Empress Orchid
Registered by nefertari of Derby, Derbyshire United Kingdom on 6/3/2006
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
Sex and treachery sounds like my kind of basis for a book :-)
I finished reading Empress Orchid by Anchee Min on...Friday, I think. Possibly Saturday. It's badly written, confused and pointless. I'll qualify that. It's badly written because the story is narrated by the character Orchid, an Empress of China, and much of the book takes place in the 1850s-60s. The language she uses in this narration belongs to an American living in the 2000s. It's too contemporary, and amidst all that Chinese Imperial tradition it jars. Badly done.
Secondly, there are many short scenes of dialogue interspersed with people kneeling, bowing and kowtowing but not very much description. Just because you walked through the Gate of Perfect Harmony through the Garden of Heavenly Flowers into the Hall of Literary Zest doesn't mean that I have the faintest idea what those places look like, where they are in relation to one another, why they're called what they are, and, frankly, why I should care.
Thirdly, Orchid is hardly the most inspiring character in the book. So she enters a contest to be a royal concubine, she is one of the successes, she has a kid, she argues with a few other people, and that's really all that happens. I always feel that if you're going to tell a story, you should find the character who leads the more interesting life - the character who is involved in everything and who has the power to act on what they observe. You can choose a seemingly 'powerless' character if the point of the story is to demonstrate their response to circumstances, their experience of Fate - but there has to be conflict to back that up. Anchee Min has missed both aisles. She's chosen a character whose very circumstances mean that she's not a victim of fate - she has chosen to become a concubine - and she has no power to influence her immediate surroundings. The disappointing thing is that I can see possibilities in Orchid's story - but they're missed when they should have been exploited. If you want to breathe life into the Forbidden City you need to go for a character with knowledge and experience of it, someone who could freely move around it, someone who would tell you as a reader what the other characters were plotting and whose comparative freedom would make Orchid's isolation more heartwrenching. If I were Anchee Min, I'd have gone for An-te-hai, without a doubt. What better character than a eunuch who despises his deprivation and powerlessness, who loves the very character you're trying to portray and who has the power, intelligence and opportunity to act. Yes, that would make it An-te-hai's tale instead of Orchid's tale, but at least it would have been worth reading.
Fourthly, and probably finally although I make no promises, Anchee Min doesn't seem to know what story she's trying to tell. It's sold as Orchid's fictional biography, when what it develops into is a fictionalised account of the history of the decline of China told from the perspective of a character who doesn't have much idea of what's going on except that the man in charge of affairs is doing a pretty poor job of things and who certainly has no power to influence the situation because she is a woman. It can't work. You can't tell two wildly different stories in one book.
Okay. I'm done. But if you want an example of where this type of story - we're going with the powerless-female-character-follows-the-path-of-Fate-against-the-backdrop-of-oriental-disaster type of story - is done beautifully, you want to read Memoirs of a Geisha. Don't see the film until you've read the book. The book is heavier on both plot and emotion and it's so vividly descriptive that you won't need to see the film. Although you should anyway.
Secondly, there are many short scenes of dialogue interspersed with people kneeling, bowing and kowtowing but not very much description. Just because you walked through the Gate of Perfect Harmony through the Garden of Heavenly Flowers into the Hall of Literary Zest doesn't mean that I have the faintest idea what those places look like, where they are in relation to one another, why they're called what they are, and, frankly, why I should care.
Thirdly, Orchid is hardly the most inspiring character in the book. So she enters a contest to be a royal concubine, she is one of the successes, she has a kid, she argues with a few other people, and that's really all that happens. I always feel that if you're going to tell a story, you should find the character who leads the more interesting life - the character who is involved in everything and who has the power to act on what they observe. You can choose a seemingly 'powerless' character if the point of the story is to demonstrate their response to circumstances, their experience of Fate - but there has to be conflict to back that up. Anchee Min has missed both aisles. She's chosen a character whose very circumstances mean that she's not a victim of fate - she has chosen to become a concubine - and she has no power to influence her immediate surroundings. The disappointing thing is that I can see possibilities in Orchid's story - but they're missed when they should have been exploited. If you want to breathe life into the Forbidden City you need to go for a character with knowledge and experience of it, someone who could freely move around it, someone who would tell you as a reader what the other characters were plotting and whose comparative freedom would make Orchid's isolation more heartwrenching. If I were Anchee Min, I'd have gone for An-te-hai, without a doubt. What better character than a eunuch who despises his deprivation and powerlessness, who loves the very character you're trying to portray and who has the power, intelligence and opportunity to act. Yes, that would make it An-te-hai's tale instead of Orchid's tale, but at least it would have been worth reading.
Fourthly, and probably finally although I make no promises, Anchee Min doesn't seem to know what story she's trying to tell. It's sold as Orchid's fictional biography, when what it develops into is a fictionalised account of the history of the decline of China told from the perspective of a character who doesn't have much idea of what's going on except that the man in charge of affairs is doing a pretty poor job of things and who certainly has no power to influence the situation because she is a woman. It can't work. You can't tell two wildly different stories in one book.
Okay. I'm done. But if you want an example of where this type of story - we're going with the powerless-female-character-follows-the-path-of-Fate-against-the-backdrop-of-oriental-disaster type of story - is done beautifully, you want to read Memoirs of a Geisha. Don't see the film until you've read the book. The book is heavier on both plot and emotion and it's so vividly descriptive that you won't need to see the film. Although you should anyway.
Released 15 yrs ago (8/4/2008 UTC) at
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Left on the stand in the taxi waiting area. I hope it finds someone who will enjoy it!
Left on the stand in the taxi waiting area. I hope it finds someone who will enjoy it!
A copy of this has passed through my hands before, but didn't make it to the top of Mt TBR so when I saw this one today at Westfield I decided to have another try - thanks for the brilliant review - very informative! Will be taken to a meet-up or passed onto another bookcrosser when I'm done - thanks for sharing nefertari!
Journal Entry 5 by house-elfdobby at Cafe Zen OBCZ in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire United Kingdom on Thursday, December 3, 2009
Released 14 yrs ago (12/5/2009 UTC) at Cafe Zen OBCZ in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire United Kingdom
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Hello, thank you for being curious enough to visit Bookcrossing!
Even if this isn't your kind of book and you don't intend to read it I'd appreciate it if you would make a journal entry of some sort. Maybe you could say where you found it (they don't always stay where they were originally left!) or what you think of the idea of travelling books.
Then, leave it for someone else to find. And don't forget, if you make release notes (to say where you've left it, and when) next time it's journalled you'll hear from it too! If you decide to join please say that house-elfdobby sent you - many thanks and happy Bookcrossing!
Taking this one along to the jolly Christmas meet-up in Burton on Trent on Saturday.
Hello, thank you for being curious enough to visit Bookcrossing!
Even if this isn't your kind of book and you don't intend to read it I'd appreciate it if you would make a journal entry of some sort. Maybe you could say where you found it (they don't always stay where they were originally left!) or what you think of the idea of travelling books.
Then, leave it for someone else to find. And don't forget, if you make release notes (to say where you've left it, and when) next time it's journalled you'll hear from it too! If you decide to join please say that house-elfdobby sent you - many thanks and happy Bookcrossing!
Taking this one along to the jolly Christmas meet-up in Burton on Trent on Saturday.
