Status
Available
Publication
New York : Crown, c2012.
Description
"When Samuel Pickens's great love tragically loses her life, Samuel travels the globe, Annabelle always on his mind. Eventually, he comes face-to-face with the mirror image of his obsession in the last place he would expect. As Pickens uncovers her secrets, he must decide how far he will go for a woman he loves"--Dust jacket flap.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Beamis12
I find it difficult to write a review on a novel that I have mixed feelings about. First this is really not my kind of genre, historical yes in the sense that it takes place in the Forbidden City in the Orient, but also very sexual and obsessive as well. The prose is beautiful, if at times almost
Show More
over the top, and it is this that kept me reading. The main character is very self obsessed, very unlikable and his obsession with his dead love was extreme. Definitely a different type of book but this author can definitely write well. ARC from NetGalley. Show Less
LibraryThing member mgiampaoli
An odd story; one driven by past love in search of that transcendent experience in the body that is supposed to be inhabited by the past love. The spirit happens to inhabit a body in decadent China, at the highest level of decadence. Interesting that Pickens finds himself perfectly at home, lust
Show More
and power all around him, he never figures it out. Pickens can't get out of his own search for his past love, even when it is so apparent that the physical world is not going to cooperate. He doesn't find himself and redeem his past love. He wallows in self-pity without recovering. Too bad. I was hoping for conquering heroism, but Pickens slinks away. Show Less
LibraryThing member memccauley6
I always find it hard to read books with a protagonist I don’t particularly like. Samuel Pickens is perverted and obsessed with Anabelle, who seems more like a homage to the literary nymphets who have gone before her than a real person. Of course, the story is told in first person by Samuel
Snark Alert: I kept feeling like I had read this book before, right down to all the butterfly allusions. It seemed like the real story was about the rise and fall of Samuel’s penis. (oh dear, I hate puns)
Show More
himself, who is molesting mannequins while fantasizing about Annabelle’s ghost – like Humbert Humbert’s Dolores she is not a real person to him. Snark Alert: I kept feeling like I had read this book before, right down to all the butterfly allusions. It seemed like the real story was about the rise and fall of Samuel’s penis. (oh dear, I hate puns)
Show Less