Mingmei YipCríticas

Received in ebook format from Netgalley, this is a first person narrative of the 13year old Xiang Xiang who ends up as a prostitute in China in the early part of the 20th century. She learns not only the ways of the bedroom, but also the cultural arts, and rarely forgets her mother or her dead father.

Over the next few decades she tells of her life as she develops some self awareness as to what she does and doesn't want, and tries to find some peace with her life and her choices.

There is little reference to events in the outside world and the large political events affecting either China and it's only in the last portion of her life that the outside world breaks in. There is *some* reference to the physical work Xiang Xiang does as a prostitute, but much of it is couched in the euphemisms of the time and place so little to offend (but there is some more base swear words).

As she moves to each new section of her life Xiang Xiang both gains and loses something (or someone) - something she seems to do with relative ease. She spends several years in a lesbian relationship, and drops that as soon as she comes across a Taoist monk who she then falls madly in love with and spends a year with only to drop him in favour of the lesbian. Few years later, they part and Xiang Xiang's lover is almost never thought of again - her death at the hands of their mutual enemy is written in the epilogue, almost as an afterthought.

So in summary: the book is technically competent, with an interesting story that could have had some more depth around the characters and plot - there is a taste and acceptance for longer books regarding China, by Chinese authors (Wild Swans anyone?) so would have lost little to nothing in additional items being added.

Author Website

I liked this book for a few reasons. First the illustrations the mood of the text because all the pictures have bright colors with beautiful details. The illustrations make the stories even more fun and interesting to read. Another thig is that the book pushes readers to think about lessons that you should learn from the stories. The stories each have a lesson to learn and think about after reading the story, and you learn about the culture of China as well. The book was made for the readers to learn about the classic stories of China and about their different cultures.

This book was truly horrible. http://mirishorten.tumblr.com/post/101875298522/song-of-the-silk-road-by-mingmei...

Young woman runs away from her family when she is married to a ghost husband, and is found and brought in to a group of master embroiderers, each with her own secrets. Interesting immersion into Chinese culture.½

I gave this book 3 stars because I was compelled to finish it. I took one away for the gratuitous and unimaginative sex scenes and another because I could not picture the story (characters and scenery) in my mind.
If the author had used her extra words on bringing the settings to life instead of the pathetic nature of the men in the story, I would have enjoyed it much more. (Alex is so needy and condescending I wanted to gag!)
The premise of the story really had promise for me and I was looking forward to the adventure, but it fell short in so many ways.
Yip explores the idea of chasing riches and depicts human nature as greedy and banal. That's ok, but it doesn't mesh with the supposed self-discovery that should have taken place.I think it should have been a life altering experience, but only the setting changed and the discoveries were not earth shattering as I expected them to be.
With all that, it was a promising story line, that could easily be "fixed".

Where I got the book: review copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

This novel follows the fortunes of Spring Swallow, whom we first see as a 17-year-old in her home village, forced to go through a marriage ceremony with a boy to whom she was promised when they were both in the womb. Unfortunately her putative fiancé was stillborn, so Spring Swallow gets to marry a cockerel instead to appease the dead boy’s ghost, thus satisfying superstition and providing a convenient alliance for both families.

Not surprisingly, Spring Swallow escapes this arrangement and heads for the city of Soochow, where she falls in with a household of embroiderers headed up by the mysterious Aunty Peony. Spring Swallow learns to execute the beautiful embroidery for which Soochow is famous while trying to find out more about Aunty’s past. The women of the house are supposed to be celibate but that rule seems to be more honored in the breach than the observance, and Spring Swallow soon finds romance blossoming.

I had two main issues with this novel. First of all, it was a long time before I had any sense at all of the period in which it was set—as a Westerner I couldn’t pick up on the clues about the period that were undoubtedly there, and it wasn’t until Spring Swallow gets involved with a revolutionary that I could really view the book as being set during the revolutionary period before World War Two. Even then, my knowledge of Chinese history is hazy enough that I could have used a few more historical pointers.

The second issue was the sheer unlikeliness of the tale, which against could be a cultural thing. I’ve seen the same litany of amazing coincidences, sudden tragedy and sense of wandering from one life into another in other non-Western novels, so I’m sure it is, but it started to grate on me after a while.

On the other hand, I liked the sheer Chinese-ness of both the writing and the story—which, I suppose, is the flipside of the things I didn’t like about it. I enjoyed seeing Westerners through Chinese eyes and was fascinated by the portrait of traditional China that emerged from the descriptions. I got a strong sense of the life of Chinese women in traditional society—although bordering on the tragic, it was relieved by the sheer practicality and earthiness of the women themselves, a determination to have things their own way that was expressed by their actions rather than their words.

One of the stronger points, of course, was the description of the embroidery skills Spring Swallow has to master and her sheer dedication in doing so. I would have like to have seen more come of that. I would also have love to have seen a more satisfying resolution to Aunty Peony’s mystery, although I’ll concede that the best plot twist would also have been an awkward one from the viewpoint of Chinese politics!

Overall my reactions to this novel were uneven—I was interested in some places, less so in others. I’m not sure whether I would have wanted Secret of a Thousand Beauties to be more Chinese or less so, but I certainly think that the Western reader needs just a touch more guidance through the history of the setting.

Another book about the strange tradition of the Chinese ghost marriage. Spring Swallow is a strong young woman finding her way in 1930’s China. Her mysterious embroidery teacher has a past full of secrets and she is cold and devious. Spring Swallow leaves messages on the side of the mountain for her lover who is in great danger because he is a revolutionary. I liked the parts about the history of embroidery. I felt that the book was a little slow in a couple of places. I felt like I was with Spring Swallow through out her struggles. I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

An unexpected treasure!

China in the 1930's. Spring Swallow, fated to be a 'bad luck' woman, is clear sighted and determined.
Promised in marriage whilst in the womb she is later married to the ghost of her groom, or a chicken depending on your point of view. As a young girl Spring Swallow escapes her life of predetermined drudgery on her ghostly wedding day and flees to the city of Soochow.
She finds herself by chance rather than plan being trained in embroidery by Aunt Peony, a woman with dark secrets and passionate jealousies. As Spring Swallow's talent for embroidery grows more of the secrets of Aunt Peony are revealed, as are the personalities of the other 'sister' embroiderers.
(I was fascinated by the treatise on the art and technique of embroidering that Mingmei Yip exposes us to throughout the book. The book deserves further reading to dip more solidly into the artistic way of this medium.)
I really liked Spring Swallow's internal discourse throughout the novel. Indeed, life from her point of view is anything but dull, frequently terrifying, with humorous and tender moments. She is a young woman at once naive and knowing. Her loyalty to her teacher and her other 'sisters', her pursuit of their whereabouts and her taking responsibility for her 'family' is admirable.
The development of her relationship with the revolutionary Shen Feng is both unexplainable and yet completely realistic. Here is a young woman who has never known love, who believes in fate and who romantically finds her soulmate on a mountain top. Complete with poetry. No wonder she falls in love with him.
Spring Swallow's journey into womanhood and who she is does not stop with finding love. The truth of life is harsher. Her path is at times harrowing. From Soochow to Peking, from resolute safety to chancy freedom, Spring Swallow fully embraces life. By grasping opportunities, and not despairing she finds herself coming of age in unexpected ways.
A quietly fascinating read!

A NetGalley ARC

Not sure if I should read more by this author. Too irreverent?

I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Just a few things to point out before I begin the review:
1. This book is part of a series and I have not read the other books, therefore i am judging this book as a single work.

2. I don't really read books like this, so I read it with as much of an objective eye as possible.

3. On the book I got, it says "ADVANCE UNCORRECTED PROOF: Please do not quote for publication without checking against the finishing book". Therefore I won't quote from the book nor will I assume that the book I've read is 100% the finished version.

Honestly I wasn't sure what to make of this book when I first started it. However, overtime I was drawn in with curiosity, in particular the tidbits of Chinese culture throughout the text, with lines from poems, parables and sayings that flavor this book in a culture I haven't read much about. The book is set in the underworld of Shanghai and Hong Kong, and even though there's not much description of this world beyond character description, it does add a nice flavor of danger to the story.

The story itself works, the protagonist is essentially trying to redeem herself and regain her family. There's a character arc here that works well, in the beginning she is a lot (I assume) like herself in the previous novel, but throughout the book she begins to change as the events conspire.

The book also works well as a standalone, with references to the events prior to the book littered throughout to keep you in the loop. I am surprised there's not a "Sequel to the novel...." anywhere on the book, either. The ending is satisfying, so if you end up taking this journey and read this book I don't think anyone will be disappointed by what they discover.

One thing that bothered me was that the main villain, Wang, came across as so cheesy that it really ruined that element of the book for me. This was a bad guy fresh out of comic books, laughing with every line he says and contradicting himself with his "I taught you to have no compassion! Yet I'm glad it didn't work!" nonsense.

Overall, I did end up enjoying this book and i hope that this book finds more readers. I read from one review that the book was like "a Chinese/romance/gangster/B movie", and I think that's an apt description, but a Chinese Romance gangster B movie" that I think works well or is at least enjoyable.

On the whole, this book was just disappointing. The writing and characters both left much to be desired, and some of the plot points verged on the ridiculous. One cringe-worthy moment I won't forget is when a character photographs some few pages from a diary that just happen to tell her all of the old history of a character, perfectly answering her questions. Especially in the beginning of the book, when the author attempts to convince her audience that Camilla is a strong female character and a notable spy, the writing and style of the work is fairly...well, horrendous. Later in the book, there are many unbelievable moments, and many more awkward ones, but the writing itself is less hampered by overwriting and out-of-place explanation and exposition.

Yip's other works may or may not be so drenched in melodrama, sentimentality, overwriting, and flat unbelievable characterizations...but I doubt I'll take the time to find out.

Not recommended, to anyone.½

If you enjoy intrigue, adventure, and a walk through someone's life that includes a bit of espionage, you won't want to miss THE NINE FOLD HEAVEN.

The main character, Camilla, definitely led a captivating, dangerous life. The book walks you through the pain of her losing her only child, walks you through her quest to find her child, and also walks you through her methods of trying to steer clear of the gang she once was a forced part of.

THE NINE FOLD HEAVEN is narrated by Camilla and will keep you totally absorbed in her story. She is involved in some pretty harrowing situations. Her character is very deep and thoughtful as well as chilling. She would kill you as fast as she would love you.

THE NINE FOLD HEAVEN will pull you in, will sit you down, and will sail you away on an Oriental adventure filled with love, hatred, cunning deals, an abundance of Oriental thoughts, superstitions and sayings filled with words of luck and/or doom.

I enjoyed THE NINE FOLD HEAVEN. The story flowed nicely, with the added bonus of vicariously living Camilla's life. All of this was masterfully carried out. It felt as though you were in her shoes or her disguises feeling the fear of the situation or the warmth of her love for those closest to her.

I have never read a book by Ms. Yip, but her writing style is enjoyable, smooth, detailed, and absorbing. This is a sequel to SKELETON WOMEN, but I had no trouble reading it as a stand alone. 5/5

I received this book free of charge and without compensation from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Skeleton Women‘s Heavenly Songbird Camilla returns in The Nine Fold Heaven by Mingmei Yip after a quick exit from Shanghai in the 1930s into Hong Kong. She’s hiding out away from the gangsters she betrayed, but this once emotionless spy now must endure guilt and longing. She does not know the fate of her love Jinying, nor of her lover Gao, but more importantly, she knows that her baby, Jinjin, is alive but not where he is. Yip has a firm grasp of the atmosphere during this period in Shanghai, a time when gangs ran the government, businesses, and held everyone else at gunpoint. The corruption, backroom deals, and fear permeate this novel, and Camilla is forced to return to Shanghai even though her life is clearly going to be in danger there. Using her skills as a trained skeleton woman — which include seduction — she is able to disguise herself and create plausible stories on the spot, but the trick now is not to let her emotions rule her, which in some instances they do, leading to trouble.

Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2013/07/the-nine-fold-heaven-by-mingmei-yip.html

While technically the sequel to Skeleton Women, which I read last year, Nine Fold Heaven works as a standalone novel. In essence, it's about a woman's quest to find her child, the father of her child, and some measure of safety.

Set in the 1930s, the story is narrated by Camilla, a former gangster's assassin and much lauded nightclub singer. Once a star, she fell from glory after a botched assassination attempt when she fell in love with her target's son and had a child with him. She betrayed her boss, stole from her target, and fled Shanghai in disgrace, wanted by both the police and all the gangs. Her old music teacher had lied to her and said her son was stillborn, but Camilla learned he was alive. Going between Hong Kong and Shanghai, Camilla revisits her past -- including her numerous lovers -- as she navigates her present, including a new, powerful lover. She struggles to remain hidden for fear for her life while her natural skills -- her singing and her beauty -- draws attention toward her once again.

Camilla is a hard heroine to like, although not surprisingly given her upbringing and childhood. A 'skeleton woman' -- a gangster's girl and assassin who turns men and women into skeletons -- Camilla was trained as a child to seduce and to kill. Only 20 in this book, she's shockingly worldly and has the bold arrogance of one not used to failing but she has the ability to reflect on herself and her decisions. (Refreshingly, she doesn't wallow in regret, angst, or remorse, which makes her hard, perhaps, to empathize with, but I found this to be accurate to Camilla's upbringing.)

Yip employs a very simple, almost story-like narrative style that feels deceptively plain (Chapter One has been shared online for this tour for those curious about the style). Camilla refers to poetry and classic Chinese literature as she tells her story, and the narrative is liberally peppered with quotes, which takes this rather grim story and gives it a fairy tale-like element.

Much of the plot is dependent on some seemingly improbable coincidences and a very zippy timeline, which normally would drive me crazy. But in Yip's hands, and through Camilla's eyes, there's a kind of formal aloofness to the unfolding action. Camilla isn't above bragging, but at the same time, she's not going to dwell on the grimy day-to-day details.

The historical feel to the story is thin, sadly, but I felt more a sense of Shanghai and Hong Kong in this book than in the previous novel.

I liked this one more than Skeleton Women, perhaps because Camilla's plight and adventure resonated more. As one refusing to love, Camilla is now a woman awash in love, struggling to do right by those she's impacted and affected, wanting her family because it is right.

As with Skeleton Women, I raced through this book -- there's non-stop action, sex, and intrigue -- and I'm interested in Yip's next offering. (Given the end of this book, not likely to be another story of Camilla's -- but I wouldn't mind a book about Camilla's mysterious friend Shadow.)

I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

The era of this novel is pre-revolutionary China; the action switches between Hong Kong, where Camilla is hiding out, and her former home, Shanghai. In a world ruled by rich, ruthless mobsters, women have little value and Camilla has learned to be heartless to survive. I think that has to be the key to Camilla, whom I had a bit of trouble liking as she appears unable to remain faithful to one man at a time. There is an element of romance in the story--Camilla is desperate to recover her lover Jinying and their son Jinjin, both of whom may be dead--but as a counterpoint to the great love of her life she also leads on American ambassador Edward Miller and re-involves herself with the gangster Gao, who was her lover in Skeleton Women.

I haven't read Skeleton Women but I can quite easily accept that the involvement with Gao predated or was simultaneous with the relationship with Jinying, while Camilla's seduction of Edward, a newly introduced character, is a matter of expediency. But the expediency angle is one of my problems with Camilla, who has a tendency just to let things happen to her as she wanders between Shanghai and Hong Kong with what is supposed to be the tenacious aim of finding out whether her baby and his father are alive and recovering them if they are. If Yip is exploring whether a woman can love three men at the same time (really two, because Edward simply disappears from the scene after a while) I would have liked to have seen more conflict around this point; otherwise, what precisely is the role of the extraneous men other than to push the plot along? Or are they simply part of the cast of secondary characters, in which case why do they all have to fall for Camilla?

On the other hand, I found myself thinking, Camilla's seemingly aimless encounters could have something to do with the Buddhist version of karma, a theme that pervades the novel. The tone is set when Camilla visits a temple in Hong Kong at the beginning of the book and consults a fortune-teller about her forthcoming search for her lover and son. He tells her "Let the wind steer your boat, move forward, have no fear" and that's pretty much what she does.

One of the more entertaining aspects of this novel is the superstitious nature of the Chinese. Camilla both participates in this superstitious behavior and manipulates it, often showing a wary detachment in her attitude toward superstition that may, I suspect, mirror the feelings of an author who is comfortable in both the Asian and the Western worlds.

In other respects, this is a very Chinese book. Even the writing style and punctuation often seem to come more from the Chinese language than English. This can be both fascinating and distracting, depending on where you stand as a reader. The plot's dependence on coincidence is also a novelistic device rarely used in the West these days but again, consistent with the novel's themes of karma and luck.

If you're looking for a fast-moving story that immerses the reader in an exotic setting, you'll be happy. The Nine Fold Heaven certainly led me into a deeper understanding of the lives of women in a place and time where women only have two weapons: their beauty--while it lasts--and their respectability--if they are able to use their beauty to attain the status of a married woman. I suspect that Camilla's struggle to find her faithful lover and her son have as much to do with clawing herself up to a higher status in society as with devoted love, although she does not seem to have that insight about herself.

I spotted a couple of anachronisms: plastic cars in the hands of a child and a portable radio do not belong to the 1930s. There was not a great deal of specific detail to tie me into the 1930s, but I did enjoy the sense of a chaotic, decadent underworld where the struggle to survive and thrive is a game of chance played by powerful men and devious women, life has little value but reincarnation is forever, and superstition and luck can make or break the players.

The latest book from author Mingmei Yip takes the reader on an epic journey — both emotional and geographically. The Nine Fold Heaven is the story of a young Chinese woman, Camilla who is taken from an orphanage at the age of four, and forced to work for one of the worst gangs in Shanghai. Not that she has a bad life with them. In exchange for her various “services” to the gang, from sexual favors to singing entertainment to assassinations, she is well taken care of, as least in material objects. Her emotional life however, has been completely deprived and suffocated.
Camilla’s emotions refused to be suppressed, and love finds a way through the darkness. After taking a lover she gives birth to a son, and the small seed of emotion, feelings and love that had sprouted were now in full bloom. She escapes her “gilded cage” only to return and fight for her child.

The journey she takes will leave the reader breathless, in tears, and cheering her on. Camilla will do whatever is necessary to free her child from the world she escaped, even forming an alliance with the enemy.

The Nine Fold Heaven will also take the reader to some of the darkest areas in the Asian world. Unlocking places foreigners never see or even know exist. The Nine Fold Heaven is written from Chinese perspective, giving non-Asian readers an entirely new experience as to how they are perceived by the ancient Chinese culture.

Told in first-person it allows the reader to delve deeper in the character, deeper into the dark world most of us miss. A thoroughly intriguing and provoking read.

This is a fun and tantalizing read, but the writing style bothered me as it did not seem to have the sophistication of the author's earlier books; it felt too much like a journal, not even a memoir, with the characters not fully developed. I had the feeling that perhaps editors had liked the story and wanted to make it more marketable jazzing it up with lots of sexual episodes and a brash immature main character giving the whole effect a zippy attitude. So I'm sure it will be well read, and I'm glad to have read it myself as it is descriptive of a China I am not likely to experience firsthand.½

The book contained many favorite children stories from Chinese folklore. Animals were in many of the stories and the illustrations were very vivid and descriptive. My favorite story was the Dream of the Butterfly about Zhuang Zi wondering about reality or dreams. I enjoyed the spiritual connotation to think about life differently. It had a ring of Taosim.

a very beautiful cover that the content doesn't deserve. it was okay...but rather plain and less than sweeping.

Skeleton Women by Mingmei Yip is set in 1930s Shanghai when gang leaders are at odds over the foreign and domestic business, but in the shadows are skeleton women who can make men fall in love with them and be willing to risk everything for them, even their lives and fortunes. Heavenly Songbird Camilla is tied to the Flying Dragons boss Mr. Lung, but her agenda is more secretive as she seeks to fulfill her duties to a rival gang, the Red Demons and Mr. Wang. An orphan turned spy, she sings on stage and warms the bed of Mr. Lung at night when she meets his son, Jinying, who has fallen head over heels in love with her since first hearing her sing at the Bright Moon Nightclub.

Read my full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2012/09/skeleton-women-by-mingmei-yip.html

Camilla is an orphan plucked from obscurity by Big Brother Wang, head of one of the biggest crime families in 1930s Shanghai. He trains her as a singer, contortionist and ultimately as his deadliest weapon against his enemy - the head of the largest crime syndicate that he is determined to destroy. Camilla is taught to live without emotion; she becomes a Skeleton Woman. A femme fatale. A woman who can reduce a man to nothing.

As she ascends as the Heavenly Songbird and yes, lover of the evil Mr. Lung she confronts a new mysterious Skeleton Woman - Shadow, a magician and master of the most amazing illusions Shanghai has ever seen. She is vying to take away the affections of Mr. Lung but Camilla cannot allow that - her job is to keep him and at the right moment to kill him. Also in the mix, gossip columnist Rainbow Chang, the third of these mysterious women. She plays the other two against each other in an ever building war of talent and suspense. Who will be the ultimate Skeleton Woman? Who will survive?

This is my second of Mingmei Yip's novels. I reviewed Song of the Silk Road last year. What I can glean from the two novels is that Ms. Yip writes very unlikable female "heroines." Camilla is very hard to like. I recognize that she is meant to be cold but even as she starts to melt, even as she starts to feel some emotion for Mr. Lung's son, she is just not likable. At all. The other two Skeleton Women are not prominent enough in the book to really be well defined. The reader is left wanting more. There is to be a sequel and perhaps that more will be delivered then?

There is also a problem with repetition. By the fourth or fifth chapter I think I had read that Camilla was trained to be a spy more times than I care to count. I also had it drilled into my head that she was: a.) beautiful, b.) had a 21 inch waist and c.) felt no emotion. By the time I read these pieces of information for the umpteenth time I was ready to throw the book in the river. I apparently do have emotions.

All that being vented I did find value in the reading. It is a very different kind of book in heroine, time period and plot. I would accept the sequel for review or borrow it from the library but I would not pay money for it. I have enough interest to know what happens but not enough for it to cost me.

I'm of two minds about this book but I think in the end I can say I enjoyed it. Camilla, a 19 year old orphan, was raised by a Chinese gangster to be the mistress of his rival -- in hopes that Camilla can lead the man to ruin and death. Beautiful, a talented singer, ruthless, and emotionless, Camilla flourishes in Shanghai amid wealth, decadence, violence, and intrigue -- until she meets Shadow, a beautiful and talented magician and illusionist who vies for her seat in Shanghai royalty.

The title comes from a phrase tossed at women like Camilla, either a curse or a compliment: 'skeleton women' are women who drive men to death, bleed them dry, leave them empty like skeletons.

Yip employs an artificial, coy writing style for Camilla that mimics the ornate, flattering way she flirts with her gangster lover. I mostly enjoyed it -- the narrative is peppered with the aphorisms and wise sayings she takes to heart, the stratagems of Sun Tzu (Sunzi in this book) she studies -- but now and then, it felt childish and awkward.

I didn't feel much for Camilla, neither like nor dislike; as Camilla often tells us, she was trained not to have feelings but as a result, I didn't have any for her in return. I read along, interested enough, but not invested, even when I could tell Camilla was thawing, having feelings, making decisions from the heart -- but it was a little too late (for me at least).

My jacket blurb doesn't mention the 1930s and had I not read it elsewhere, I don't think I could say this was a historical novel necessarily. Perhaps the lack of cell phones clued me in that it wasn't contemporary, but otherwise, I don't think there's a strong historical emphasis. Those wanting a very evocative sense-of-place might not find it here.

Rereading what I've written makes it sound like I had many problems with this book, which I guess I did -- I've only noticed it now that I'm having to respond. While reading, I raced through it, entertained, and I'm curious about Yip's other novels.

In 1930’s Shanghai there’s a name for female spies, skeleton women and this is one of their stories although we will meet three altogether Camilla the singer, Shadow the magician and Rainbow the reporter, but the story is Camilla’s.
The streets of 1930’s Shanghai is no place for innocent girls, it’s dirty, it’s dangerous and it’s ripe with corruption and gang warfare. Camilla is far from innocent although it’s the most fitting of the many masks she wears. Camilla is a spy, a skeleton woman, plucked from a Chinese orphanage at an early age and trained in the art of seduction and espionage. Her boss Big Brother Wang has set her up as a nightclub singer in the cities most popular club, her mission is to seduce and carry out the demise of her boss’s bitter rival, Lung, head of the Flying Dragon gang. She needs her wits and courage about her to plan and carryout her mission what she doesn’t count on is having a rival of her own, finding love and getting a conscience but that’s just what these strange and dangerous times have gotten her. Will Camilla fall or will good fortune shine on her.
Mingmei Yip brings us a poignant and often heartbreaking story of what one native woman has to endure to survive in the vice filled, urban-scape of 1930’s Shanghai. Her storyline is captivating, it’s calamitous and it’s a mix of worldly and ethereal a mix of mystery and drama. Ms. Yip’s first person dialogue impressed me, kept me interested and kept me reading with her journal cum memoir style that few authors pull off as well and I loved how she incorporated in her narrative Chinese customs, legends, myths and beliefs and especially how she quoted from long ago texts on war and strategies. But it was her characters that dominated the pages with their mix of good and bad, east meets west, superstitious and earthly from the star Camilla right down the line they all played their parts to a tee. It’s hard to put this novel in a box but if you like a good amount of fact with your fiction, recent historical fiction, crime fiction and in some cases fantasy I think this will fit the bill.
Ms. Yip thank you for the colorful journey through Shanghai you took me on and I plan to journey with you in the future as well.
Click the link for an exclusive Q&A with the author
http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Fiction-General-Discussion/New-Release-fe...

An entertaining novel set in early twentieth-century China. After a series of family misfortunes, the young Xiang Xiang finds herself in a brothel called Peach Blossom Pavilion, where she is trained to be a ming ji, a prestigious prostitute. Xiang Xiang's path is fraught with tragedy and betrayal, but she nevertheless manages to escape Peach Blossom Pavilion, only to discover that her life in the brothel continues to haunt her. A good read, definitely for those who enjoy historical fiction set in China.

Is it possible or even sane to be jealous of a fictional character? I so wanted to be Lily Lin, the main character in Mingmei Yip's newest novel, SONG OF THE SILK ROAD. Lily is offered the opportunity of a lifetime when an aunt she has never heard of offers her an inheritance of $3-million if she will successfully trace the aunt's earlier travels along China's Silk Road. With $50,000 to get her trip underway, Lily doesn't have much to lose: she is currently struggling to finish her first novel, waiting tables to pay the rent, and waiting for her married lover to leave his wife. (O.K. So, at this point in the story I wasn't yet jealous of Lily!) Armchair traveler that I am, I would have undertaken this trip for far less than $3-mil!

I really like deserts, and a good part of the Silk Road is through the Taklamakan Desert. It follows some of the most isolated and remote parts of the world. This doesn't prevent Lily from meeting extraordinarily interesting people and experiencing life-changing adventures. The author has a wonderful descriptive ability which transported this reader thousands of miles and allowed me to see through Lily's eyes. Here's a bit of Yip's description of the fearsome beauty and danger of the Taklamakan:

". . . flat, immense horizon with no foreseeable vanishing point . . . dunes of golden sand . . . robust, curvaceous women; sleeping dragons; even ruined cities with long-forgotten names . . . in a cobolt blue sky, a few clouds swam like shiny white fish and exotic birds chirped their shamanic chants . . . Not a car or truck was in sight. For thousands of years, these same sands, like huge whales, had swallowed caravans entire---merchants, wives, children, camels, goods for sale, everything . . . Over the centuries, desert explorers . . . met horrible deaths from thirst, heatstroke, starvation, sandstorms, bandit attacks, poisonous snakes, even demons. It was told that in the Tang dynasty, merchants and adventurers could simply follow the trail of skeletons . . ." (page 222, advanced reading copy)
Mingmei Yip has created some of the most memorable characters I've come across in fiction. I absolutely love this passage describing Lily's first meeting with the herbalist Lop Nor:

"The creases on his forehead read like abstruse philosophical truths etched in an esoteric language waiting to be deciphered . . . His eyes, though sad, also emanated strong yang energy. However, what really caught my attention and made my heart ache were his hands---large, brown, leathery, scarred. His fingers were thick, calloused, tipped with nails lined with faint dark ridges. What had this man done with those hands---just collecting herbs on the mountain, or digging graves to house ghosts?" (page 74, advanced reading copy)
My only complaint about SONG OF THE SILK ROAD is the author's too frequent use of the F-word. For me, it rendered scenes that could have been luxuriously sensual to being clinical at best and crass at worst. Perhaps it was meant to reveal a frank and open attitude toward sexuality, but I found the overuse of the word to be clunky in comparison to the refinement and sensitivity of other passages.

What I liked best about this novel is the way Mingmei Yip has woven the story of a young woman discovering her own strength and character with fascinating Chinese history, folklore, and culture and also mixed in mystery and romance. SONG OF THE SILK ROAD is a multi-layered and satisfying story full of images and characters that will linger in my mind for a long time.

I'm still jealous of Lily Lin and wish I could follow her trail along the Silk Road, but for now I'll have to content myself with reading the author's previous novels. I have a feeling treasures await me along that path as well.