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The Valley of Amazement, by Amy Tan
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Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement is a sweeping, evocative epic of two women’s intertwined fates and their search for identity, that moves from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village.
Spanning more than forty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement resurrects pivotal episodes in history: from the collapse of China’s last imperial dynasty, to the rise of the Republic, the explosive growth of lucrative foreign trade and anti-foreign sentiment, to the inner workings of courtesan houses and the lives of the foreign “Shanghailanders” living in the International Settlement, both erased by World War II.
A deeply evocative narrative about the profound connections between mothers and daughters, The Valley of Amazement returns readers to the compelling territory of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. With her characteristic insight and humor, she conjures a story of inherited trauma, desire and deception, and the power and stubbornness of love.
- Sales Rank: #32000 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-11-05
- Released on: 2013-11-05
- Format: Kindle eBook
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, November 2013: For a hefty half of her gorgeous new novel, The Valley of Amazement, Amy Tan instructs us in the finer points of life as a courtesan in early 20th century China: expect and revel in sensual descriptions of the clothes, the customs, even the not-so-niceties of catering to rich men in a very regimented society. Lulu Minturn is a white Californian who’d run away with a Chinese painter, established the best courtesan house in Shanghai and given birth to a beautiful “Eurasian” (in the parlance of the time) daughter, Violet. Soon, either because she was tricked or deceitful, Lulu abandons Violet and flees back to America; history soon is in danger of repeating itself when Violet gives birth to her own daughter. (Eventually, the scene shifts to California, where the family searches for redemption and reconciliation.) Nobody does mother-daughter angst and cross cultural conflict better than Tan, who has been literally writing the book(s) on these topics for years. What makes this novel special is its meticulous language--readers may be struck by the juxtaposition of poetry and Anglosaxon equivalents in descriptions of courtesans’ sex lives--and its elucidation of the cultural upheavals at the time. This is as much a historical novel as it is a family story, at once intimate and sweeping, personal and political. You’ll have learned something by the end--and you’ll probably also be weeping. --Sara Nelson
From Publishers Weekly
In her first novel since 2009's Saving Fish from Drowning, Tan again explores the complex relationships between mothers and daughters, control and submission, tradition and new beginnings. Jumping from bustling Shanghai to an isolated village in rural China to San Francisco at the turn of the 19th century, the epic story follows three generations of women pulled apart by outside forces. The main focus is Violet, once a virgin courtesan in one of the most reputable houses in Shanghai, who faces a series of crippling setbacks: the death of her first husband from Spanish influenza, a second marriage to an abusive scam artist, and the abduction of her infant daughter, Flora. In a series of flashbacks toward the book's end, Violet's American mother, Lulu, is revealed to have suffered a similar and equally disturbing fate two decades earlier. The choice to cram the truth behind Lulu's sexually promiscuous adolescence in San Francisco, her life as a madam in Shanghai, and Violet's reunion with a grown Flora into the last 150 pages makes the story unnecessarily confusing. Nonetheless, Tan's mastery of the lavish world of courtesans and Chinese customs continues to transport. Agent: Sandra Dijkstra, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. (Nov.)
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Lulu, an American, is the only white woman running a first-class courtesan house in Shanghai in 1905. Burdened with secret anguish and loss, she relies on her loyal associate, Golden Dove, to help her create an enclave of confidentiality, courtly seduction, and voluptuous pleasure for the city’s most influential men. Her lonely young daughter, Violet, has taken to eavesdropping and spying to survive. Shocked to be outed as half-Chinese, Violet thinks, “half-breed, half-hated,” and indeed, this exposure is only the beginning of an all-out assault against her sense of self and freedom. In her first novel in eight years, Tan (Saving Fish from Drowning, 2005) returns to her signature mother-daughter focus as she pulls back the curtain on an aggressively sexist society after the fall of the last Chinese dynasty precipitates monumental change. Reaching back to Lulu’s San Francisco childhood and forward to Violet’s operatic struggles and traumas and reliance on her smart, loyal mentor, Magic Gourd, this scrolling saga is practically a how-to on courtesan life and a veritable orgy of suspense and sorrow. Ultimately, Tan’s prodigious, sumptuously descriptive, historically grounded, sexually candid, and elaborately plotted novel counters violence, exploitation, betrayal, and tragic cultural divides with beauty, wit, and transcendent friendships between women. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: An ambitious, 20-city author tour backed by extensive advertising and promotion will help make Tan’s bold epic a blockbuster. --Donna Seaman
Most helpful customer reviews
169 of 187 people found the following review helpful.
A too long book about too little happening to people you don't care about.
By Lois S. Murphy
I have enjoyed some Amy Tan novels but this certainly is not one of them. The plot is as old as the hills - young, arrogant girl falls on hard times and slides into the depths of cruel men and cold hearted madams, blah, blah, blah. The one dimensional plot is matched by the one dimensional characters, none of whom are likable nor interesting. Why they are the way they are goes unexplored as do plot narratives which seem to have been used only to get from point a to point b. Perhaps the most irritating part of this very irritating book is the use of coy terms for sexual organs. Men's stems are constantly entering gates of delight with glances at pink pearls guarding those gates, well you get the idea! The exception is the use of the word "pudendum" which stands in stark grabbed, rubbed, squeezed, contrast to the stems, pearls, gates, etc. This is a too long book, about too little happening, to self absorbed people who never touch, never mind grab, your attention.
161 of 180 people found the following review helpful.
Not my favorite
By Susan Johnson
*** Warning, there are some spoilers***
It is a testament to Tan's writing that I finished this book. I do not like spending so much time with characters I do not like or respect. Violet Minturn, the daughter of a famed American courtesan mistress in Shanghi, is someone I didn't enjoy. A spoiled brat would be a good description. Violet is half American, half Chinese, a fact that she doesn't discover until she's 8 or 9. She creeps around the house spying on all the courtesans at work. Nothing her mother does is good enough and Violet never feels loved.
Violet's mother decides to return to San Francisco and is tricked into leaving Violet behind. Word is sent to her that Violet has died. Violet is sold into another courtsesan house as a virgin and is trained to take up the profession. Even though she knows her mother was tricked in leaving her behind and that her mother believes her dead, she is outraged her mother doesn't come back for her. Her unhappiness colors every thing.
She gets involved in a relationship with an American and participates in a counterfeit identification that leads to horrendous results. I can not fathom why she does so and it is never explained. She is outraged, once again, that her duplicity is discovered. This character never seems to mature or make adult, well thought decisions. It is like she quit growing at 14.
The book is overly long. There's so much discussion of furnishings and clothes that I tended to nod off. I think it could have been edited by at least 100 pages and been a better story. I can see why it took her 8 years to write it as it is so detailed. I find that as an author gets more famous that there is less editing leading to really uneven stories.
Still I read it. Amy Tan is a fine author and I doubt I would have finished it for any other author. I like to enjoy and appreciate the characters. I like to see characters grow and mature. I don't need to be impressed by details about things that really don't matter to the story. I really can't recommend this book. At it's length, it's a big investment of time for very little return.
57 of 64 people found the following review helpful.
No Joy or Luck in this Valley - but definitely Amazement
By gg
A dedicated Amy Tan fan since her debut novel (which, though it was published a year before I was born, I revisit every year), I traveled to the Valley of Amazement already spellbound, anticipating the same sentiments that Joy Luck delivered.
I was disappointed. At the risk of publicizing my oversentimentality, I also felt betrayed. I pre-ordered the novel and waited patiently, checking my mailbox every afternoon. And though I could only read a few pages a day because of my graduate program, I kept thinking - hoping, certainly - the story would pick up, a redeeming epiphany would alter the book's tone, something would make the characters more likable, more human, more compassionate. I waited for the language to become less tedious, the grimy details of Shanghai less depressing, the flower/sex references less tacky. Like the patrons of these courtesan houses, I spent the whole novel waiting at the cusp of this valley and searching for what I desired most. But I never found it. Just like the patrons, I found illusions, cheap embellishments, shoddy furniture, and cheap, cheap, cheap sex.
At Tan's defense, I get it. Sex sells. "Fifty Shades" is a testament to that, among so many other empty "pieces of literature" that will never stand in the same light as the classics, the unrecognized talents, the Nobel Laureates, the Pulitzer Prize winners. True literary minds, true English enthusiasts, scoff at works like these - they shame us, embarrass us. To use Tan's own terminology, good literature - true, honest literature - is like a first wife. And cheap, repetitive sex scenes, empty characters, and stale plot - these are all slave girls. I am sad to admit that I finally saw the day I'd scoff at an author I idolized and admired most. I have placed the valued Tan on a pedestal since I was teenager, and "The Valley of Amazement" tore down her pristine standard. I never imagined I'd want to STOP reading Tan. But I spent nights with this book dreading reading and re-reading tedious, silly passages that told me nothing of the characters at all, just courtesan rules, dry dialogue, and repeated questions from the protagonist that essentially answered themselves. Again, as Tan would put it: "I didn't understand. Why was the book so bad? Had I been duped?"
Some reviewers say they enjoyed the book because of its historical context, its realistic and sometimes shockingly honest portrayal of Shanghai in a time of revolution and change, and I understand this and agree with it. To Tan's credit, the book does provide a rich history and vivid backdrop to the characters' lives (although a few details did make me lose my stomach, the girl really did her research). The characters themselves, however, were as flaccid as an old patron's "stem." They were essentially faceless. Violet is a spoiled brat who has to learn about life the hard way, her mother is hard-hearted for having endured atrocities, Fairweather is a slimy con man. The patrons vary, but according to Magic Gourd, they will all enjoy more or less the same behaviors in bed, and there are rules to get them there that will never fail. I could never make a simple list like this for "Joy Luck Club" or "Bonesetter's Daughter." What gave Tan appeal above all else was honesty. Good, honest characters. Characters that you can't forget easily, that haunt you to come back and reread. I am upset to report that I finished Tan's latest book an hour ago and I feel like I've already forgotten the lot of these contrived personas already. I was happy to press cover to cover and call it a day.
Amy Tan was the first author to inspire me. I never thought a female artist of color could gain so much success by telling our stories - immigrant, minority, mother/daughter stories. American stories. Chinese stories. I was enchanted, and for this reason, I will always be grateful for Tan - I will always love her and admire her as an artist. It is not my place to say if the book was good or bad, only that I disliked it for all of the reasons I've mentioned already. Tan, you are BETTER than this! You don't need cheap sex to sell. I would have fawned over a more thoughtful story with rich, diverse characters, multifaceted symbolism, and meaningful relationships with less of the historical research monologues. I almost feel like Tan sold her body herself with this book.
I understand that artists experience varying phases in their careers. Tan is at a different place in life now than she was in 1989. She was inspired to write this, to tell these courtesans' stories, to shed some light on Shanghai during the 20s. I applaud her for her efforts, but frankly I think the book is a waste of time and money if you are seeking a read like "Joy Luck." This valley really will amaze you, but perhaps not the way you expect. But who knows? Maybe it will bring a new crowd of fans to her readership, who will pick up "Joy Luck" expecting something like "Valley," and thus, be disappointed! Different strokes for different folks. I only hope that Tan returns to her roots for her next piece. There is a reason her debut novel was so successful; if I were in her shoes, I'd take that fact to heart and build from it.
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