Newspaper pdf - The Afterword Reading Society

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Books coverage
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Specifically, it’s
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Carole Lacapra Richmond, B.C.; P Sun Ottawa; Sue Smith Georgetown, Ont.; Joni Sternthal Thornhill,
Ont.; Gaby Enright Calgary; Shirley Lyster Camrose, Alta.; Heather LeBar Guelph, Ont.; Lynne Stajcer
St. George Brant, Ont.; Judy Patteson Toronto; Suzanne Clavelle Calgary; Nancy Lydon Montreal;
LaVerne Adams Vancouver; Sarah Turner Newmarket, Ont.; J. Craine Pickering, Ont.; Maria Finamore
Burnaby, B.C.; Edwin Lang Markham, Ont.; Christiane Forestell Ottawa; Loren Mastracci
Windsor, Ont.; Michelle Jankovich North Vancouver; Holly Tran Vancouver
Number of readers
7
6
5
4
3
How 2long did it take
1
to finish
this book?
0
1-2
sum up
the book
in a
tweet
5
8
4
7
3
6
2
5
1
4
0
3
21-2
1
15%
3-5
6-9
Number of sittings
0
1-2
2
Beautifully descriptive and compelling
story of a young
girl in China sold to
a brothel after her
father’s death, and
in later years her
journey to Europe
and return to China.
1
Sue Smith
3-5
6-9
B+
Number of readers
85%
Beginning
Ending
15%
10+
7
6
5
4
3
100
10+
0
1-2
ber of sittings 15%
80
85%
3-5
5%
85%
80
15%
100
60
80
85%
5
Suyin
Suyin
55%
Beginning 40%
Ending
JinhauWho is your
Baba100
favourite character?
80
5
Baba
55%
Suyin
55%
Jinhau
Suyin
5
40%
Suyin
40%
Jinhau
ba
Baba
5
Loren Mastracci
Peony, by Pearl Buck,
is written in a similar style:
a combination of historical
fiction and a love story that
takes place in China.
Gaby Enright
Kristin Lavransdatter, about
another strong-willed woman,
also in a historical setting and
whose character develops amid
some interesting choices around
love and life. Edwin Lang
Shirley Lyster
The Courtesan is
extremely descriptive and paints a
vivid picture in
every chapter of
Jinhua’s life and the
surrounding politics.
An unchosen life of
adversity in search
of the notion of
romantic love finding the strongest is
true friendship &
familial bond.
Lynne Stajcer
The Courtesan
somehow combines heartbreak,
resilience and un
fathomable emotions — masterful.
The author, who is
not Asian, attempts
to use an Asian
“voice” in the book.
It felt a little artificial to me. I would
be interested in
how those who also
speak Mandarin
or Cantonese feel
about this.
I enjoyed the book
very much. Based
on a real person,
her father is executed and at a
young age she is
sold and trained to
become a prostitute, this novel that
Three Souls by J. Chang;
the ability to transport
the reader to a completely
different era and the bonds
of family and joy/devastation.
Michelle Jankovich
Michelle Jankovich
Judy Patteson
60
uyin
10+
Holly Tran
Baba
60
ning
%
g
Memoirs of a Geisha
by Arthur Golden. Similar plot,
different country.
Loren Mastracci
Beginning
Ending
85%
In the tumultuous
period of European
takeover in China,
Jinhua is torn between all she has
known and the new
world-view she has
glimpsed.
scenic tour of 18th
century China.
Which was better:
the beginning or the ending?
100
6-9
Maria Finamore
The Courtesan is a
Number of sittings
60
Beginning
Ending
I enjoyed this book
very much, but had
quite the dilemma
reading it ... wanted to read it slowly
and carefully so as
not to miss a single
detail but also
could not wait to
turn the page to see
what happens next.
10+
Overall, our
readers
Number
of sittings
give this book
a
8
6-9
the book:
The Courtesan by Alexandra Curry
10+
6
10+
-5
6-9
Number of sittings
7
Number of readers
Number of readers
8
3-5
Read
along
with
us!
the readers:
stats
10+
IF YOU LIKE
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YOU’LL LIKE
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brings one woman’s
extremely unusual
experiences vividly
to life. Gaby Enright
Alexandra Curry
succeeds in having
the reader admire
and cheer on this
strong-willed, good,
intelligent, and the
endlessly curious
Jinhua as her life
unfolds in a tumultuous period in China’s
history.
Edwin Lang
Good historical
fiction about an orphaned girl whose
life is not her own
due to unfortunate
circumstances during 19th century
China. Forced to
survive harsh lives/
roles not of her
choosing, she finds
some solace where
possible. P Sun
Historical fiction
based on the life of
a courtesan in China
in the late 1800s.
Beautifully written
and immensely
fascinating.
Joni Sternthal
Born, sold, enslaved, imprisoned,
broken, freed.
Captivating story,
good writing,
good characters.
At times too much
description.
Heather LeBar
Nancy Lydon
Dreams of Joy, by Lisa See,
describes a different time
in China’s history — The Great
Leap Forward — and the terrible
famine it caused. Joni Sternthal
5
ask
the author
Suyin
Suyin
40%
55%
40%
‘I have always been thinking
in terms of (culture)’: Curry
Jinhau
as brief as the time it takes
to drink a sip of tea gives so
much cultural context. What
the British call “the black
sheep of the family”, the Chinese call “the harmful horse of
the herd”. It is wonderful stuff.
It made my material so much
richer — and it was all great
fun to think about.
Sue Smith asks It seemed that
Carole Lacapra asks How did
you initially come across the
legend of Sai Jinhua?
Alexandra Gambrill Curry
replies It was pure chance. I
“found” Sai Jinhua in the Yu
Garden in Shanghai. A tour
guide to whom I was only
half-listening made mention
of a 19th-century Chinese
courtesan who travelled to
Europe as the young and
beautiful concubine-wife of
one of China’s first emissaries.
I was immediately captivated;
only later did I find out that
she is known in China — depending on whose version of
her legend you believe — as a
heroine with a romantic story,
a woman of loose morals, and
a traitor who collaborated
with the forces of imperialist
western invaders.
P Sun asks Was it difficult to
write about so many com-
pletely different settings, cultures and languages?
Alexandra Gambrill Curry
replies It was fascinating to
me and very much part of the
process of both understanding Jinhua’s journey and
revisiting journeys that I have
taken myself. I have lived in
Asia (although not in China)
and have strong family ties to
Vienna. For much of my life I
have been travelling from West
to East and back. I have always
been thinking in terms of cultural and language differences.
So while writing was hard for
me (to quote Thomas Mann,
“A writer is someone for whom
writing is harder than it is for
other people”), summoning
the settings and cultures and
languages was within reach.
Finding ways to bring these
settings, cultures, and the appropriate language back to a
19th century past was more
Judy Patteson asks What
were your considerations in
choosing an Asian “voice” for
the book?
a lot of the insight into Jinhua
came from the other characters and that we don’t learn
as much about her directly
from her viewpoint. Was
this in keeping with the mystery around her actual life/
history?
Alexandra Gambrill Curry
replies This is the first time
Alexandra Gambrill Curry replies I do think it is in keeping
I have been asked this question, and I would have to say
that the “voice” came with the
characters. I would also say
that as I began to write, the
various languages and idioms
that make shadow appearances in the book materialized (I think) as a marvellous
tool to evoke the ways in
which the cultures are different and yet the same. Borrowing idioms from the Chinese
and German languages gave
me fresh and authentic ways
to talk about what my characters observed and felt. To talk
about a moment in time being
with the mysteries of her life,
although this was not something I was conscious of as I
wrote. What I realized, when
I finished the novel, is that
there are aspects of Jinhua
in my rendering of her story
that mirror many of the various earlier approaches to the
telling of her tale by writers
in China. There is a romantic
side to her that we see most
clearly through the eyes of
her Viennese maid and the
Austrian empress Elizabeth.
There are elements of traitor
that we see from the perspective of her friend, Suyin. And
of a challenge, but one that I
found very interesting.
Alexandra Gambrill Curry, Canadian-born of Austrian and British parentage, now lives in Atlanta. The Courtesan is her first novel.
we do, in the end, see an act of
heroism in the rescue of a little boy — and this we see from
Jinhua’s own point of view,
which I find very necessary.
J. Craine asks After reflecting
on Jinhua’s surprising decision to set up her own hall,
she reminded me a little of
Scarlett O’Hara, from Gone
with the Wind in her stubbornness. Do you see a similarity, and what other strong
women, if any, did you use as
a basis for this book?
Alexandra Gambrill Curry
replies This is a good compari-
son, and yes, I do see a similarity. It is not, however, one
I aspired to project — or had
even thought about until this
very moment. When I began
writing Jinhua’s story I was in
every way a novice writer. Her
story, as I conceived it, began
with the bones of her history
and the way her life has been
represented (and exploited)
before. As I progressed as
a writer and a teller of her
story, I found myself becoming an observer of Jinhua, the
child, and later the woman. I
would say that she revealed
herself to me in a very organic
way. She revealed her flaws,
her downfall, and then her
redemption. She was, for me,
very much her own woman.
next
week’s
book
Next Tuesday,
The Reading
Society will
discuss The
Mistake I Made,
by Paula Daly