Ruthanne Lum McCunn

Gripping and interesting book about Chinese kidnaps to work as slaves in Peru. The seperated chapters for the two main characters are a good way to set up a story, it only bothered me that Ah Lung kept creeping into Bo's chapters - maybe it was meant as a sort of dream-narrative, but it took me out of the story.

What struck me (and liked, in a way) that a lot of cultural things weren't excessively explained. This made it more easy to read through, even though I sometimes missed what something meant.

And of course, happy ending =)… (mais)

This is a fascinating story - a novelization of a real-life Chinese immigrant in the late 1800s in the American West. Broken by famine in Northern China, Lalu's family sells her to a brothel, who then passes her to a slave merchant bound for America. There she is transported to the mostly male West Coast where gold is being panned and trains are being built. Auctioned off to a saloonkeeper, she learns English and interacts with the kind of rough people who make their lives in a saloon. Later offered as a prize in a poker game and finally becoming a wife, she manages to earn back some of the dignity taken from her after being property for most of her life. In fact, all women were property of one sort or another in those days. Much of the quality of their life was highly dependent on whose care they were in and how much they were valued.

Not the strongest historical fiction, but still interesting.… (mais)

I won this book from Librarything in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of Polly Bemis aka Lalu Nathoy who was sold into slavery by her father in 1871 China. The biography is written in a fictional style making it an easy and quick read.

Perhaps due to the author's writing style, the story of Polly does come off as rushed and incomplete almost as it the author was trying to cram so many instances of Polly's life into 216 pages. I would have liked more detail of her life prior to coming to America and was underwhelmed by her life once married to Charlie Bemis. She appeared to live a life no different that any other married couple. She and Charlie loved each other, they fought, they made a home together and they were a pillar of their community. As such, I didn't find her story that interesting.

It was overall a decent book to read, just could have had more depth.… (mais)