What do you think?
Rate this book
Lotus Land
Three people from different cultures--Sung Wing On, a Chinese refugee, Maria Magdalena Ortiz, a Mexican beauty ostracized from her village, and Clifford Creighton, a Baltimore aristocrat--and their descendants play an integral role in the growth of Los Angeles.
383 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
3 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
Monica Highland
4 books2 followersAuthor Carolyn See wrote under the pen name Monica Highland, a name she shared with two others, her daughter author Lisa See and her longtime companion, author John Espey, who died in 2000.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 24, 2017
This book was loaned to me over 25 years ago by a person who said, "You will love this book." And I did. Since I had to return the book, over the years I had forgotten the name of it, only remembering one word in the title, "Lotus." I tried to find this book on Amazon. No luck. A friend said, "Google it." So I typed in "book, Lotus" and spent a day searching. Eureka! I bought myself a copy and several as Christmas gifts, and then I bought more for my book group, and they are reading it now. I will come back and give some of their opinions.
A coincident. When I found the book on Amazon: Out of 4 reviews, one other person had also been trying to find the book. He had written that his mom had read the book years ago and loaned to him. He had lost the book and had a hard time finding it on line but had remembered a few key words. He kept searching until he found it and then wrote, "Don't lose your copy!"
And so now I, too, have read the book again. At first I couldn't put it down, and I found that I still loved the first 100 pages or more, but after that I became bored with much of the book. But I am still giving it 5 stars because the first time I read it, it was 5 stars.
The book begins in 1880 with three people, from different cultures, making their way to Pasadena, California:
Sung, a young boy, lives in a small village in China, but then his parents and many other villagers have died from the bubonic plague. He takes his mother's earrings out of her ears and packs them in a bag along with a few other items. He walks out of his village to go the Mountain of Gold that his cousin had always talked about:
"...just three weeks ago, the home village had been as it always was. Only three weeks ago, he and his brothers and sisters were hunkered down--just as on every other evening he could remember--holding their bowls filled with rice.
...his cousin Bin Tang told for the hundredth time of the wonderful day he had spent in the Big city, and how he had seen boats five times as tall as their own thatched village homes, anchored in the harbor, their decks swarming with round-eyed devils who claimed to have sailed these giant, floating pagodas thousands of li as far as the eye could see, and further, all the way to the Mountain of Gold."
Then there is Magdalena, who walks out of her village in Sonoita, Mexico. She is pregnant and was just beaten by her father for this crime of getting pregnant by her married boss. Her mother tells her that her real father, has moved to Los Angeles, so she decides to walk to L.A. to find him because she feels that there is nothing left for her in her village; she is disgraced, ostracized.
And last of all there is Clifford, a Baltimore aristocrat, who gets on a train to Los Angeles to find a new life.
Once in Pasadena, all three of these people's lives intertwine, so over the next few generations we will read about the black plague in L.A. (which had happened but not at that time), romance, marriages, a big interest in what people are wearing and eating, racism, a short wife beating scene, adultery, the Spanish flu, war, death, and aging.
What I found in reading the book this time is that the book had too many generations going at once, not just one family but three, and so the author really wasn't able to develop the characters enough for me to really care about what happens to them next.
Lisa See, her mother Carolyn See and John Espey wrote this book together. Those who like Lisa See may wish to read this book, but it is hard to know who contributed what to the writing. I do know that John Espey was a professor and so helped with the history.
My, how my love for a book can change over the years! What happened? I really wish that I had loved the book entirely. I think of other books that I have read over the years, would I like them again?
What I remembered about this book that has lasted over the years is this scene:
"And then, a knock on the door.
Magdalena herself answered...
"Buenas noches, senora," said a young woman about Magdalena's age. Who cradled an infant in a rebozo. "They told us that we could find a room here."
...Magdalena took in the little family group. The woman who had spoken could have been from Magdalena's own town. She was dressed plainly, in the Yaqui style. The darkness of her complexion and her fine cheekbones hid any trace of fatigue. Her husband in contrast showed incontrovertible signs of a long and trying journey...
The next morning, "Magdalena was surprised to turn and find the Indian woman standing next to her like a ghost." And then death followed again, and this time Sung, who also worked at this rooming house, faced the plague once again.
I always remembered how death could come so easily with just a knock at the door.
A coincident. When I found the book on Amazon: Out of 4 reviews, one other person had also been trying to find the book. He had written that his mom had read the book years ago and loaned to him. He had lost the book and had a hard time finding it on line but had remembered a few key words. He kept searching until he found it and then wrote, "Don't lose your copy!"
And so now I, too, have read the book again. At first I couldn't put it down, and I found that I still loved the first 100 pages or more, but after that I became bored with much of the book. But I am still giving it 5 stars because the first time I read it, it was 5 stars.
The book begins in 1880 with three people, from different cultures, making their way to Pasadena, California:
Sung, a young boy, lives in a small village in China, but then his parents and many other villagers have died from the bubonic plague. He takes his mother's earrings out of her ears and packs them in a bag along with a few other items. He walks out of his village to go the Mountain of Gold that his cousin had always talked about:
"...just three weeks ago, the home village had been as it always was. Only three weeks ago, he and his brothers and sisters were hunkered down--just as on every other evening he could remember--holding their bowls filled with rice.
...his cousin Bin Tang told for the hundredth time of the wonderful day he had spent in the Big city, and how he had seen boats five times as tall as their own thatched village homes, anchored in the harbor, their decks swarming with round-eyed devils who claimed to have sailed these giant, floating pagodas thousands of li as far as the eye could see, and further, all the way to the Mountain of Gold."
Then there is Magdalena, who walks out of her village in Sonoita, Mexico. She is pregnant and was just beaten by her father for this crime of getting pregnant by her married boss. Her mother tells her that her real father, has moved to Los Angeles, so she decides to walk to L.A. to find him because she feels that there is nothing left for her in her village; she is disgraced, ostracized.
And last of all there is Clifford, a Baltimore aristocrat, who gets on a train to Los Angeles to find a new life.
Once in Pasadena, all three of these people's lives intertwine, so over the next few generations we will read about the black plague in L.A. (which had happened but not at that time), romance, marriages, a big interest in what people are wearing and eating, racism, a short wife beating scene, adultery, the Spanish flu, war, death, and aging.
What I found in reading the book this time is that the book had too many generations going at once, not just one family but three, and so the author really wasn't able to develop the characters enough for me to really care about what happens to them next.
Lisa See, her mother Carolyn See and John Espey wrote this book together. Those who like Lisa See may wish to read this book, but it is hard to know who contributed what to the writing. I do know that John Espey was a professor and so helped with the history.
My, how my love for a book can change over the years! What happened? I really wish that I had loved the book entirely. I think of other books that I have read over the years, would I like them again?
What I remembered about this book that has lasted over the years is this scene:
"And then, a knock on the door.
Magdalena herself answered...
"Buenas noches, senora," said a young woman about Magdalena's age. Who cradled an infant in a rebozo. "They told us that we could find a room here."
...Magdalena took in the little family group. The woman who had spoken could have been from Magdalena's own town. She was dressed plainly, in the Yaqui style. The darkness of her complexion and her fine cheekbones hid any trace of fatigue. Her husband in contrast showed incontrovertible signs of a long and trying journey...
The next morning, "Magdalena was surprised to turn and find the Indian woman standing next to her like a ghost." And then death followed again, and this time Sung, who also worked at this rooming house, faced the plague once again.
I always remembered how death could come so easily with just a knock at the door.
June 10, 2018
Despite its tawdry cover, which makes this historical fiction appear to be a run of the mill romance novel, Lotus Land is a rather good account of the development of Los Angeles in the 1800's.
June 3, 2011
Good LA history.
December 9, 2012
hist. novel of california 1865-1950 every page good
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews