Amy Tan

Violet Minturn, a half-Chinese/half-American courtesan who deals in seduction and illusion in Shanghai, struggles to find her place in the world, while her mother, Lucia, tries to make sense of the choices she has made and the men who have shaped her. 750,000 first printing.

The Valley of Amazement

Skye Sherman

A lot of sex. And a really good story wrapped in there too. But a lottttttt of sex. 

I’m still not totally sure what to make of this book. The writing style (almost no dialogue in its 589 pages) was hard for me, but I did enjoy being swept along into Shanghai at the turn of the century. I feel like I learned a lot about Chinese culture, and I respect what a talented storyteller Tan is. This whole thing came from her head?! Writers amaze me.

Melody Izard

The world of Chinese brothels is a complicated one. And you have to play by the rules or you'll find yourself curled up in an opium den with no idea where you daughter is or who that man is snoring in the bed next to you.

Mahasin S Ameen

I'd read a lot of reviews of The Valley of Amazement that rated it badly because they were looking for a multi-generational story like Tan's earlier The Joy Luck Club. Other reviews rated it badly because they compared it Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. I really don't think either comparison is fair. Mostly because while I enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha I'm cognoscente of the problems with it, mostly Arthur Golden's rampart Orientalism - but I'm not going there.

My problem with The Valley of Amazement is that I really didn't care for any of the "main" characters, Violet, or Lulu. I liked Golden Dove and Magic Gourd/Cloud and Danner, but that's because of the nature of these characters. Violet and Lulu are just ridiculously selfish and unlikable. I don't unlikable narrators in general but I do dislike unlikable narrators who don't learn from their mistakes. The story itself is engaging and interesting but I feel as though so much of the "bad" stuff that happened could have been prevented if people thought more.

Tan's writing is still phenomenal.

Abigail yohannes 

Megan Gardner

Kate Lillie

Ingelin

Trish D

Tylar M

Amanda Castaneda

New York Times bestseller The Valley of Amazement is an evocative epic of two women's intertwined fates and their search for identity—from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village Shanghai, 1912. Violet Minturn is the daughter of the American madam of the city's most exclusive courtesan house. But when the Ching dynasty is overturned, Violet is separated from her mother and forced to become a "virgin courtesan." Spanning more than forty years and two continents, Amy Tan's newest novel maps the lives of three generations of women—and the mystery of an evocative painting known as "The Valley of Amazement." Moving from the collapse of China's last imperial dynasty to the growth of anti-foreign sentiment and the inner workings of courtesan houses, The Valley of Amazement interweaves the story of Violet, a celebrated Shanghai courtesan on a quest for both love and identity, and her mother, Lucia, an American woman whose search for penance leads them to an unexpected reunion. The Valley of Amazement is a deeply moving narrative of family secrets, legacies, and the profound connections between mothers and daughters, reminiscent of the compelling territory Tan so expertly mapped in The Joy Luck Club. With her characteristic wisdom, grace, and humor, Tan conjures up a story of inherited trauma, desire, deception, and the power and stubbornness of love.

The Valley of Amazement

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