The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan
For those of you who know me, I love reading about China and its culture. I'm a big fan of Amy Tan, especially The Joy Luck Club. So when I found The Valley of Amazement on the shelf, I was intrigued by the blurbs on the cover.
This book requires a big investment of time at over 900 pages, but I was all in. The story begins from Violet's view point. She's the daughter of Lulu Mimi, an American woman running a high end courtesan house in Shanghai in the early 20th century. Violet is a precocious young girl and truly believes she is an American girl, living as a foreigner in China. When her mother decides to return to the United States, and Violet's birth certificate is missing, she allows Violet to go with a man to the consulate to retrieve a copy for the trip. Lulu Mimi is tricked and Violet is sold into the life of a courtesan.
The plot line sounds interesting so far. But I began to tune out when I suffered through at least 50 pages of instruction to Violet on how to become a courtesan. The word 'pudenda' was used so often, it became annoying. I get it, she's learning the nuances of enticing a man with sex. From that point on I slugged through all kinds of death and disaster and I still couldn't feel sorry for Violet or her mother.
I'm so disappointed. There is so much going on in this book but no one was able to keep my interest. The Valley of Amazement was everything but amazing.
For those of you who know me, I love reading about China and its culture. I'm a big fan of Amy Tan, especially The Joy Luck Club. So when I found The Valley of Amazement on the shelf, I was intrigued by the blurbs on the cover.
This book requires a big investment of time at over 900 pages, but I was all in. The story begins from Violet's view point. She's the daughter of Lulu Mimi, an American woman running a high end courtesan house in Shanghai in the early 20th century. Violet is a precocious young girl and truly believes she is an American girl, living as a foreigner in China. When her mother decides to return to the United States, and Violet's birth certificate is missing, she allows Violet to go with a man to the consulate to retrieve a copy for the trip. Lulu Mimi is tricked and Violet is sold into the life of a courtesan.
The plot line sounds interesting so far. But I began to tune out when I suffered through at least 50 pages of instruction to Violet on how to become a courtesan. The word 'pudenda' was used so often, it became annoying. I get it, she's learning the nuances of enticing a man with sex. From that point on I slugged through all kinds of death and disaster and I still couldn't feel sorry for Violet or her mother.
I'm so disappointed. There is so much going on in this book but no one was able to keep my interest. The Valley of Amazement was everything but amazing.
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