Name: The Red Chamber
ISBN: 9780307701572

Pauline Chen

An epic reimagining of the Chinese classic "Dream of the Red Chamber" is set against a backdrop of eighteenth-century Beijing and follows the intersecting lives of three women, including orphaned Daiyu, who becomes tangled in a web of intrigue with ties to the Emperor's Palace.

The Red Chamber

Magdalene Lim

I've watched a number of period dramas about Chinese palace life and politics as well as come across a few (English) books about the Cultural Revolution but this is my first time reading a Chinese story set in those times. Fast-paced and yet not too complicated (save for the Chinese names that I find difficult to differentiate between who's who and how they're related), this was a rather enjoyable read. Though not set in the palace, there's plenty of drama and familial politics in the story of this well to-do family. 

I would enjoy it more if there were family trees at different sections of the book to show how everyone is related and how the Jia family has grown or shrunk.

Anyaconda

DNF at 150 pages.

I so wanted to like this. I love Asian historical fiction and fiction in general and I was hoping that this would be similar to "Pachinko" or "Memoirs of a Geisha" as Arthur Golden blurbed it on the cover.
The topic was interesting and I haven't managed to find a good Chinese historical fiction.

The Red Chamber was just so incredibly flat - like a two week old already opened coke bottle. I couldn't connect with any of the characters in the book and it was boring!

The Red Chamber - not my cup of tea.

The Red Chamber

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