My friend and I found this book in the big BookOff store in Shibuya and the title made me laugh, but when I saw that it was the name of a brothel, I had to have it. (It was 200 yen only.)So, it turned out to be as cheesy as we expected, but it wasn't bad, it held my attention for more than 600 pages. It's a historical romance which takes place in a fictitious town of Shishan in 1899, during the Boxer Rebellion. The author was born in China in a missionary family, so he knows his stuff, and his sympathy towards the culture and people is obvious. BUT, the characters are painfully stereotypical - a beautiful and passionate middle-class girl, her lover the dashing spy, her boorish and naive fiance, a bunch of altruistic missionaries, a cruel brothel madam and her psychopathic son, a prostitute with heart of gold, an evil Japanese officer, a wise Chinese mandarin, a (wiser still) Mongolian shepherd... They all resemble marionettes taken out of a dusty box which has the letters "Oriental drama" on it; some of them must have been used by Clavell half a century ago.The only interesting people are the crazy, fanatical Millward family (especially their eldest son Hiram) and Major Lin who has a shameful secret to hide. BUT the author has a penchant for distorting his characters, both minor and major, and making them act against their nature and their initial motivations. When I read what ultimately happened to Hiram after the rebellion broke out in Shishan, I kind of lost half of my interest in the story, but read on for Major Lin; then as his character got assassinated as well (in a writerly way I mean), I finished the book just because I didn't have much left. I didn't care about Helen Frances and her lover - they were just unrealistic, and the good doctor Airton, well, he was so stupid and whiny I just hoped to see him killed, but alas, the idiot lived to the last page.As to the brothel, this was the most ridiculous thing of all. The madam who was supposed to be so cunning, together with her son kept torturing the girls and boys randomly. Why? What for? What do they gain out of this? How is it good for business? How does it affect the atmosphere? Does it make the prostitutes work harder? Does it contribute to their skill, effectiveness, or the satisfaction of customers?... I have this dim suspicion that it's got something to do with the author's personal preferences, and that he enjoys writing about sexual sadism, and that's all there is to it. Now don't get me wrong, I think it's totally okay to fantasize about this stuff, or any stuff, that's what imagination is for - but when it comes to putting one's fantasies on paper, it should be done in a plausible, believable, reasonable way. Why? Because the book is for the reader first, and for the author second. The author must seduce the reader, not only pleasure himself.
Oh what a monumental book. If you're finding it hard to get into why not jump about 100 pages in and start from there (oh how dare i say it but hey just do it - it is a bit slow to start, and the beginning pages make more sense when read in hindsight). meanwhile GOSH. Adam has nothing against being bloodthirsty. if you think the sweet and innocent will get away with it think again. It's a massive book with huge scope - covering not just a historical adventure and raunchy romance, but also themes like ethics, values, religion and how they change (or don't) according to our circumstances. And the cross cultural divide of Brits abroad is a theme I will never tire of, and in this book it is tackled brilliantly. Can't wait to start the others in the series.Once I got into it (which took a good while I have to say) I read the remaining 600 odd pages in about 2 days (and got nothing else done)
Do You like book The Palace Of Heavenly Pleasure (2004)?
Lots of pages. First half good. Second half, upto the train journey was good. But.... there were a few plot holes kicking around the train journey that allows the escape from the town, and the death right at the end was in my view gratuitous and convenient. However, the Mongolian episode was a lovely piece of writing and allowed a sense of healing after the guilt, destruction and foolishness of the train. Worth reading, if only to get a sense of how ordinary individuals were caught up in the madness of the Boxer Rebellion.
—Graham
Though it was very interesting to read about the uprising of the Boxers in 1900 China, and even though it was horrible in a magnificent kind of way to see executions described in such a "sèc" way, I felt the book lacked a spine (excuse the word play). It was interesting, but not nearly interesting enough to make me want to recommend this book to friends. The last 2 chapters felt weird too. Almost as if an extra ending had been made up just to give the readers what they really wanted: a happy ending for Helen Frances and Henry. It's a decent book, but not one of the better ones.
—Anya
