Average customer rating:
- Distant Land Made Near
- mostly boring
- WHY ISN'T THIS BOOK BETTER KNOWN?
- Nostalgia
- I trust you will be just as Wowed as I was!
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The Distant Land of My Father
Bo Caldwell
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0156027135 |
Amazon.com
The Distant Land of My Father begins like a fairy tale: "My father was a millionaire in Shanghai in the 1930s.... On the day he was born, in the province of Shantung, neighbors presented my missionary grandparents, the only Americans for miles, with noodles in great abundance and one hundred chicken eggs, in honor of their son's birth." To the young Anna Schoene, life in Shanghai is indeed magical. There are servants, a luxurious villa, a beautiful mother who smells like Chanel No. 5, and a young, handsome, polo-playing father. Unfortunately, her father is also a smuggler and speculator who loves his freewheeling life more than anything (or anyone) else. Despite warnings, Schoene refuses to leave Shanghai even after the Japanese invade, and his wife and child retreat to Los Angeles; later, he survives imprisonment and torture only to once again choose Shanghai over his family--this time with the Communists moving in.
Bo Caldwell's sepia-toned evocation of 1930s Shanghai is lovely and physical, and given the built-in drama of its setting, this first novel ought to have the vividness of a classic movie. Yet the characters remain oddly flat while world events swirl around them. Great chunks of historical exposition seem largely undigested, while Schoene's final change of heart fails to ring true. In a sense, however, these shortcomings are beside the point. The Distant Land of My Father is above all a tragic romance, albeit one with an unusual love interest. Schoene is so besotted with Shanghai that his wife and daughter are scarcely as real to him as the city itself. --Mary Park
Book Description
Anna, the narrator of this riveting first novel, lives in a storybook world: exotic pre- World War II Shanghai, with handsome young parents, wealth, and comfort. Her father, the son of missionaries, leads a charmed and secretive life, though his greatest joy is sharing his beloved city with his only daughter. Yet when Anna and her mother flee Japanese-occupied Shanghai to return to California, he stays behind, believing his connections and a little bit of luck will keep him safe.
Through Anna's memories and her father's journals we learn of his fall from charismatic millionaire to tortured prisoner, in a story of betrayal and reconciliation that spans two continents. The Distant Land of My Father, a breathtaking and richly lyrical debut, unfolds to reveal an enduring family love through tragic circumstances.
National Bestseller
Customer Reviews:
Distant Land Made Near.......2007-08-13
This is a truly remarkable first novel. The author, Bo Caldwell, has made the city of Shanghai of the 1930's come alive, not only in he visual aspects of the city but in the ambience of the time. The dharacter of the young girl is so well developed that it is difficult to believe that this is not autobiographical rather than fiction. Her complex and conflicting emotions about her father are completely believable and even vicariously experienced in a sense. The character of the mother, too, is welll developed and, like that of the daughter, very sympathetic. My only adverse criticism is that the character of the father is not sufficiently developed to be completely convincing.
mostly boring.......2007-06-29
While the premise of THE DISTANT LAND OF MY FATHER intrigued me - an American family living in Shanghai in the 1930's when the Japanese invaded China - this book took way too long to pull me in. Although written in the first person, the author's writing style is detached and impersonal. This book reads as if it's a piece for the evening news - telling the reader this or that detail, offering only small glimpses of the main characters' inner lives. The reader is told, not made to experience, what's going on. Also, the author's overly-detailed writing bored me to tears. The research Caldwell did preparing for this book was quite evident, but it would have been appreciated more if she hadn't gone on for pages upon pages detailing a barrage of Shanghai minutia - i.e., the order of streets and buildings were so thoroughly detailed I had to pinch myself to stay awake. (This book was my book-group's June selection, which is the only reason I kept on reading.) Finally, somewhere around page 250, the plot became suddenly more engaging and I found myself actually interested in the characters and what was to become of them.
In the end, I found THE DISTANT LAND OF MY FATHER a somewhat interesting read. But this book could have been wonderful - had the author written in a deeper point of view, and made the dialogue more engaging from the start.
WHY ISN'T THIS BOOK BETTER KNOWN?.......2007-06-23
This book is wonderful and unique, it is hard to believe it is fiction - Bo Caldwell has us seeing, feeling and smelling Shanghai and Southern California in the 40's and 50's. This book should be made into a movie - at the very least it should have been a number one bestseller for weeks on end. Everyone I have recommended it to has been blown away. I am looking forward to her next effort.
Nostalgia.......2007-05-07
Strained relationships between middle-aged parents and their daughter are the focus of a story whose main interest for me was the reliving of the period from WWII into the 50s and 60s, with some mostly accurate information about the customs and values of a now-longago time in Shanghai and Southern California. As I am a resident of the Pasadena area the local geography brought to life a story that was otherwise not terribly compelling of a daughter's ambiguous relationship with her father and grandmother. The somewhat shady experiences of the father in Shanghai were perhaps purposely not clearly defined. All in all, it's a nice book to take and read on a long trip.
I trust you will be just as Wowed as I was!.......2007-02-23
Let me first explain how I came upon reading DISTANT LAND. I was in Vroman's bookstore in Pasadena, CA and noticed the book being promoted.
I actually bought it thinking it was a memoir and only upon getting it home realized that it was a fictional memoir, in fact a first novel. Then I noted in Vroman's magazine that each year the city of Pasadena picks one book for the whole city to read, so that the city has a common cultural experience. For 2007 that book is DISTANT LAND. At the time I did not know the city of South Pasadena plays a significant roll in the narrative. Then next I had to over come the fact that I am not particularly found of novels told in the first person as DISTANT LANDS is narrated by Anna who we meet as a young girl in Shanghai in love with her surroundings and with her father. A Father who appears at ease with being a blond, blue eyed native born Chinese (born of missionary parents). The novel is epic (taking place from the late 30s to the early 80s), yet intimate and a very unique emotional telling of Anna's life and her Father's love of Shanghai which we discover consumes him as he commits one poor value judgment over another. The book is brilliant in creating a sense of place and character, you are constantly surprised and will find the last 100 pages will rip tears from right out of your eyes. I understand this is Ms. Caldwell's first novel and it is simply an amazing, entertaining, and enlightening achievement in what some might classify as an historical novel. But it is really in the end an intimate story of emotions, choices, and consequences, told through terribly real people that have to learn that love is
overcoming the serious faults of those we should (and must) love. The distant land of Anne's father may have been Shanghai, China, but it was really the emotional distance she felt when her father chooses his love for Shanghai over her and her mother. You come to fell this must be a true memoir as is so believable. This is an outstanding book and I trust you will be just as Wowed by it as I was.
Book Description
Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau is summoned by an official of the party to take the lead in a corruption investigation - one where the principle figure and his family have long since fled to the United States and beyond the reach of the Chinese government. But he left behind the organization and his partners-in-crime, and Inspector Chen is charged to uncover those responsible and act as necessary to end the corruption ring. In a twisting case that takes him from Shanghai, all the way to the U.S., reuniting him with his previous cohort from the U.S. Marshall's service - Inspector Catherine Rhon.At once a compelling crime novel and a insightful, moving portrayal of everyday life, The Emperor's Sword is the next installment in the critically acclaimed, award-wining Inspector Chen series.
Customer Reviews:
Bit of a struggle getting through it.......2007-05-13
My wife is from Shanghai. I have read the Inspector Chen series aloud to her over the past few years. She enjoys hearing about and explaining to me the various Shanghai expressions that Qiu Xiaolong uses. She also enjoys hearing and then back-translating much of the Tang dynasty poetry that is included in the stories.
However this time, I'm finding the story heavy going. Qiu is not a native English speaker and he's no Joseph Conrad. The language is pretty pedestrian and the story lacks drama.
With Chen's visit to the USA, I was hoping for similar poignant descriptions of culture shock to what Martin Cruz Smith used in Polar Star when he had his Soviet fishing crew come ashore in Alaska for a shopping spree.
I will continue following the story of Chief Inspector Chen but only because of my particular "China interest".
A Case of Two Cultures.......2007-03-16
Inspector Chen's world is one worth visiting. His character is becoming fully fleshed-out in the later volumes, even as his able assistants take on more crucial roles and more challenging tasks. I learned as much about Chinese culture from Chen's foreign jaunt in the United States as from his adventures in Shanghai. Qiu Xiaolong is one of the few authors whose books I make a point of reading as soon as they are published (even in hardcover), and A Case of Two Cities did not disappoint.
Qiu explores culture through crime; an intriguing portrait of modern China.......2007-02-06
Like Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko in Moscow, Qiu Xiaolong's Shanghai-based Inspector Chen Cao illuminates the darker corners of a political culture very different from our own, while maintaining a precarious balance in his work between principle and practicality.
Rapid change in urban China, particularly the contrast between new rich and ordinary poor, provides the backdrop for a case involving high-level corruption.
A wealthy businessman, Xing, has absconded to America with millions in stolen wealth. Assigned the unenviable job of finding and exposing the tentacles of Xing's vast smuggling operation, Chen, naturally, is as leery as he is zealous. With good reason, as a valuable witness is promptly murdered.
And shortly thereafter Chen is appointed head of a literary delegation to the U.S., though his poetry career is outwardly defunct. Is he being shunted out of the way or is he expected to go after Xing in America?
Using all the pull he can muster, Chen leaves the case in the capable hands of his assistant Yu, who is in turn assisted ably by his father and wife, quirky and resourceful characters who seem to be moving into more prominent roles.
Feints and counter feints keep everything from being too brightly illuminated as Chen continues his investigation in L.A. and St. Louis (meeting up again with U.S. Marshall Catherine Rhon), while communicating with Yu in an unwieldy code by cell phone.
The plot has a resolution, sort of, but the real meat and pleasure of this book is the cultural context, from Chen's use of ancient poetry and the literary delegations' clashes with American academics, to descriptions of food, daily life and the odd little differences in the way cultures think.
Long on poetry, short on action and drama.......2007-01-19
I've enjoyed all his books, but this one faltered. It had a classroom, somnolent feel, lacking genuine conflict and risk. I looked forward to the contrast between America and Shanghai and to the reunion of Chen with the CIA's Catherine. Neither fulfilled the potential of heightened drama. The familiar characters were just that--familiar. Nothing advanced.
Qui Xialong - WOWs me AGAIN!!!!!.......2007-01-04
Qiu Xiaolong writes in a way that is so wonderful on several levels:
1. He is a superb writer.
2. These are very good mysteries/crime stories. No pat endings and detailed characters with complex motives and relationships.
3. This view into modern life in China and the effects on its people of that nations recent history are not to be missed. Nowhere will you find such a detailed and eye-opening look at "real life" in China unless you have friends from there!
Book Description
These two fascinating cities reflect different aspects of China - Beijing is the traditional capital, the seat of political power and home to the ancient monuments of Imperial China; Shanghai is both a financial powerhouse and a city at the cutting edge of fashion with an interesting modern history. This DK Eyewitness Travel Guide provides in-depth coverage of these cities, including Beijing's Great Wall and Forbidden City, Shanghai's Bund and the French Concession, as well as the water towns of Suzhou and Hangzhou, graced with serene and timeless gardens and lakes. Explore China's cultural heritage through richly illustrated features - on everything from Beijing Opera to Confucianism, Chinese Gardens and the Cultural Revolution. Illustrated food features highlight the differing regional cuisines, and resident China experts have provided detailed listings of the best places to stay and eat. Specially devised walking tours take you easily to the heart of these bustling, enigmatic and ultimately bewitching cities.
Customer Reviews:
Beijing and Shanghai (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Eyewitness Travel Guides).......2007-08-02
Very informative and accurate. Gave us a "before" overview of what we were going to see and an "after" review of what we had already seen. Up to date information.
Great breadth and depth.......2007-05-07
As a repeat visitor, I can tell you this guide is a great outline of the major sites, map locations, and profuse illustrations and photos. The street maps are thorough, too. It is thinner and lighter than the complete DK China Guide, so it travels with you much more easily. As all Eyewitness Guides, this one is brief when reviewing hotels and restaurants, so Frommers, Fodors and others can give you those.
Travel Guide.......2007-03-22
A great guide to Beijing and Shanghai. Thin and light enough to fit in a shoulder bag.
Book Description
Praise for Qiu Xiaolong:
"A sequel [to Death of a Red Heroine] that in many ways is even more impressive. . . . [Qiu] has moved from the poetic, exotic milieu of his first book (although plenty of elements remain) into a tougher, wider, probably more commercial and modern version of China as seen by America."-Chicago Tribune
"Another wonderful novel featuring Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police Bureau . . . [for] Sinophiles like myself, who fantasize about taking an insider's tour of Shanghai."-Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air
"The travelogue aspects of the novel don't overwhelm it's critical intelligence. As in all hard-boiled [mysteries], the murder and mayhem provide a cover story for a larger investigation of social mysteries."-Chicago Sun-Times
Inspector Chen's mentor in the Shanghai Police Bureau has assigned him to escort U.S. Marshal Catherine Rohn. Her mission is to bring Wen, the wife of a witness in an important criminal trial, to the United States. Inspector Rohn is already en route when Chen learns that Wen has unaccountably vanished from her village in Fujian. Or is this just what he is supposed to believe? Chen resents his role; he would rather investigate the triad killing in Shanghai's beauteous Bund Park. But his boss insists that saving face with Inspector Rohn has priority. So Chen Cao, the ambitious son of a father who imbued him with Confucian precepts, must tread warily as he tries once again to be a good cop, a good man, and also a loyal Party member.
Qiu Xiaolong, a prize-winning poet and critic in China, now teaches at Washington University in St. Louis, where he lives with his wife and daughter.
Customer Reviews:
Crime Beat Street Blog Review.......2007-09-12
I was really looking forward to the second installment in the Inspector Chen series but was quite disappointed in this book. Detective Yu, a primary character in the first novel, barely made an appearance in this one, instead too much time is devoted to the character Detective Rohn, an American working for the U.S. Marshall's office. Frankly she just isn't that interesting, she seems like a caricature of an American woman, blond, pretty, not all that smart save for an occasional comment here and there, and worst of all close minded. I didn't really get into the "what could have been" romantic suggestion the author made about her and Chen, she was too condescedning towards the Chinese, I didn't think Chen, despite his own struggles within the political system, would really find her appealing.
I also felt Qiu Xiaolong relied too heavily on plot devices he used in Death of Red Heroine, which were fabulous the first time but formulaic here. It seemed like Inspector Chen doesn't really work at all, he just ponders things until he makes a connection. That is part of detective work, but not the whole bit. Also, Chen summarizing the wrap up at the end of the novel was dull, I wanted to read about the things he discovered as he was discovering them, not later in summary. How is the reader supposed to feel like part of the story otherwise?
Despite all these criticisms there were some great moments in the book, and I hope I never have to drink snake's blood to show my gratitude to anyone!
Poetry, food, and culture.......2006-12-21
The book contains all the ingredients that make a mystery good -- a puzzling crime, dialogs between characters whose implications are left for the reader to extract, and a plausible conclusion. However it was not for these elements alone that I enjoyed the book. In fact I had picked up the volume after hearing a review for it on NPR (National Public Radio). It was reported in that review that the book depicted the going-on in current China, in particular Shanghai very well. I found the statement to be well grounded.
The fabrics of the city are of course delivered through the book's protagonist, chief inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai police bureau. He is an intelligent 30-ish man of integrity who enjoys poetry and food. Because of his interest in poetry, readers are exposed to fragments of Chinese poetry throughout (for every 5 pages or so appears a fragment). His predilection towards food brings readers to the nooks and corners of Shanghai for gourmet Chinese food and specialties. The process of solving the case reveals snapshots of the society -- how guanxi (loosely translated as relationships or connections) dominates every aspect in life, how no one is ever free from politics (Chen Cao often times withholds information even from his own boss for political considerations), how rapid economic growth is accompanied by the growth of the triads, how Mao's cultural revolution is still affecting peoples' lives, etc. Cultural differences between US and China is also highlighted through the character US Marshal Catherine Rohn, who is Chen's US counterpart in solving the illegal immigration case and serves as his love interest in this episode (another cultural aspect -- Chen gets monitored by Internal Security for his interest in Catherine).
Except for the slight slackening of pace towards the end I enjoyed the novel very much. This was my first episode in Inspector Chen series. Immediately after finishing this book I placed an order for an older episode featuring Chen.
Disappointing.......2006-06-06
I'd heard good things about Qiu's first book, Death of a Red Heroine, but was only able to get my hands on his second book, ALCD. I picked it up eagerly, not because I like mystery fiction generally, but I am interested in the political and cultural environment of China. I was surprised to find the book a bit dull. I liked the detailed descriptions about life in china, but I found the characters not particularly interesting and the story kind of pedestrian. Moreover, I found the attraction between Chen and Rohn very grating, but that's prob because I hate romantic stuff in non-romance books. Seemed very hollywood to me. In fact, wouldn't be at all surprised if the book was made into a movie. Anyway, I would still recommend reading the book because it does paint a very interesting portrait of life in china and it's always a good thing to support authors there. If you are interested in reading more chinese authors, check out Mo Yan. Cheers.
More case and less political atmosphere .......2005-05-28
Having thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, Death of a Red Heroine, I jumped right into reading the sequel. This second visit with Chief Inspector Chen and his loyal deputy Yu is fun and the case even more interesting than that in the Red Heroine as it involves gangs and illegal immigration from China to the United States. But what I really liked in Red Heroine was the interesting group of characters, the descriptions of life and political atmosphere of 1990 Shanghai. Nothing in Character Dancer add to the first book in this area as it is not fresh and the group of characters are given minor rolls. New twist is that Inspector Chen must work with a United States Marshal, a woman named Catherine Rohn. This I suspect was a plot devise to give some dialog to the management of U.S. / China relations. The problem here is that the Rohn character is so underwritten she becomes more of wooden prop to hold up the narrative. And lastly, I am not a big fan of mysteries that end which several pages of the brilliant inspector explaining all that happened and perhaps why. All that said if you liked the character of Inspector Chen and a book more aimed at the case than the character I think you will get some entertainment value. I do plan to read the next book in the series and hope it returns to the roots of Red Heroine.
Don't read this writer for the mystery alone!.......2005-01-06
Once again Qiu Xiaolong offers a fantastic mystery. What amazed me in his first novel was the cultural depth, so to speak, the feeling I had at the end of the novel that I had learned more about modern China than I would have, had I watched a documentary or assisted a one-semester course at the local university. I had the same sensation this time, even though some of the minor details were already known. Inspector Chen is a very believable character caught like so many of us between a profession [police officer] and an avocation [poet] which at first appear mutually exclusive. The true revelation comes when we discover how his knowledge of poetry helps him in his investigations. This characteristic of his, the love of poetry, also makes Chen - at least to my eyes -- more Chinese, for crafty, more sensitive than many men and certainly than most detectives, reminescent only of Inspector Morse, in his beloved Cambridge.
I agree with the previous reviewer than some of the more literary passages, tangential subjects, and cultural observations appear to have been shaved off in this second book, probably through the hands of some know-it-all editor who believes that a thick book with plenty of literary allusions might bore or be too much of a challenge to the ninth-grade level reading he imagines his readers to possess.
But in the end, the cuts, if there were some, did not take away from the overall charm of the book, of Inspector Chen and of China.
I intend to read his next book and I strongly recommend the reading of this one; both for the mystery as well as for the information on a changing China.
Customer Reviews:
China '66-67 vs USA '02-07.......2007-03-13
The parallels I see between the behaviour and actions shown by the Chinese Government in 1966-68 in this book regarding the "Cultural Revolution's Gang of Four" and the US government's use of the "Patriot's Act" toward US citizen's and prisoner's in Guantánamo to be frightfully and terrifyingly similar.
Read this book and make your own conclusions.
Unbelievable - great inside story of Cultural Revolution.......2007-03-04
Five stars. Top notch book by a victim of the Cultural Revolution. You wouldn't believe it if it was fiction. It's hard to believe as fact, but China is a lot different than the US, especially during the Mao years (1949 - 1976). This is a great look of an average "capitalist" citizen who has to struggle to survive.
I think this could actually go in the "Survival" genre. Most in that genre survive against nature, but a few (including Victor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" survive against brutal governments.
I haven't had a book keep me up late into the night for a while. Highly recommended to all.
begs one question.......2007-01-02
An excellent book in the vein of the creative memoir, reminiscent in this way of Karr's Liar's Club. Historical fiction at its best. Occasionally, however, the book feels a little Rocky Balboa, i.e. too epic and romantic in the self-heroizing of the narrator to be completely credible. One thing that is never explained is why the Red Guards would go to all this trouble with her, trying to get her to confess, when they were essentially not accountable to anyone for their actions and could just as well have taken her out and shot her if they felt like it, or those they seem to want her to betray. She seems to have some secret knowledge that they in fact won't do this, which she doesn't share with us, which takes away a lot of the boldness and daring from her standing up to them as she does. It's great Count of Monte Cristo stuff, but there seems no good reason for all the care they take with her, instead of either shooting her or just locking her up a la gulag and throwing away the key. Unless of course the Red Guards were really as retarded as they seem in the book.
Chinese Hardball.......2006-11-25
A philosopher suggested that anyone wanting to understand the American people should first learn the game of baseball. Similarly, it might be said that to begin to fathom the inscrutable Chinese, one would do well to first learn Go. Whereas, baseball requires strength, speed, agility, and quick thinking, to excel in the board game Go, only superior intelligence and great patience are required. In Go, power and speed, be they mental or physical, are of little import. There are no home runs in Go. In Life and Death in Shanghai, our real life heroine relies on her intelligence and patience in a seven year battle against tyranny. Amazingly, her story is told unemotionally. Bit by bit, as if placing Go stones, she explains her situation. Stripped of her belongings. Accused of spying. Separated from her daughter. Jailed. Tortured. Ill. Interrogated. Hemorrhaging. Losing teeth. Isolated. Released. Watched.
For every harrowing event she always seems to have an appropriate studied response. As vicarious observers, the esthetic of her performance is on a par with hearing Yehudi Menuhin in his prime. Whether its DiMag in the outfield, Dr. J. to the hoop, or Cheng in a "struggle" meeting, there are few experiences that can match the thrill of seeing a truly great artist perform at the top of their game.
Triumph of the Human Spirit.......2006-11-05
This may be one of the most important books I have ever read. The lessons within its pages are as much about a period of history in China as they are about the power and strength of the human character. I bought the book as one of many to provide me with insight into China's recent history and what I took away was so much more than that. Nien Cheng sets the bar high for standards of integrity, discipline and commitment to the self. I am grateful she shared her painful, though triumphant, story with the world. This should be required reading for anyone interested in Chinese culture, but also for anyone who welcomes inspiration to overcome life's hardships.
Book Description
Energy, excess, glamour: discover what today's Shanghai is all about. Rub shoulders with taichi experts and ballroom dancers along the historic Bund. Explore Shanghai's traditional temples and the coveted French Concession. Treat yourself to first-rate fusion cuisine and countless boutiques and markets - or just gobble dumplings by the dozen. This smart and streetwise guide will show you Shanghai's best-kept secrets.
PICK UP THE PULSE of the city - we show you minimalist bars, hard-to-find clubs, acrobats and Chinese opera
FIND IT WITH EASE - clear, user-friendly maps and Chinese script take you where you want to go
ESCAPE AND EXPLORE - excursions to the gardens of Suzhou and the Southern Song capital, Hangzhou
FEAST LIKE A LOCAL - opinionated reviews uncover the flavours of Shanghai, from the cheapest xiaolóngbao to the most decadent fine dining
INDULGE in retail therapy - we show you Shanghai's best market bargains, boutiques and bazaars
Customer Reviews:
Out of Date.......2007-06-22
As of June 2007, this book has become out of date. Many of the shikumen houses that I went to visit have been torn down in Shanghai in an effort to modernize the city by 2010 for the World Expo. Maps of the metro subways are also out of date. The book currently has partial maps of the 2 lines. There are now 5 different subway lines and still many more to be built. This book is a great introduction to Shanghai, but it is out of date (just like pretty much all the other books on the city).
To sum it up, pretty good book, but just don't count on the book being your only source of information on Shanghai.
A weath of information.......2007-05-12
I have read this book cover to cover in anticipation for my trip to Shanghai. I am hoping that it will save me time and money by giving me a view of the city and details that would take many months to aquire. It was an easy read and well organized. I would however recommend that you do a search online for hotel rooms as there are many deals in the hotel market that were not even mentioned in the book. Happy Trials, BB.
Excellent choice, great advice and very helpful.......2007-01-10
This book is amazing. First time using a guidebook and first for the Lonely Planet. Will definitely buy more. Maps wonderful, chinese names for everything and very good restaurant recommendations. Found a tiny restaurant off a back alley and was amazing for a great price. Wonderful spend and would recommend to everyone!!!
Lonely Planet Shanghai.......2007-01-05
This book gives ou a nice overview of the region, and incredible specific tips for visiting Shanghai.
Insightful.......2006-08-07
I recently returned from a trip to Shanghai and thought this was a great guide to the city. Although I love to explore most places on my own, I found Shanghai to be slightly intimidating (especially with all the ongoing construction), so I was definitely thankful I had this book with me.
Pros:
* Up-to-date information
* Offers a lot of good insight into Shanghai and the Shanghainese. I found the sections like identity, cuisine, economy, and architecture to be quite readable and interesting.
* Good maps
Cons:
* I was surprised by the other reviews, as my edition has Chinese for each address mentioned in the book. I agree that you initially expect the Chinese to be in the text (next to the romanization), but it's actually on the map keys. This is a minor flaw but did not affect me, as I often looked at the maps when I decided where to go. I guess if you never consult this section however, you might not realize that it's there.
Bottom line:
This was the most up-to-date guide I saw, and (as far as I know)is the only one with comprehensive listings in Chinese--they got me where I wanted to go every single time I took a cab. Good job.
Book Description
Praise for A Loyal Character Dancer:
"Another wonderful novel featuring Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police Bureau … for Sinophiles like myself who fantasize about taking an insider's tour of Shanghai."-Maureen Corrigan, NPR, "Fresh Air," Washington Post Book World
"A sequel [to Death of a Red Heroine] that in many ways is even more impressive . . . [Qiu] has moved from the poetic, exotic milieu of his first book (although plenty of elements remain) into a tougher, wider, probably more commercial and modern version of China as seen by America."-Chicago Tribune
Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau is taking a vacation, in part because he is annoyed at his boss, the Party Secretary, but also because he has been made an offer he can't refuse by a triad-connected businessman. For what seems to be a fortune-with no apparent strings attached-he is to translate into English a business proposal for the New World, a complex of shops and restaurants to be built in Central Shanghai evoking nostalgia for the "glitter and glamour" of the '30s.
So Detective Yu, Chen's partner, is forced to take charge of a new investigation. A novelist has been murdered in her room. At first it seems that only a neighbor could have committed the crime, but when one confesses, Detective Yu cannot believe that he is really the murderer. As the policeman looks further, ample motives begin to surface, even on the part of Internal Security. But it is only when Inspector Chen steps back into the investigation that the real culprit is apprehended. And then Chen discovers how the triad has played him.
Qiu Xiaolong was born in Shanghai. He is the author of two previous Inspector Chen Mysteries, Death of a Red Heroine and A Loyal Character Dancer. He lives in St. Louis with his wife and daughter.
Customer Reviews:
Inspector Chen Strikes Again.......2007-06-22
Let me set out my bias at the outset: I love the Inspector Chen novels. I drink up each one and can't wait for the next to be published. The real question is why do I enjoy them so much. The mysteries themselves (this one included) are not so mysterious. They are relatively straightforward. No novel twists and turns to challenge the mind. So, as a mystery, I would rate the books as mediocre. But the characters are fantastic. They are tortured -- each struggling to find his or her own way in a society that changes year to year, even month to month. Things that were taboo a decade ago are now norms. The characters wrestle not only with how to adapt to these changes but whether to adapt at all. After all, haven't we seen China develop down a path only to abruptly change course in "1984" fashion? Some criticize the prose as being plodding. But the prose mirrors the characters. They are deliberate -- unsure of the changes in themselves and society. I love the Inspector Chen novels, not because of the mysteries but because of Inspector Chen and all the other characters.
Fascinating Foray.......2007-06-13
In this detective novel, Qiu Xiaolong gives a detailed account of the tragic effects of the Cultural Revolution on ordinary -- and extraordinary -- people living in Shanghai in the 1990's. I could not solve the mystery, but I adored the poetry-spouting detective (who is probably quite a bit like the author) so much that I ordered Qiu's anthology of Tang and Song poetry.
When Red is Black.......2007-04-23
This is the third novel in Qiu Xiaolong's Inspector Chen mysteries.
The murder of a dissident author comes at an inconvenient time for Inspector Chen. He has just taken a break from his "iron rice bowl" job to engage in some highly paid free-lance translating. At first he is content to leave the investigation of the murder to his deputy, Sergeant Yu, but pressed by Party Secretary Li and by his own growing curiosity, he becomes fully involved in the unravelling of the murder case.
His translating job, however, continues. He has been given the task by Dynasty karaoke club owner Mr Gu (introduced in the previous novel A Loyal Character Dancer). Mr Gu, who has Triad connections, has also supplied Chen with a xiaomi, or personal secretary, the young and attractive White Cloud.
By coincidence, the murder has taken place in a shikumen, one of the traditional styles of housing created during the era of the Foreign Concessions in Shanghai; the translation undertaken by Chen is of an investment proposal for a major commercial, retail and residential precinct in the heart of Shanghai designed in the shikumen style. The author creates an interesting tension between the reality of life in the shikumen that is the murder site (no privacy, too many families living in incredibly cramped conditions) and the proposed New World project, the success of which, according to Chen "would depend on a myth - on nostalgia for the glitter and glamour of the thirties, or to be exact, on the recreation of that myth - blending the past into a delicious brew, a cup of cappuccino, to delight customers in the nineties" (p. 23).
Having been to Shanghai's model renovation in the shikumen style, the area known as Xintiandi, I can relate to the author's bemused sense of contradiction: the little museum and founding site of the Chinese Communist Party (my destination) is hardly noticeable among the yuppified coffee shops and bars of the new New China!
As with his previous novels, Qiu Xiaolong intersperses his narrative with insightful sociological observations. Some of these relate to the Cultural Revolution, which forms a backdrop to the murder, whilst others clearly reflect the author's concern with the growing gap between rich and poor that emerged in the wake of Deng Xiaoping's reforms: "The New World could turn out to be like present-day China, full of contradictions. On the outside, the socialist system under the rule of the Communist Party, but on the inside, capitalist practice in whatever disguise. Could the combination of the two really work?" (p. 139).
Nor would it be a Chinese novel without reference to food. White Cloud turns out to be an accomplished cook: "She finally emerged, carrying a large tray with a broad smile. `From the Dynasty Club,' she announced, placing on the folding table an impressive dinner that included some delicacies he had never seen before. One was a small dish of fried sparrow gizzards, golden crisp. How many sparrows had gone into the making of that dish, he wondered. The other dish, of duck, was also original - it was duck heads with the skulls removed, so people could easily reach the tongues, or suck out the brains. It was the sauna shrimp, however, that really impressed him. River shrimp were brought to the table in a glass bowl, live, still jumping and wriggling. She also provided a small wooden pail whose bottom was covered with red hot stones. She poured some wine into the bowl of shrimp, then took the drunken shrimp from the bowl and put them into the pail. There was a shrill hiss, and in two or three minutes, a plate of sauna shrimp appeared." (p. 108).
Some western reviewers have found the narrative pace and unexpected thrills of the mystery genre lacking in this novel; however, it is an intriguing tale and a pleasure to be transported back to a familiar Chinese setting.
Michael Williss
Highly recommended.......2007-04-13
Another engaging Inspector Chen mystery, but this time his sidekick Detective Yu is more involved, which adds breadth to the story. But this is not so much a mystery as a portrait of modern Shanghai, which in spite of its economic boom is still haunted by the horror of the Cultural Revolution. Although the denouement seems a bit dragged out, this is a finely written piece of work.
A wonderful writer!.......2007-01-04
Qiu Xiaolong writes in a way that is so wonderful on several levels:
1. He is a superb writer.
2. These are very good mysteries/crime stories. No pat endings and detailed characters with complex motives and relationships.
3. This view into modern life in China and the effects on its people of that nations recent history are not to be missed. Nowhere will you find such a detailed and eye-opening look at "real life" in China unless you have friends from there!
Amazon.com
By any standard, Inspector Chen Cao is a novelty in the world of police procedurals. A published poet and translator of American and English mystery novels, he has been assigned by the Chinese government, under Deng Xiaoping's cadre policy, to a "productive" job with the Special Cases Bureau of the Shanghai Police Department.
Shanghai in the mid-1990s is a city caught between reverence for the past and fascination with a tantalizing, market-driven present. When the body of a young "national model worker," revered for her adherence to the principles of the Communist Party, turns up in a canal, Chen is thrown into the midst of these opposing forces. As he struggles to unravel the hidden threads of this paragon's life, he finds himself challenging the very political forces that have guided his life since birth. With party-line-spouting superiors above him and detectives who resent his quick promotion beneath him, Chen finds himself wondering whether justice is a concept at all meaningful in late-20th-century China.
Death of a Red Heroine is a book hovering uneasily between the spheres of fiction and fact, creativity and didacticism. For much of the novel, author Qiu Xiaolong seems more intent on driving home the actions and consequences of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath than on the slowly unfolding plot. Tedious repetitions of the fates, under Mao, of "educated youths" joust with both the actions of the detectives and Chen's "poetic" ruminations, which, unfortunately, are infected by precisely the stiffness and arbitrariness Qiu is at pains to decry in his historical passages. The moving couplets Chen favors are potentially fascinating insights into the interaction between ancient and modern China, but instead of provoking the reader into reflection, Qiu offers reductive explanations of each and every poem.
The moments when Qiu concentrates on invoking atmosphere are both illuminating and rewarding: Detective Yu's wife's pride and pleasure in having brought home a dozen crabs at "state price" are movingly well crafted, all the more so because Qiu seems almost unaware of what he is doing. Rather than lecturing on the economic dilemmas of the modern worker, he lets Peiqin's simple happiness speak for itself. In the last quarter of the book, Qiu seems to find his stride, though his writing style remains undeniably awkward. Here Chen expands and relaxes, and with him, the novel. Qiu's debut, though anything but polished, holds the promise of better things to come. --Kelly Flynn
Book Description
Murder in Shanghai in the '90s presents Inspector Chen with a difficult choice.
The victim, Guan Hongying, was a National Model Worker, a celebrity of utmost probity. But perhaps her personal life was not so pristine. Inspector Chen Cao, a published poet and translator of T. S. Eliot, who has been assigned to head the Shanghai Police Bureau's Special Case Squad, is urged by his superiors to consider the political implications of his investigation. Commissar Zhang, an old bureaucrat, doesn't want Chen to peer under any stones. Does Chen dare to persevere?
Contemporary China is a society in turmoil. Faithful old party members, forced to retire, have lost prestige and perquisites; the new capitalists are on the rise. Still ensconced on top of the ladder are the High Cadres and, even above them, the HCC-High Cadre Children-their privileged status analogous to that of medieval princes. Chen is romantically interested in a newspaperwoman whose background would damage his prospects. He relinquished his former Beijing girlfriend as soon as he learned that she was the daughter of a Politburo member, thus far above his reach. Now, if Guan's murderer is to be punished, Chen must invoke her influence by rekindling the old flame. Or else a murderer may go unpunished.
Customer Reviews:
More than Just a Compelling Mystery Novel.......2007-09-06
"Mainland China," "compelling detective story," and "Chinese mystery writer" are not word combiations that one would expect to see often together in print, but Qiu Xiaolong's compelling DEATH OF A RED HEROINE justifies their joint appearance at least this once. Born in Shanghai but living in the U.S. since 1989, Mr. Qiu (pronounced "cho," rhymes with Joe) is now a professor of Chinese literature at Washington University in St. Louis. While he pens his stories in English, his heart is clearly in Shanghai, so much so that this most Western of mainland Chinese cities virtually becomes a character in his book.
Qiu's story revolves around a young woman's body found stuffed into a black plastic bag in a small canal about 20 miles outside of Shanghai. The discovery is phoned into the Shanghai Police Bureau, where the call is taken by Detective Yu Guangming of the Homicide Divisions special (as in politically sensitive) case squad. Detective Yu's superior, the up-and-coming Inspector Chen Cao (as much a poet and Tang Dynasty poetry enthusiast as he is a detective) ultimately decides that he and Yu will pursue the case in its early stages until they see how it develops. As it turns out, theirs is the perfect place for the case to be assigned - the body is discovered to be that of Guan Hongying, a sales clerk at the Shanghai Number One Department store and nationally known as one of the Communist Party's select group of "model workers."
By far the bulk of the story concerns Chen's and Yu's efforts to peer into Guan Hongying's intensely private life and find a reason for her murder. The arc of the novel follows predictable mystery novel lines - discovery, autopsy, identification, more discovery, witnesses, suspects, more discovery, motives, applied leverage, proof, and resolution. Yet while traversing this path, author Qiu sheds fascinating light on numerous aspects of modern life in mainland China. His story opens a door onto the workings of the Communist Party and its founding cadres (and their children). As well, he ushers readers into the whirlwinds of societal and even physical change swarming through Shanghai, contrasting the disappearing lifestyles and personalities of old Shanghai with that of the new city exhibited in Pudong and along the teeming shopping districts of Nanjing and Huihai Roads. To his even greater credit, Qiu takes us into his detectives' homes and daily lives, particularly that of Yu Guangming and his family.
Much like Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko (GORKY PARK, WOLVES EAT DOGS, STALIN'S GHOST), Qiu's Inspector Chen is intelligent and intuitive without being flashy. Outwardly, both Renko and Chen appear to their compatriots as dogged loners, unbending and resolute in their determination to solve the case and bring "the truth" to light, whatever the personal and political cost to themselves and their careers. Both authors have created charming, Columbo-like heroes whose foibles, talents, and persistence make them remarkably sympathetic to the reader.
DEATH OF A RED HEROINE is a thoroughly entertaining story that secondarily serves as an outstanding window into the life and culture of mainland China. Having lived in Suzhou, China off and on for several years and visited nearby Shanghai many times, I can attest that Mr. Qiu's characterizations of Chinese life and the sense of atmosphere he creates in his writing are spot on. This book is enjoyable both as a mystery novel and as an armchair tourist's look into mainland Chinese life.
China.......2007-08-23
This is an outstanding book which weaves the commercialization of the PRCand a murder mystery Ch into the continuing dominance of the People's party leadership.
A New Star.......2007-08-02
Qiu Xiaolong is one of the most exciting writers working today. He takes an immensely fertile environment -- the corruption, cronyism, and rapid change of present-day China and puts into it an ethical cop who is also a poet and a translator of American mystery novels. Chen is one of the great new characters in detective fiction: complex, conflicted, stubborn, absolutely committed to doing his job the best he can, despite the immense pressures on him to keep the blame away from the rich and influential, where it most often belongs. All the books are brilliantly plotted, fast-paced, packed with vivid characters, and full of fascinating ethical dilemmas. You can't go wrong with any of them. As someone who writes about Asia himself, I recommend every single one of the Inspector Chen novels. They'll take you into a different world, and in the company of a remarkable character.
A good read.......2007-05-02
Having just read this book (May, 2007) I'm a bit late to the party. I bought a copy speculating that it might be a good series (or at least not the typical mystery that I usually read) and I was very, very pleased.
Set in the critical early years of the transition of China from communit to free market, this is as much a review of Chinese society of the time as it is a detective novel. The characters are likable, the plot sound, and the setting leaves you wondering how anything could get done in a fluid political and social setting as Shanghai resides. But rest assured Inspector Chen delivers, finds the bad guy, and can still look at himself in the mirror when it is all done.
All accomplished pretty much without hidden codes, high speed chases, blazing gunfights, or some sex kitten extravaganza.
It satisfied me enough to buy "A Loyal Character Dancer" (second in the series) and I'm enjoying it as well.
So if you need a change of pace from your cozy or hard-boiled mystery reading, Qiu Xiaolong takes you to a totally foreign setting (for an American) for a very satisfactory tale of crime.
Interesting.......2007-03-16
It's a bit overwritten but it's much more than a simple who-done-it. It captures the strange limbo that China was in between the control of the old guard of Chairman Mao and the freer time begun by Deng Xiaopeng. The characterizations are strong. And Shanghai is described with visceral accuracy. I'm looking forward to reading another Chief Inspector Chen mystery.
Book Description
By the late 1930s, Europe sat on the brink of a world war. As the holocaust approached, many Jewish families in Germany fled to one of the only open port available to them: Shanghai. Once called "the armpit of the world," Shanghai ultimately served as the last resort for tens of thousands of Jews desperate to escape Hitler's "Final Solution." Against this backdrop, 11-year-old Ursula Bacon and her family made the difficult 8,000-mile voyage to Shanghai, with its promise of safety. But instead of a storybook China, they found overcrowded streets teeming with peddlers, beggars, opium dens, and prostitutes. Amid these abysmal conditions, Ursula learned of her own resourcefulness and found within herself the fierce determination to survive.
Customer Reviews:
Spellbinding Memoir.......2005-11-04
I loved reading this memoir. It was an easy read that was character driven and suspenseful. The language was not unnecessarily pretentious, and getting into the story was easy. Further, I knew nothing before reading this book about the European Jews who found a haven of sorts in Shanghai during WWII. While they suffered many indignities, shortages of food, medicine, shelter, and clothing, they were much better off than the European Jews who went to their deaths in the camps. Ironically, they also fared better than non-Jewish citizens of countries allied against Hitler and Japan during the Japanese occupation. Non Jewish civilians of the allied countries or captured POWS participated in tragedies like the Bataan death march. They were interred in Japanese prison camps and subjected to grueling forced labor. There they starved, froze, and died of injury and disease probably in greater number than the Shanghai Jews. The Shanghai Jews were subjected to some but not a great deal of forced labor. They were required to police their own ghetto and dig the occassional ditch. Jews did die because of a lack of medicine, sanitation and adequate nutrition. However, many Chinese civilians suffered the same losses even before the war. Still this does not excuse the ghettoization of the Jews into terribly crowded conditions, rules that precluded most of them from earning a living even though they had skills or precluded them from owning property. Luckily aid from Jews in the U.S., Canada, Australia and South Africa could reach them. For some this was their only means of support and they lived wretched lives. However, the narrator and her family arrived a little better off than most, and her father was a well liked industrious and optimistic businessman. Her mother took in mending and used her excellent seamstress skills to earn money. She tolerated her reduced circumstances without complaint and focused on the sunnier future she was sure would follow the war's end. When the author's father could not work much after the Japanese occupation, their circumstances were reduced. Because the ghetto was seriously overcrowded most occupants could afford little more space than 100 sq. ft. for every three people. Sanitation was completely lacking, and the description of the "honeypots" was truly odoriferous. Imagine several people suffering from amebic dysyntary using the same water closet outfitted with a rustic chamber pot. The author could have let her story fall into the trap of excessive sentimentality, but she did not. For this and her family's optimism I give her Kudos. I gave this four stars instead of five, because I don't think it rises to the literary level of a five star book. Still I highly recommend it. It is a great novel to take on an airplane, a vacation, or to read on an inclement afternoon. It can be read in a few hours.
MAKE A MIRACLE--You Can Do It!!!!!!!!!!.......2005-07-20
Several months ago I saw the author, Ursula Bacon, on BookTv (C-Span 2). I was very impressed with her; her lecture was excellent; and the true story of her life from the age of 10 to 18 was compelling. So, I immediately ordered her book. But the book sat on my desk for weeks making me feel guilty about not reading it. I too am a writer. So, finally after completing one book and revising another one, I took a break. And what a break that was--when I was transported to the CHINA of 1938-1946! Ms. Bacon, an only child of a Jewish family, left Germany with her parents as Hitler and his cohorts were rounding up Jews and transporting them to Death Camps.
By the time Vati, Dad, and Mutti, Mom, were looking for countries to immigrate to, every country had closed its doors to German Jews except Shanghai, China. And Shanghai was a total mess, worse than anything most Americans would ever see. But Ursula's family lived in the filthy disease-ridden slums and survived by bartering their few possessions for food. Ursula, up until then a very sheltered child, attended a Catholic school where most classes were taught in French. And most of the time she remained optimistic, made many European and Chinese friends of all ages, learned to speak Mandarin Chinese, encouraged her Mutti, and helped Vati with his business endeavors.
Ursula became an adult before becoming a teen! And she encountered many bizarre situations which she handled better than most adults. The worst was when she was 12 or 13 and killed a drunken Japanese soldier with her bare hands when he attacked her as she walked home from a friend's house late at night. She didn't tell her parents, though, because she didn't want to burden them with additional worries.
This intriguing and inspiring survival tale is about Jewish refuges in China during WW II, though it depicts the color of Shanghai and the many nationalities struggling to survive their wartorn world. I didn't want SHANGHAI DIARY to end! However, I couldn't wait to finish it, so I could pass it on to an friend whose daughter adopted the most delightful Chinese girl who I predict will someday be an important leader in some capacity.
The world has grown so small today that every American should go out of his or her way to become acquainted with other cultures and religions. And every American teenager should be given the opportunity to live in a foreign country to learn new languages and cultures. I give this wonderful book MORE than FIVE STARS! And I hope parents will share it with their teens and high school teachers will use it in their classes. Thanks, Ursula! K.J. McWilliams, book reviewer as well as author of Pirates, The Journal of Leroy Jeremiah Jones, a Fugitive Slave, The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo, and The Journal of Darien Dexter Duff, an Emancipated Slave, winner of the Young Adult Fiction 2003 Royal Palm Literary Award.
interesting insight and perspective.......2005-07-07
I have enjoyed this book (only read half so far). I don't know how she might remember such detailed accounts, but she did have a diary. This is an amazing account during a terrible time. Worth reading.
Learn how most Chinese lived - Jewish girl in scheisse.......2005-06-04
This is not the best of wartime stories, but the author, an older Jewish lady now residing in Colorado, certainly has a good memory for the details of life in pre-Communist Shanghai. Her family fled with nothing, having entrusted jewelry to an old family friend, so they arrive in Shanghai with a precious few coins to survive. There are wealthy Jews in Shanghai who provide a very minimum bit of hospice space to sleep and some basic slop to eat, as supplies are stretched with the ever-increasing arrivals from all over Europe.
Those who like the dirty details of real life in a poor, overcrowded and ancient civilization will love this book. The author does not mince words at her horror of Chinese sanitation, more actually, the lack thereof. The paragraghs devoted to the honeybuckets, their cleaning, and the stenches of the alleyways could make even a reader vomit. I myself had toured China on the cheap in 1990 and can testify that things had changed little when one got off the main roads of Shanghai - though in the last 15 years, many of the old slums have been torn down to make way for skyscrapers and apartment silos. Going to the bathroom, usually squat Turkish style, was always a nightmare, and always to be postponed until perhaps a Western hotel could be found. Very easy otherwise to lose one's lunch! Oh well, if China was cheap, who cares about a lost lunch?
Not for the young Ursula is China cheap. The father, once a well-off printer and company owner, is now working as a pseudo-wallpaper applier, or rather, with A Chinese Partner, supervising 60 coolies to do the work. The mother has a way with needle and thread, some basic dressmaking, and begins to help other refugees with mending and adjustments. Ursula has learned English in school and from the streets, so she is also employed, as the teenager governess to three high-ranking concubines of a Chinese general. She learns all about the Chinese view of sex, marriage, views of women, and why baby girls are found dumped in the local trashbins all around her Hongkew slum. One days she even found a live, crying girl in the trash, and against all better judgment, fished it out from under the garbage and brought it to a Christian orphanage.
The luck of the refugees go up and down according to the politics and their own individual initiatives. After selling off whatever they managed to smuggle out from Europe (jewelry, winter garments, shoes, books, etc), they must become resourceful in order to eat regularly. All follow with interest whatever bits of news they can garner about the war in Europe, since it quickly moves to their corner of the world.
Then the Japanese arrive and take over Shanghai, with new rules.
Whereas before the Jews could, as foreigners, move freely through Shanghai and conduct business, rent properties, and so on, they are now rounded up and forced to live in one section only of the city, namely, the filthy slum of Hongkew. Families live all in one room, with a sheet hung between to share the room with yet another family "next door". There is no privacy, and Ursula suffers from this. They no longer can manage to do their business freely and become desperate scroungers and scavengers, as indeed are practically all the local Chinese under Japanese rule. A few Jewesses choose to make themselves useful to the Japanese rulers, to get money and presents, but they are despised by their own community.
The last years of the war are spent in this filthy condition, with neighbors and friends dying of the communicable diseases, despair, malnutrition, and random shootings and bombings. Ursula, for example, learned jujitsu, to protect herself against assault by Japanese soldiers. The girls and women learn to never go out alone, and never by night. One evening Ursula makes the mistake to walk back home alone (prescribed routes only for foreigners, by the way), and gets assaulted by a horny soldier. She aims a strong h andchop at his Adam's apple and kills him.
No one the next day commented on one more dead body in the lane, nor asked who could have done it.
My main complaint with Ursula's story is its ending. She and the other refugees dream constantly of USA, with such details as tennis courts, horseback riding and swimming pools, etc. These ideas came presumably from movies, widely shown in Shanghai. Meanwhile, although they're realists, they don't seem to realize that the bulk of the US population in the 1930's was in serious economic stress, with no such lifestyle possible. Even today, not everyone is a spoiled surburbanite by a long shot, especially new arrivals with no money, as they would be.
The fast Happy End, where they all somehow get to America, do well, get married and whatnot, with no struggle implied, is quite a letdown. HEre we have been dragged through the coals of the misery of Chinese life, in its minute details, and suddenly, presto! They somehow get allowed into their dream country (which strings did they pull, how much did it cost, etc.? why the sudden silence on how hard life maneuvers can be?) and do well. Oh? WHat did she study, what work did she find? She mentioned that her father found work with the Denver Post as a printer. Did he know English? Was it hard for him?
What did his wife do?
The main "thrill" of the book is in the details of everyday Chinese life, with its stench, its sexism, its obsessions and superstitions. These come through more clearly for a Western reader than if written by a Chinese, who takes such privations as normal. Indeed, they were, and still are, standard problems for the bulk of China and much of the Third World.
Ursula Bacon's family did not considered themselves Jews in any true religious sense, so their experience is not particularly Jewish, but German. Their German ideas and attitudes come through clearly, especially in their horror of dirt, in their love of literature and knowledge. They are open to all religions and put Ursula, in fact, in a French Catholic school, where she admires the true-believing nuns.
A great read! Just unsatisfactory ending, as if she were trying to wrap it up quickly... so maybe there's a second book coming out of this, the struggle to get a foothold in America, and their shock and horror at some of US customs, disregard for education, plenty of Jew hatred, and so on?
Apparently, also, a movie is coming out on this. Watch for it.
Ursula's Amazing Story.......2005-02-19
"If you can't change it, don't complain." Life is not about events, but it is about people. Life was truly a challenge. To escape Hitler the author and her family escaped to Shanghai, China. She learned to live one day at a time. She had a spirit of dreaming of America. America was a beacon of hope for her during this trying time. After the war she and her parents came to America after a two year struggle to get a visa and they located in Denver.
The author grew up in China as an escapee from Hitler's Germany. In China she learned to be grateful for everything. She had escaped to China as a child of ten. There with her parents she lived with 20,000 other refugees in horrific conditions. But she and her parents survived. The story is told with wonderful courage, sensitivity and even some humor. The author has learned not to hate but to love people, inspite of the hell she suffered caused by Nazi Germany. According to the author the most important emotions to have are love and gratitude. She lives her life with love of people and gratitude for all persons who have helped her during those difficult years.
For those who are interested, there is an author event available on C-Span2 Book TV for this book.
Book Description
The classic, award-winning novel, made famous by Steven Spielberg's film, tells of a young boy's struggle to survive World War II in China.
Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him.
Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.
Ballard's enduring novel of war and deprivation, internment camps and death marches, and starvation and survival is an honest coming-of-age tale set in a world thrown utterly out of joint.
Customer Reviews:
Humanity, stripped to its core.......2007-05-24
My first introduction to this story was, like many others, through Steven Spielberg's adaptation. For me, the hauntingly beautiful "Suo Gan" that serves as that movie's de facto theme song perfectly captures the fragile yet enduring beauty of humanity that Spielberg so successfully captures in his movie version. The movie abounds with poignant moments of hope, warmth, and exhilaration amongst the great struggles that befall Jim and his band of acquaintances. I enjoyed the movie, and Jim's story and haunting memory of Suo Gan made a lasting impression.
Years later, I encountered the original story--J.G. Ballard's novel that served as Spielberg's inspiration. Just as the newsreels and magazines that tell of the war fascinate Jim in the book because they describe a war so different than the one he knows, so does Spielberg's movie tell a different tale from Ballard's book. The events are by and large the same, but the tone of the story, the horrors experienced by Jim, and the lessons and impressions instilled by the novel are on a different order of magnitude from the movie. I enjoyed the movie on its own merits, but I imagine the order in which you encounter them colors your impression--for people like me who saw the movie first, it was easy to appreciate the movie, and then be blown away by the power of the book. For those who read the book first, I would imagine the movie would be a disappointing, sanitized version of the original work.
The novel overpowers the reader from start to finish by Ballard's stark account of Jim's survival against all odds, in conditions stacked heavily against him. Death, betrayal, illness, and hunger surround Jim and yet somehow he always managed to survive because he never despairs, never gives up, always keeps his wits about him, and as he himself explains, because he "takes nothing for granted." The world of WWII Shanghai strips humanity to its bare, naked, ugly core. Growing up in this environment, Jim becomes a remarkably complex character in spite of (or perhaps because of) his young age. Jim is intelligent, naive, loyal, callous, hopeful, curious, delusional, and yet oddly lucid--all at the same time. The image of flight is strong throughout the story, as a form of escape, and in some ways the only vestige of childhood granted to this boy as he goes through a life full of cruel ironies--first, the inability despite repeated attempts to surrender to an enemy that he needs infinitely more than they need him; then, the odd realization that this "enemy" is his greatest protector and in many instances, friend; finally, that even with the war over he is in greater danger and further from his parents than ever. War, peace, friend, foe, cause, effect, even the distinction between life and death ... these cease to have meaning for Jim. Finally, Jim is saved in an almost deus ex machina fashion by the heroic Dr. Ransome, a man whose selfless actions mildly amuse and baffle Jim, who cannot quite understand this brand of humanity which is quite different from the one he learned through his own experiences. Ransome's life is one that takes certain things for granted. Jim has not been afforded this luxury.
Jim's reunion with his parents is another, critical difference between the movie and the book. The "happily-ever after" ending in the movie is filled with hope and relief. Jim and his parents don't recognize each other at first. Then they do. This symbolizes that the war is finally over for Jim, now he can go back to a normal life. The End. In the book, however, the ending is much more nuanced. Despite returning "home" to Shanghai, Jim's home will forever be Lunghua in the novel version. Normalcy will never be a suburban life in England, for Jim it is wartime Shanghai. The odds of Jim being able to live what most of us would call a "normal life" are practically zero ... after all, he has just experienced a lifetime of events more "real" and vivid than "normal life" could ever be; the war never ends for Jim. Seeing the far-from-normal life Ballard himself has lead, and the fiction he has written, one realizes that even though "Jim" and "J.G. Ballard" may not be the same person (one crucial difference--Ballard is never separated from his parents), Ballard is still the adult that Jim would have grown up to be. It is this honest and uncompromising portrayal of Jim as a true tragic hero that separates the book from the movie, and makes this book one of the truly great accounts of surviving a brutal war that knows and shows no mercy.
disappointing.......2007-05-13
The movie was fantastic, and usually a good movie has a good book at its root. In this case, the writing didn't pull one into the story and let the reader identify with the characters.
Empire of the Sun.......2007-01-19
Book was delivered in excellent condition with fast reliable service from merchant.
Survival amidst death.......2006-04-25
A most incredible book... It holds the reader glued to every page, not unlike the grip of death which encased Shangai after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941.
The story, based on J.G. Ballard's actual experiences, is about a young British teenager who lives with his parents in Shangai at the eve of Pearl Harbor and is then interned by the Japanese from 1942-1945 in the Lunghua prison camp near Shanghai. It is truly mesmerizing, in the negative sense unfortunately, because of the countless moments of inherent evil that arose as a result of war. The places-airfield runways made of bones of dead Chinese, a make-shift cemetery full of corpses with extremities sticking out, canals full of dead bodies, floating flower coffins with Chinese babies-the people-an opportunistic American soldier who profits from death, Japanese soldiers bent on brutality, an American doctor who does everything to save the sick and dying, the indifference of a British woman to a sick boy-and events-the killing of a Chinese coolie, the never-ending deaths of sick prisoners, the death march to Nantao-exemplify that evil and are described with such incredible detail and clarity as to be almost permanently engraved in the mind of the reader.
Through all the death and destruction, of which almost every chapter of the book is filled with, lives a young British teenager (the author himself, but written in 3rd person) who has an incredible will to survive. The question of his morality is ever-present if we judge his thoughts and actions solely; yet in the face of starvation and omnipresent death, his story is one of a smart young boy who is trying his best to survive. When viewed under those circumstances and compared to the actions of others in the book, his story can be perceived in a more positive yet still overwhelmingly sad light. Indeed, it is the author's reconstruction of his thoughts in particular that divulge the horror of the events he experienced. One of the most memorable concerns the death march to Nantao:
"Dr. Ransome had recruited a human chain from the men sitting on the embankment below the trucks, and they passed pails of water up to the patients.
Jim shook his head, puzzled by all this effort. Obviously they were being taken up-country so that the Japanese could kill them without being seen by the American pilots. Jim listened to the Shell man's wife crying in the yellow grass. The sunlight charged the air above the canal, an intense aura of hunger that stung his retinas and remind him of the halo formed by the exploding Mustang. The burning body of the American pilot had quickened the dead land. It would be for the best if they all died; it would bring their lives to an end that had been implicit ever since the Idzumo had sunk the Petrel and the British hand surrendered at Singapore without a fight.
Perhaps they were already dead. Jim lay back and tried to count the motes of light. This simple truth was known to every Chinese from birth. Once the British internees had accepted it, they would no longer fear their journey to the killing ground...."
Steven Spielberg's adaptation of the book in the 1986 movie of the same name is insufficient at best. While the cinematography and acting are good, the crux of the story-the cruelty and horrors of post-Pearl Harbor Shangai-is conveniently glossed over. It's as if Spielberg decided to change the script from an "R" to a "G". The problem is that the latter version of the movie no longer resembles the former and effectively does injustice to the thousands of people (and millions more not included in the scope of the book)-including the author himself-who suffered and/or died in Lunghua prison and Shangai from 1942-1945 at the hands of the Japanese.
Coming of Age.......2005-07-08
I first became acquainted with this story thru the marvelous Steven Spielberg movie. I thought it was such a powerful story that I bought the book the day after I saw the movie.
The story is an account of the author experiences after war breaks while he is in Shanghai. Separated from his parents and sent to a concentration camp Jim has to learn to survive on his own by creating alliances with other prisoners.
This is a coming of age story that will stay with you for a long time. Highly recommended.
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