Product Description

Narrated in a haunting voice that mulls over painful truths of the past, this is an unflinching, erotic tale of forbidden love in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. Fusang is a Chinese girl who is shanghaied from her village and brought to San Francisco, where she enters a seedy underworld.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #276733 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-16
• Original language: Mandarin Chinese
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'The lush, decadent darkness which pervades Geling Yan's novel about a Chinese prostitute in turn-of-the-century San Francisco makes this an intensely cinematic book.' Big Issue; 'Her great storytelling lets you enjoy silk and embroidery, tea and angling, earrings, everlasting love and derringdo; it lets you, with the luscious vicarious masochism of a true fiction lover, relish the horrors of giving your body to hideous strangers or, as a coolie railroad worker, being beaten to a pulp by striking Caucasian workers.' Observer; 'A challenging work of literature... Skilfully subverts the basic tenet of Orientalism - that the Orient can be read, known, possessed.' Times Literary Supplement

Customer Reviews

Gripping, Painfull, Enigmatic
A great story that can't be put down. At times very brutal and disturbing, told by a detached impassionate narrator, but you can't fail to get emotionally involved in the story. The non judgemental narration makes you think about the differences and mistunderstanding between the contrasting cultures and leaves it to you to work out what Fusang is thinking. The way the book is written is unusuall and compelling. A gripping story all the way to the last page.

A thought provoking read.
I have just finished the book named above and found it to be both amazing yet somewhat disturbing experience. The story of a prostitutes relationship with a nine year old client was belivable, the story delivered humour, pathos and shock. I strongly recommend this book for those of us who usually read 'trashy' romances, the reality of the chacters really gets you thinking and is a catalyst for debates.

a readable one chapter book.
I was expecting more of Fusangs point of view with this book but instead it was written in the 3rd person and jumped about from story to story. Da Yongs story would've been better to read as he was quite a strong character. The ending was quite abrupt and it was as if the author was fed up writing this book. I felt as if the author had a little to say about a lot of things and would've preferred it if she went into more detail instead of skimming over things. I felt kind of frustrated as things never seemed to work out for Fusang and there were too many loose ends for me. To be fair, I have read "Geisha" and was expecting the book to be more like this but if you like Japanese culture, then this is the book for you!