Book No. 22 of 2020
This was a wild ride of a book. It starts out with courtesan houses and internalized racism, tumbles through multiple falls from grace and tender moments of love, bounces between several layers of stolen children and stolen identities, detours through rural China and several generations’ worth of truly bad decision-making, and ends in classic Amy Tan fashion dwelling on tear-inducing themes of love, friendship, motherhood, and identity.
Shout-out to the delightful how-to chapter on being a successful courtesan, studded with hilarious sexual euphemisms.
Unrelated to the book itself, my reading experience was significantly enhanced by the truly spooky coincidence that was @cozyreadingclub and me checking out the book within fifteen minutes of each other (without prior consultation) and live-texting our way through the first couple chapters as we read simultaneously. Accidental book club is the best kind of book club.
Similar Reads
The similarities to Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha are too numerous to list.
I was also reminded frequently of Alexander Chee’s Queen of the Night; lots of similarly evocative historical descriptions, courtesan/kept woman plots, boldly erotic encounters, and a general “How is all this happening” feeling throughout the story.