something new each time, which is the best kind of book in my opinion.
March 9, 2014
Ero indecisa sulle 5 stelle. Il primo mi sembrava migliore.
Lei la dà via un po' troppo facilmente; ci sono davvero troppe coincidenze; alcuni passaggi sono inutili, a mio avviso.
Nonostante questo, un bellissimo romanzo.
Lei la dà via un po' troppo facilmente; ci sono davvero troppe coincidenze; alcuni passaggi sono inutili, a mio avviso.
Nonostante questo, un bellissimo romanzo.
Read
March 30, 2009Loved it.
April 15, 2012
The historical background was fascinating and kept me interested all the way through, but I would have enjoyed the book more if I hadn't disliked the characters so much.
March 25, 2013
It's been a while since I read this book so I'm going to come back and review it after I re-read it.
March 13, 2014
Not worth my time
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews