This is Violet’s story of her life in Shanghai, the daughter of an American woman who owns a courtesan house, and an absent Chinese father. The story is full of pride, ambition, cruelty, desire and despair. There is also love, loyalty and humour as Violet makes friends and enemies, and slowly discovers the truth about the relationships that created her past and the emotions that will shape her future.

The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan tantalizes all the senses as it immerses one into a world both one wants to inhabit and one wants to run away from. Tan creates characters that are at once likable and unlikable. The Valley of Amazement explores the intricate complexity that makes up human beings. Tan had me cheering for a character one minute and wishing ill on the character the next and then back to cheering even while sometimes feeling guilty about my own reactions. I read The Valley of Amazement slowly, a little bit at a time, taking in what I could and sometimes avoiding what I knew instinctively was coming even while hoping it wasn't. Tan kept me engrossed in the story even at times when I didn't like where it was going. or when one character or the other made decisions that made no sense, at least to me. Every night when I picked up The Valley of Amazement I felt transported to a time, place, and experience that would never be my own yet I felt a connection in the way that reminded me the world is filled with people whose experiences I can only witness and that there are those who can only witness my life experiences.

Meh. Was this really Amy Tan??? This was nowhere near as captivating as her other books that I've read - Joy Lucky Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, or the Bonesetter's Daughter. None of the main characters were particularly interesting or sympathetic. There were a couple of secondary characters that were appealing at times, but overall I just kept thinking "how much longer???" and "will this get better???". Alas, it did not.

It's like Memoirs of an Annoying Courtesan.

I only gave it two stars for Magic Gourd.

Well, definitely better than Saving Fish from Drowning, which was pretty awful. Back to her successful formula, but there's definitely a sense that it's that--a formula. And lacking all the power of JLC, Kitchen God's Wife, etc. Maybe we've all just been her too many times. On another note, while I get this was all about concubines, did she have to work "pudenda" into her sentences quite so many times?

SPOILER-FREE

Where do I even start?
I would like to think that this not my kind of book genre, not my kind of fiction. But, even so, the characters are so poorly developed, they don't act the way their personalities are, the story is unnecessarily long and the ending is too rushed...
I have decided I'm not reading any more exotic world, Chinese style stories for a long time. I have also decided that this is their very last book I finish "just because". There's too much to read for me to stick with something I am not enjoying.

I loved The Joy Luck Club, and I love historical fiction, so I thought I would really enjoy this book. Instead, I just thought it was okay. Below are some of my thoughts (with spoilers):

Things I liked:
- the settings were so detailed that I felt like I was right there with Violet
- Violet, as a character, was realistic and compelling
- the relationships (especially those between mothers and daughters) were nuanced and beautiful

Things I did not like:
- the pacing in this book was, in my opinion, horrible. The middle dragged, and then there was SO much crammed into the last 100 or so pages. I would have liked more of Lulu’s story or even Flora’s story throughout because I almost DNF around 400/600 pages.
- THE ENDING!!!! Screw Loyalty! Violet should have gotten on the boat! It would have made the story a perfect circle, and instead I sat the book in my lap and thought “why did I even read that?” In all honesty, I would probably give this book 2.5 stars, but I rounded up to 3.

This book is oh so long. I think Amy Tan has lost her luster. The last 2 books have not been good. The detailing of the courtesan houses was very elicit. These women who were supposed to be brave and independent, some how made very dumb choices when it came right down to it. Why would you trust Fairweather to bring your child aboard the boat? It seemed rotten, so don't trust him? Why would you put the wrong name on your child's birth certificate? Poor Magic Gourd getting taken along with Violet and her new husband. Violet's mother was quite the selfish child and promiscuous for attention.

I'm a sucker for any book set in Modern China, but this one? Avoid at all costs. No redeeming characters at all (except maybe for Magic Gourd, but that's debatable), bad things after bad things after bad things happening over an over again, and too much time spent describing sexual exploits. Oh, and weird time jumps. Can't forget those. I ended up skimming midway through since I was in too deep and just wanted to finish. Not worth your time.

I agree with many of the reviews; a good editor could have done wonders for this book. I love Tan's other books but was very disappointed which this one.

Having read Amy Tan’s other novels, I looked forward to reading her most recent one. Unfortunately, my expectations were dashed; the book was a disappointment.

Set primarily in the first quarter of the twentieth century in Shanghai, the majority of the novel focuses on Violet Minturn, the daughter of Lucia, an American woman who manages a first-class courtesan house in the city, and an absent Chinese father. When Violet is fourteen, her mother leaves for San Francisco but, because of a man’s devious machinations, Violet is separated from her mother and forced to remain in Shanghai where she is trained as a courtesan. 337 pages are then devoted to 13 years of Violet’s life, years during which she searches desperately for love. Via a 96-page flashback, we are given the story of Lucia’s life which, not surprisingly in an Amy Tan novel, has many parallels with Violet’s.

The first 90+ pages, detailing Violet’s life with her mother, are interesting. Violet learns some family secrets and has to deal with accepting her bi-racial background: “I feared that over time, I would no longer be treated like an American, but as no better than other Chinese girls. . . . I was a half-breed. . . . I feared the stranger-father within my blood. Would his character also emerge and make me even more Chinese? And if that came to pass, where would I belong? What would I be allowed to do? Would anyone love a half-hated girl?” (46 – 47).

The longest section describing Violet’s life from 1912 to 1925 is tiresome. Initially there is little tension. Violet does have to adapt to life as a courtesan, but it is a life of which she had a very good understanding. One chapter is entitled “Etiquette for Beauties of the Boudoir” “wherein Magic Gourd advises young Violet on how to become a popular courtesan while avoiding cheapskates, false love, and suicide” (139). It is obvious Tan did considerable research, but the 35-page chapter reads like a personal essay. What then follows is Violet’s life as a courtesan and her search for true love in a life devoted to the illusion of romance. Her search is not easy. Virtually all the men behave badly and Violet is left to suffer, albeit with Magic Gourd, her surrogate mother, always by her side. The problem is that the plot becomes predictable: Violet is warned not to do something, but she does it nonetheless and tragedy follows. Not learning from her mistakes, she makes the same poor choices over and over. Tragedy follows tragedy but it becomes difficult to have much sympathy for her since she never seems to mature.

When Lucia’s life is finally detailed, the reader is served a virtual repetition of Violet’s. A rebellious, self-assured girl feels unloved and so makes poor choices and suffers accordingly. The number of parallels between their lives is just too many: both choose men very unwisely and suffer devastating loss; both possess traits of pride and selfishness and the same harsh judgmental attitude towards parents. At one point, Magic Gourd tells Violet, “You are like your mother in so many ways. You often see too much, too clearly, and sometimes you see more than what is there. But sometimes you see far less. You are never satisfied with the amount or kind of love you have” (131). This type of direct characterization just repeats what has already become obvious. Furthermore, there are even parallels between the characters that people their lives. For example, Violet has her ever faithful companion, Magic Gourd, while Lucia has Golden Dove. Lu Shing moves in and out of Lucia’s life but affects it profoundly, and Loyalty Fang performs the same role in Violet’s. Both stories possess shams; the artist in one copies the works of famous artists and the poet in the other copies the poems of ancestors. These numerous echoes suggest a great deal of contrivance.

Another problem is that characters are not likeable. Violet can best be described as bland and naïve, and it is impossible not to become frustrated with her inability or unwillingness to learn from her experiences. Lucia is the same. There is also the difficulty with believability. Would a woman who has lost one child risk the possibility of losing a second child? Would a woman whose livelihood depends on being able to accurately gauge the trustworthiness of men be so blind to the true qualities of some men? Would a woman who has suffered what can only be called as a life-destroying loss show such little distress and give only rare thought to what she has lost? Sometimes there are contradictions. One minute Violet says, “It was strange how quickly it happened. . . . I felt free. That’s when I knew I could end our relationship for good. . . . I simply didn’t love him anymore” and then she says, “I stopped breaking up with him. . . . we always conceded that we loved each other. . . . We admitted it” (550 – 551). This is her behaviour towards the end of the book and this change occurs in the course of one page!

Stylistically, there are flaws. The book is much longer than it need be; it could use a judicious editing. The detailed descriptions of clothing and furniture are really not necessary. There is also unnecessary repetition: Lucia tries opium for the first time (489) and then she makes statements like, “This possibility was my opium” (496) and “Those words were opium to my soul” (510). Even the symbolism lacks depth: the use of the painting entitled The Valley of Amazement as a symbol for a life “that did not exist” (521) because it shows a truth “whitewashed with fake happiness” (573) is anything but subtle.

This novel revisits themes that Tan has explored in previous novels: identity and mother/daughter relationships. The elements of family secrets, misunderstandings, and yearning for a mother’s love have appeared in other of her books, so one will not discover much new in this one.

To my dismay, I found Tan’s latest novel a wearying read. I was anxious for it to end. Like Lucia and Violet, it begins with self-assurance but, like them, it goes on and on without new insight. Sadly, I was left with the feeling that Tan has become like Perpetual and Lu Shing; the men copy the poems and paintings of others, and she is imitating her previous work.

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