BY HOLLY CUTHBERT

 

FILLED with family turmoil and life defining cultural mixes, Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement, takes the reader seamlessly into the courtesan houses of Shanghai.

Beginning in the last years of the emperor’s reign The Valley of Amazement follows the life of Violet Minturn, born to a white American mother and madam of Shanghai’s number one courtesan house. Violet learns the trade from snatched glances of the house’s flower sisters little thinking that a cruel twist of fate will find her separated from her mother and forced to become a virgin courtesan.

This novel is an epic tale of Violet’s life and the similarities she finds with her life and the life of her mother who she cannot forgive for losing her. Violet must deal with her mother’s apparent betrayal and the realisation of her own half Chinese parentage that would make her an outcast in a society where the Chinese are second class citizens in their own country.

Amy Tan provides a startling and at times uplifting portrayal of the courtesan houses of the early twentieth century. The flower sisters are strong women proud of their profession and striving to do their best for themselves and for the house.

The standards and morals of the courtesan houses clash brilliantly with the seemingly hard hearted and stuffy American families in the book. China offers the novel’s young people an escape and freedom that America seems to deny. This is not a view often explored from this time.

At the heart of this story are two women struggling with their identities, with love and how they feel about their upbringing. Lucia, Violet’s mother, is every bit as important in this story as her daughter. She shapes her completely even in those early years that they spend together and it is not until many years later that Violet can really understand that.

The novel takes the reader through meeting four generations of the Minturn family and the impacts of how the smallest actions and mistakes can affect all of them. This book is truly epic, moving and unusual.

 

This book was published by Fourth Estate and is available to buy for £18.99. It can also be borrowed from The Hive as well as other Worcestershire libraries. Click here to check availability and check it out.