Publication
Sphere (2007), 608 pages
Description
A sweeping novel set in war-torn 1928 China, with a star-crossed love story at its center. In a city full of thieves and Communists, danger and death, spirited young Lydia Ivanova has lived a hard life. Always looking over her shoulder, the sixteen-year-old must steal to feed herself and her mother, Valentina, who numbered among the Russian elite until Bolsheviks murdered most of them, including her husband. As exiles, Lydia and Valentina have learned to survive in a foreign land. Often, Lydia steals away to meet with the handsome young freedom fighter Chang An Lo. But they face danger: Chiang Kai Shek's troops are headed toward Junchow to kill Reds like Chang, who has in his possession the jewels of a tsarina, meant as a gift for the despot's wife. The young pair's all-consuming love can only bring shame and peril upon them, from both sides. Those in power will do anything to quell it. But Lydia and Chang are powerless to end it.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member macart3
According to Jessa Crispin in her Bookslut Lesson article, "How to Choose a Book by its Cover", "an important aspect of the cover is the font used for the title and author. Flowery, script font means either historical fiction or a romance." Which this book has both. The author doesn't inform the
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reader how much is true and you probably wouldn't know it unless you were familiar with the Opium Wars, Boxer Rebellion, and pre-Communist China struggles. It also is a romance story, in its various incarnations, but not a cheesy one. It's not literary but it is several cuts above the cheesy kind. "The naked woman (from the back or perhaps just a section of her) can either mean sexist crap or completely harmless. They throw naked women on every book these days." Check mark, please. It is harmless. It's not thought provoking, but it does manage to subtly show how our choices affect others. And the book has a subtle feminist leaning towards it as well. The book Thirdly, "[i]t’s not as much what the blurbs say as who wrote them. Publisher’s Weekly blurbs every goddamn book, so disregard them. Authors of stature you can usually trust." I did not recognize the two authors on the back of the book praising it, but when I did a search on them, I found out that they wrote romance novels and although I am unfamiliar with the authors, these two were in the romance department. Therefore, I credited their blurbs. However, this is definitely a good read that's enjoyable and I really wish Ms. Furnivall's next book, "The Girl from Junchow", would come out *now* because I was sad when "The Russian Concubine" ended. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kasthu
I probably shouldn’t even be writing this review, as I didn’t finish it. Well, I got through 350 pages before throwing in the towel, but only because I had nothing else to read with me at the time. I was intrigued by the premise, about a young Russian girl in China in the 1920s, and her
First of all, the prose is pretty overwrought, littered with one-word, repetitive sentences that were very choppy. There were lots of writing clichés (of the “he could feel into her soul” variety”). The writing actually gave me a headache at some places.
There were also problems with the plot and characters. I simply didn’t feel emotionally invested in any of these characters’ stories, particularly Lydia, who grated on my nerves (and if the author mentioned her flame-red hair one more time, I thought I was going to throw the book at the wall!). She didn’t ever seem to be her age, and I didn’t find her relationship with Chang to be all that believable. Nor did I really believe her mother’s character, which was more cliché than anything; and I though Theo Willoughby’s story was really random and out there, and not truly important to the plot—which I kept searching for, but in vain. Take these characters and put them in a different setting, and you would probably have the same novel, honestly.
A lot of things happen in this novel, but it seems to be more inertia than anything—a lot of it doesn’t seem to advance the plot by much. Plus, there were a lot of inconsistencies—Lydia and Valentina can hardly afford to feed themselves, but the rabbit SunYat-sen is in absolutely blooming health. There’s a lot of gratuitous violence, too. Nor does the author seem to know much about Russian or Chinese culture and history. A huge disappointment, especially since this novel seemed promising.
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relationship with a native Chinese. But from there, it quickly went downhill.First of all, the prose is pretty overwrought, littered with one-word, repetitive sentences that were very choppy. There were lots of writing clichés (of the “he could feel into her soul” variety”). The writing actually gave me a headache at some places.
There were also problems with the plot and characters. I simply didn’t feel emotionally invested in any of these characters’ stories, particularly Lydia, who grated on my nerves (and if the author mentioned her flame-red hair one more time, I thought I was going to throw the book at the wall!). She didn’t ever seem to be her age, and I didn’t find her relationship with Chang to be all that believable. Nor did I really believe her mother’s character, which was more cliché than anything; and I though Theo Willoughby’s story was really random and out there, and not truly important to the plot—which I kept searching for, but in vain. Take these characters and put them in a different setting, and you would probably have the same novel, honestly.
A lot of things happen in this novel, but it seems to be more inertia than anything—a lot of it doesn’t seem to advance the plot by much. Plus, there were a lot of inconsistencies—Lydia and Valentina can hardly afford to feed themselves, but the rabbit SunYat-sen is in absolutely blooming health. There’s a lot of gratuitous violence, too. Nor does the author seem to know much about Russian or Chinese culture and history. A huge disappointment, especially since this novel seemed promising.
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LibraryThing member littlebookworm
Sixteen-year-old Lydia and her gorgeous mother Valentina have been living in Junchow, China, ever since they were exiled from Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution. All is not well for these two women; Valentina drinks too much and Lydia must steal just to pay the rent. Her thievery places her in
There are a lot of things wrong with this novel. The story has a great premise in theory and one which should really appeal to me. I love the idea of a forbidden love. Here, though, it doesn’t work. For one thing, I didn’t believe in the connection between Lydia and Chang An Lo. I don’t know if I can isolate why. I just didn’t feel that they could have possibly known each other well enough to risk their lives in such a way. In fact, I felt a little bit like Lydia was a spoiled brat, despite the fact that she’s poor and knows it. She just must have her way all the time. As an example, she asks her mother’s lover for a rabbit, even though her mother despises it and they can’t afford to eat in the first place let alone buy greens for a rabbit. She insists on charging off into the dangerous section of town, only to get people killed and risk the life of a friend. She makes bad decisions and manipulates adults to get what she wants. She’s fiery, but fiery in a way that is not appealing. The one aspect of Lydia’s character I did like was the relationship with Alfred, which I thought grew in an organic and believable way.
This book also has far too many characters. It’s not just about Lydia and Chang An Lo. It’s about Lydia’s mother and her various paramours and her friend Polly and Polly’s parents and her teacher Theo and his Chinese lover and a variety of thugs and aristocrats and communists besides. It gets confusing and I wished it had been streamlined. The book just felt too long, like the story went on and on. And to top it all off, it’s open-ended, so the reader is forced to buy the sequel if she wants to continue the story. I feel like a warning should come with books like this.
I did like the setting; historical fiction in China is harder to come by than, say, historical fiction in England, and I appreciated that. There are little bits of history thrown in, like the origins of that rabbit’s name, Sun Yat-sen, and the history of the Communist movement in China. These, however, were not enough to rescue the plodding plot and unsympathetic characters.
Finally, a minor point, which someone who works in publishing could clarify for me. Since Lydia and her mother are Russian, sometimes they use Russian phrases in their speech. Unfortunately, these are spelled out somewhat phonetically, and almost always would probably give the reader the wrong pronunciation of the word. Is there a reason that she couldn’t have just used the cyrillic, aside from the fact that most people can’t understand it? If anything, it would look even more exotic. It also felt very tacked on to me, as in, they’d say “Thank you” and then the author would add spasibo and it just threw me out of the book. Though my Russian has greatly degraded, it was once fluent and sometimes it even took me a while to figure out what words she was trying to use. Since the overall writing isn’t that good to start with, mundane and choppy, this was not an incentive to keep going. I also hated how the book’s title didn’t match its content – there are no Russian concubines in this book.
Honestly, I don’t think I’d recommend The Russian Concubine. I wouldn’t have finished if I didn’t have to. You don’t need to start at all!
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danger with a terrifying underground gang, from which a young Chinese Communist, Chang An Lo, saves her. That doesn’t solve Lydia’s problems, however, and they only escalate as she realizes how deeply she feels for Chang An Lo and that her mother is falling into deeper and deeper disgrace.There are a lot of things wrong with this novel. The story has a great premise in theory and one which should really appeal to me. I love the idea of a forbidden love. Here, though, it doesn’t work. For one thing, I didn’t believe in the connection between Lydia and Chang An Lo. I don’t know if I can isolate why. I just didn’t feel that they could have possibly known each other well enough to risk their lives in such a way. In fact, I felt a little bit like Lydia was a spoiled brat, despite the fact that she’s poor and knows it. She just must have her way all the time. As an example, she asks her mother’s lover for a rabbit, even though her mother despises it and they can’t afford to eat in the first place let alone buy greens for a rabbit. She insists on charging off into the dangerous section of town, only to get people killed and risk the life of a friend. She makes bad decisions and manipulates adults to get what she wants. She’s fiery, but fiery in a way that is not appealing. The one aspect of Lydia’s character I did like was the relationship with Alfred, which I thought grew in an organic and believable way.
This book also has far too many characters. It’s not just about Lydia and Chang An Lo. It’s about Lydia’s mother and her various paramours and her friend Polly and Polly’s parents and her teacher Theo and his Chinese lover and a variety of thugs and aristocrats and communists besides. It gets confusing and I wished it had been streamlined. The book just felt too long, like the story went on and on. And to top it all off, it’s open-ended, so the reader is forced to buy the sequel if she wants to continue the story. I feel like a warning should come with books like this.
I did like the setting; historical fiction in China is harder to come by than, say, historical fiction in England, and I appreciated that. There are little bits of history thrown in, like the origins of that rabbit’s name, Sun Yat-sen, and the history of the Communist movement in China. These, however, were not enough to rescue the plodding plot and unsympathetic characters.
Finally, a minor point, which someone who works in publishing could clarify for me. Since Lydia and her mother are Russian, sometimes they use Russian phrases in their speech. Unfortunately, these are spelled out somewhat phonetically, and almost always would probably give the reader the wrong pronunciation of the word. Is there a reason that she couldn’t have just used the cyrillic, aside from the fact that most people can’t understand it? If anything, it would look even more exotic. It also felt very tacked on to me, as in, they’d say “Thank you” and then the author would add spasibo and it just threw me out of the book. Though my Russian has greatly degraded, it was once fluent and sometimes it even took me a while to figure out what words she was trying to use. Since the overall writing isn’t that good to start with, mundane and choppy, this was not an incentive to keep going. I also hated how the book’s title didn’t match its content – there are no Russian concubines in this book.
Honestly, I don’t think I’d recommend The Russian Concubine. I wouldn’t have finished if I didn’t have to. You don’t need to start at all!
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LibraryThing member eenerd
Very interesting and action-packed book about the relationship between a White Russian refugee girl and a Chinese Communist boy in Jungchow, China during the 1920's. Lots of uptight Englishmen, Russian ex-aristrocracy, cautious Chinese and gangsters from all sides. The cultural melting pot keeps it
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interesting, the characters are varied although at times a little predictable, but not terribly so. The story is very rich, can be gruesome and gets pretty steamy near the end. All in all a fun read. Show Less
LibraryThing member mevesahe
Like a bad Kung Fu movie with sub-titles. Conversations between characters are cliched. Sub-plots are loaded with perverse relationships. My friend told me to keep reading, "it gets better in the end"(famous last words!). I never saw it happen!! Avoid this book.................
LibraryThing member Jacey25
A very interesting tale of a russian thief. Only three stars because the ending was abrupt and didn't tie things up; it felt rather like the suthor ran out of characters. This is another one of those books that is billed as a love story but I would argue is more an intersting tale of people. The
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mother daughter relationship is as well fleshed out as the love story and just as interesting. The secondary subplot involving the girl's teacher felt unpolished though. The author writes a good story with much promise but sadly never seems to finish the tale. *Note that much of the story seems to be lifted from the life of her grandmother per the author. Show Less
LibraryThing member busyreadin
Fair story of Russian immigrants in China. interesting characters. I really didn't feel the title fit the story, though.
LibraryThing member sds6565
What a good book! Looking at the book cover, and the book title, you expected something else. This book had meat! Good dialogue and a gripping story line. I liked the ending of the book. The character Lydia faced incredible challenges and fought for who she believed in. Her lover faced his own
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challenges. In the end they parted, but the author left the door open, for them to meet again. What a good book it would be. Show Less
LibraryThing member debnance
Not a book I'd have chosen myself. I was given the book to read by a volunteer at school. The cover and the title are quite provocative. The actual story is much less so. This book tells the story of a woman who left Russia during the Russian Revolution and found refuge in China with her daughter.
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It was definitely a page turner; Furnivall knows how to tell a story. Show Less
LibraryThing member kck
I did not even finish this. It is awful...poorly written and difficult to get through. I only read about half.
LibraryThing member candamyr
I read so many conflicting reviews about this book I decided to throw them all in the wind and see for myself. And I'm glad I did. Tastes are so different, the definition of a good read is so different for every person that books like this will always get everything from zero to five stars -
What is this book about? Not just one single thing. There is not just one single plot. Who is this book about? Not just one single person. Not even just one couple or one pair of linked people. This book is about Lydia first and foremost, but essentially it is about her mother too, and Theo, and Chang An Lo, and Mr. Mason, and all their relationships with each other, the developing stories between them, love stories, stories of hatred and violence, then, the different societies they belong to and how they, even though world's apart, still intermingle, the good and the bad and the grey in between that comes of all these interactions. It can be confusing, yes. This is not a book for single minded people...
This is a great story with nicely fleshed out characters that believably develop (in themselves and their relationships) in an interesting setting regarding time and place, and all in a writing style that flowed well for me. The only things that annoyed me: the title doesn't befit the story (I'd love to hear an explanation from the author about her choice of title - who's the concubine and why?) and the hurried ending. Granted, it was meant to lead to the sequel (which by the time of the book's release was surely already planned, so I don't quite understand the animosities of some people here) but it could have been more detailed, like the rest of the book.
I highly enjoyed this book, it was a great read for me, and I will be reading "The Girl from Junchow" next.
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because it doesn't fit any mould!What is this book about? Not just one single thing. There is not just one single plot. Who is this book about? Not just one single person. Not even just one couple or one pair of linked people. This book is about Lydia first and foremost, but essentially it is about her mother too, and Theo, and Chang An Lo, and Mr. Mason, and all their relationships with each other, the developing stories between them, love stories, stories of hatred and violence, then, the different societies they belong to and how they, even though world's apart, still intermingle, the good and the bad and the grey in between that comes of all these interactions. It can be confusing, yes. This is not a book for single minded people...
This is a great story with nicely fleshed out characters that believably develop (in themselves and their relationships) in an interesting setting regarding time and place, and all in a writing style that flowed well for me. The only things that annoyed me: the title doesn't befit the story (I'd love to hear an explanation from the author about her choice of title - who's the concubine and why?) and the hurried ending. Granted, it was meant to lead to the sequel (which by the time of the book's release was surely already planned, so I don't quite understand the animosities of some people here) but it could have been more detailed, like the rest of the book.
I highly enjoyed this book, it was a great read for me, and I will be reading "The Girl from Junchow" next.
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LibraryThing member sgsain
Don't let the 500 plus pages scare you off. This story starts off with a bang and runs from there. The setting of post WWI China and the plight country-less White Russians made this story fascinating. Despite the fact that I found the central romantic characters to be too young to be believable, I
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became caught up in the drama of their lives and times. There are Chinese gangsters, Russian royalty reduced to crushing poverty, Chinese communist fighters, and English bureaucrats to name a few of the characters. It's a portrait of a society in transition. Making this even more fascinating is that the author based the story on the history of her own grandmother. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel and prequel to this story. Show Less
LibraryThing member Clara53
Mixed feelings. The writing itself, with a touch of histrionics at times, did not appeal to me that much (while not without some surprising gems of expression now and then). But on the other hand, the plot, slowly but surely, got under my skin. So much so that I am going to the library to get the
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sequel. I would give 4 1/2 stars for the plot, but 3 for the writing, so 4 stars would be fair between the two aspects... Also, I don't think the title suits this book, the cover is even less appropriate, I had to change the cover for my page... Obviously, the title and the cover were meant just to catch the eye... Show Less
LibraryThing member alisonb60
I agree with many people who commented here - why the title. There were no concubines in the true sense of the word. Enjoyed the book though.
LibraryThing member aryadeschain
Well, this book was like a long, long trip. With nothing happening during most of it. Though I have to say, I honestly don't think I was expecting much of it.
The book is very, very slow-paced which, for a historical fiction, shouldn't really be so surprising. But what really displeased me about it
I can't really say I cared about the characters. At all. Maybe among them Valentina was the most intriguing character, but very little was told about her (and for a book with over 500 pages, you can't really say there wasn't enough space to shove in a bit more of her story). Later I found that there is a prequel to this book that actually tells Valentina's story, but I don't think I care enough about her to actually want to read the book.
The book didn't really catch my attention until I got to the 300th page, which is... well, bad. If a book needs 300 pages to sell its story, then the pacing of the plot is badly distributed. Not to mention the fact that a couple of things were left unexplained by the end of the book.
The only real reward for going through this book was actually when I finished reading the last page (and, by the way, the book ends in a sort of a cliffhanger - and if you actually like the book as it is, I would not recommend reading the summary for the book The Girl From Junchow, for it contains spoilers), closed the book and considered the reading "complete".
The book is very, very slow-paced which, for a historical fiction, shouldn't really be so surprising. But what really displeased me about it
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is the narrative itself. I thought that the historical content was introduced into the story in a very forceful way, to the point that the characters mixed their little love dialogue with thoughts about politics and the Communism.I can't really say I cared about the characters. At all. Maybe among them Valentina was the most intriguing character, but very little was told about her (and for a book with over 500 pages, you can't really say there wasn't enough space to shove in a bit more of her story). Later I found that there is a prequel to this book that actually tells Valentina's story, but I don't think I care enough about her to actually want to read the book.
The book didn't really catch my attention until I got to the 300th page, which is... well, bad. If a book needs 300 pages to sell its story, then the pacing of the plot is badly distributed. Not to mention the fact that a couple of things were left unexplained by the end of the book.
The only real reward for going through this book was actually when I finished reading the last page (and, by the way, the book ends in a sort of a cliffhanger - and if you actually like the book as it is, I would not recommend reading the summary for the book The Girl From Junchow, for it contains spoilers), closed the book and considered the reading "complete".
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LibraryThing member aryadeschain
Well, this book was like a long, long trip. With nothing happening during most of it. Though I have to say, I honestly don't think I was expecting much of it.
The book is very, very slow-paced which, for a historical fiction, shouldn't really be so surprising. But what really displeased me about it
I can't really say I cared about the characters. At all. Maybe among them Valentina was the most intriguing character, but very little was told about her (and for a book with over 500 pages, you can't really say there wasn't enough space to shove in a bit more of her story). Later I found that there is a prequel to this book that actually tells Valentina's story, but I don't think I care enough about her to actually want to read the book.
The book didn't really catch my attention until I got to the 300th page, which is... well, bad. If a book needs 300 pages to sell its story, then the pacing of the plot is badly distributed. Not to mention the fact that a couple of things were left unexplained by the end of the book.
The only real reward for going through this book was actually when I finished reading the last page (and, by the way, the book ends in a sort of a cliffhanger - and if you actually like the book as it is, I would not recommend reading the summary for the book The Girl From Junchow, for it contains spoilers), closed the book and considered the reading "complete".
The book is very, very slow-paced which, for a historical fiction, shouldn't really be so surprising. But what really displeased me about it
Show More
is the narrative itself. I thought that the historical content was introduced into the story in a very forceful way, to the point that the characters mixed their little love dialogue with thoughts about politics and the Communism.I can't really say I cared about the characters. At all. Maybe among them Valentina was the most intriguing character, but very little was told about her (and for a book with over 500 pages, you can't really say there wasn't enough space to shove in a bit more of her story). Later I found that there is a prequel to this book that actually tells Valentina's story, but I don't think I care enough about her to actually want to read the book.
The book didn't really catch my attention until I got to the 300th page, which is... well, bad. If a book needs 300 pages to sell its story, then the pacing of the plot is badly distributed. Not to mention the fact that a couple of things were left unexplained by the end of the book.
The only real reward for going through this book was actually when I finished reading the last page (and, by the way, the book ends in a sort of a cliffhanger - and if you actually like the book as it is, I would not recommend reading the summary for the book The Girl From Junchow, for it contains spoilers), closed the book and considered the reading "complete".
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LibraryThing member Sarah_Gruwell
Kate still impresses with her skills at world building, characterization, and relationship dynamics. I’ve only read one book by her so far, one of her newer works. This one seems to be the one she’s known most for so I’m glad I was able to experience it.
And “experience” is the correct
Furnivall is almost without peer when it comes to characterization. She does an incredible job balancing out virtues with vices. I can always count on her people being very human. There’s really only one exception to this in the book, and even then it’s not that blaring. In her previous work I’ve read, she gave one of her characters so many foibles that I ended up not liking them at all.
In this one, she’s made one of her characters almost too perfect. Chang is almost the perfect paragon: virtuous, courageous, principled, dedicated, and awesome at martial arts. He also gives his heart whole-heartedly when he falls in love. His love for Lydia does fall into the “obsessive” end of the spectrum at times so that saves him from being too perfect. Yet, Furnivall does such a great job with everything else that Chang doesn’t blare out that much, at least to me. I still enjoyed reading him.
I loved reading Furnivall’s examination of different relationship types as well. Friendships, lovers, husband/wife, father/daughter, teacher/student…. All are explored in depth within the story, really digging into how people relate to each other under different circumstances. She gives her readers an eye into how same relationship types differ as well, like how Lydia’s/Chang’s relationship differed from the teacher’s and Mei’s. How different circumstances can come to bear and steer and relationship into a different direction was fascinating.
Despite some aspects of Chang’s character making him read too perfect at times, I felt this was a very strong work by Furnivall. It definitely reads as the work that made her name. She makes her readers live the setting, feel for the characters, and just get sucked into the story. I’d recommend this one to any lovers of historical fiction or just a great story. Can’t wait to dig into more by this author!
And “experience” is the correct
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term to use! The reader can literally smell the Chinese incense scents, see the vivid reds and golds of Chinese architecture and fabrics, and hear the calls of stall owners and shops of the markets. All of this is interposed over the rigid, orderly world of British society that ruled this area of China at the time. Then there’s Lydia, her mom, and the other Russian refugees caught in between, struggling to survive in a world caught between posh British who look down on them and poor Chinese who resent them. The author excels in making every bit of this world shine and breathe with life.Furnivall is almost without peer when it comes to characterization. She does an incredible job balancing out virtues with vices. I can always count on her people being very human. There’s really only one exception to this in the book, and even then it’s not that blaring. In her previous work I’ve read, she gave one of her characters so many foibles that I ended up not liking them at all.
In this one, she’s made one of her characters almost too perfect. Chang is almost the perfect paragon: virtuous, courageous, principled, dedicated, and awesome at martial arts. He also gives his heart whole-heartedly when he falls in love. His love for Lydia does fall into the “obsessive” end of the spectrum at times so that saves him from being too perfect. Yet, Furnivall does such a great job with everything else that Chang doesn’t blare out that much, at least to me. I still enjoyed reading him.
I loved reading Furnivall’s examination of different relationship types as well. Friendships, lovers, husband/wife, father/daughter, teacher/student…. All are explored in depth within the story, really digging into how people relate to each other under different circumstances. She gives her readers an eye into how same relationship types differ as well, like how Lydia’s/Chang’s relationship differed from the teacher’s and Mei’s. How different circumstances can come to bear and steer and relationship into a different direction was fascinating.
Despite some aspects of Chang’s character making him read too perfect at times, I felt this was a very strong work by Furnivall. It definitely reads as the work that made her name. She makes her readers live the setting, feel for the characters, and just get sucked into the story. I’d recommend this one to any lovers of historical fiction or just a great story. Can’t wait to dig into more by this author!
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LibraryThing member Bookish59
A strong novel about 1920's Junchow, in Northern China, the foreigners who live in the the International Settlement, a conglomeration of Russian, British, Italian, American and French citizens. They are surrounded by starving, diseased, poor Chinese who detest the comfortable Fanqui, foreign
Valentina and Lydia, Russian mother and daughter, are smart, resourceful, poor and lucky to be alive. Valentina is both beautiful and an amazingly gifted piano player, while Lydia is a good student in Theo Willoughby's school. It is Lydia who steals to make sure they can pay rent and eat. She nearly gets killed running down an alley but is saved by Chang An Lo. They have nothing in common except the ability to speak English, but develop a bond that strengthens with time.
The novel describes the poverty, the abuse of women, the corruption, the politics between Chiang Kai Shek supporters and those like Chang An Lo who believe communism is the only way China can modernize and move forward, the murders in detail.
A vibrant, dramatic novel and a very good read.
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devils, who have taken so much from them, poisoned them with opium and treat them like trash. Valentina and Lydia, Russian mother and daughter, are smart, resourceful, poor and lucky to be alive. Valentina is both beautiful and an amazingly gifted piano player, while Lydia is a good student in Theo Willoughby's school. It is Lydia who steals to make sure they can pay rent and eat. She nearly gets killed running down an alley but is saved by Chang An Lo. They have nothing in common except the ability to speak English, but develop a bond that strengthens with time.
The novel describes the poverty, the abuse of women, the corruption, the politics between Chiang Kai Shek supporters and those like Chang An Lo who believe communism is the only way China can modernize and move forward, the murders in detail.
A vibrant, dramatic novel and a very good read.
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LibraryThing member jacki
Interesting but not a quick read
LibraryThing member webgeekstress
I well and truly detested the main character: Lydia is a spoiled and amoral brat, and her love for Chang felt completely artificial. And the ending has "sequel coming" written all over it, which almost always irritates me. (At least, it does in books that I don't like!)
I rated it as highly as I did
I rated it as highly as I did
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only because I found the setting so unusual. Show Less
LibraryThing member threadnsong
I am so glad I have finally finished this book. I bought it on a whim, thinking that the look into pre-communist China would be fascinating and the love story would be interesting, but that's where I should have read through a few pages first.
The characters are deep and descriptions of them, as
Otherwise, the almost-fantasy relationship between Lydia, Valentina's daughter and the young Chang An Lo is just that: a fantasy. A crazy mixed-up ideal of a 16 year old redhead in the slums of China who wanders the street as a thief, and Chang An Lo, an idealistic young Communist who lives in the slums and sees the promises of equality as preached by Mao. He is able to rescue her using his supreme martial arts skills, becomes deeply attached to her and her fox-like nature, and she to him because he can speak fluent English and she, too, is idealistic.
I read a lot of fantasy literature; I'm reading Diana Gabaldon's books, and for all their fantastical time traveling and sudden turns of fate and plot line, they are still more believable than this book. I don't doubt that there were horrible people like the Black Snakes who tortured their enemies, I don't doubt that there were horrible slums and destitute people who were forced to live there, I don't doubt that the British looked down on the Chinese as mindless heathens. What I do doubt is the veracity of a young girl wandering such streets without earlier repercussions; if she had been a thief at such a young age, surely she would have been kidnapped or assaulted long before the events in this book. Ditto for the Hollywood-style martial arts skills and the visionary nature of Chang. The story does not fit into the reality in which it is written.
As far as the title character, my take is that it was Valentina. It is especially revealed at the end when she educates her daughter about what it took to get her into the English school and why her mother wants her to get an education so that she can be independent and not dependent on the whims and performance possibilities that Valentina must live with. A concubine was a man's kept mistress despite what she herself might have wanted, and Valentina certainly fits that definition.
The characters are deep and descriptions of them, as
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several reviewers say in their reviews, are well-drawn. Valentina especially is a tragic personage and along with Andrew one of the two believable main characters of this story.Otherwise, the almost-fantasy relationship between Lydia, Valentina's daughter and the young Chang An Lo is just that: a fantasy. A crazy mixed-up ideal of a 16 year old redhead in the slums of China who wanders the street as a thief, and Chang An Lo, an idealistic young Communist who lives in the slums and sees the promises of equality as preached by Mao. He is able to rescue her using his supreme martial arts skills, becomes deeply attached to her and her fox-like nature, and she to him because he can speak fluent English and she, too, is idealistic.
I read a lot of fantasy literature; I'm reading Diana Gabaldon's books, and for all their fantastical time traveling and sudden turns of fate and plot line, they are still more believable than this book. I don't doubt that there were horrible people like the Black Snakes who tortured their enemies, I don't doubt that there were horrible slums and destitute people who were forced to live there, I don't doubt that the British looked down on the Chinese as mindless heathens. What I do doubt is the veracity of a young girl wandering such streets without earlier repercussions; if she had been a thief at such a young age, surely she would have been kidnapped or assaulted long before the events in this book. Ditto for the Hollywood-style martial arts skills and the visionary nature of Chang. The story does not fit into the reality in which it is written.
As far as the title character, my take is that it was Valentina. It is especially revealed at the end when she educates her daughter about what it took to get her into the English school and why her mother wants her to get an education so that she can be independent and not dependent on the whims and performance possibilities that Valentina must live with. A concubine was a man's kept mistress despite what she herself might have wanted, and Valentina certainly fits that definition.
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Subjects
Awards
Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice (Romance)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2006
Physical description
608 p.; 7.72 inches
ISBN
0751540420 / 9780751540420
Other editions
The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall (Paperback)
The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall (Paperback)