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Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 3,106 ratings · 634 reviews

They were young, brilliant, and bold. They set out to conquer the world. But the world had other plans for them.

Bestselling author Susan Jane Gilman's new memoir is a hilarious and harrowing journey, a modern heart of darkness filled with Communist operatives, backpackers, and pancakes.

In 1986, fresh out of college, Gilman and her friend Claire yearned to do something dar...more

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published March 24th 2009 by Grand Central Publishing (first published January 1st 2009)

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Sep 28, 2011 Callie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, book-club

A page-turner! Two girls, fresh out of the Ivy League (which the author feels the need to remind you of constantly) decide to take a year and circumnavigate the globe, starting in China. In 1986, China was only just open to tourists, and only in certain areas. While the girls want to do everything in "legit" fashion, to do it the way the locals do, they quickly realize that they are in over their heads.

While I spent most of the story feeling a bit irritated towards these naive girls, it was def...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Susan Peterson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was surprised how much I liked this book. The cover and title suggest something that's not really up my alley, but this really is a case where you can't judge a book by its cover. The protagonist (the author, as this is autobiographical) is a young woman just our of an ivy league college. She and a casual friend decide to backpack around the world before settling down. Their first stop is China shortly after it was opened to Westerners. Before long the author's companion begins acting strangel...more

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Mar 21, 2009 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up from the free book pile at my job. The cover and title led me to believe that I was letting myself in for a self-indulgent remembrance of the author's various sexual escapades while backpacking around the world. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was nothing of the sort, but a rather more chilling and compelling tale. It was a quick read, and definitely a page-turner in the second half.

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Aug 18, 2009 Alexis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: other-cultures, favorites

This book was hard to put down! I loved it. It is a memoir about two of my favorite topics...mental health, and travel to China.

The author travels to China in the 1980s after college with a friend who basically has a schizophrenic break while they are there. Travel at that time in China was unusual and difficult (it is not portrayed in a very positive light, to be honest, but I found it very interesting to compare to my own observations from traveling there in 2007). But the interpersonal and p...more

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Jan 10, 2012 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir

Snippet from my blog....[return]Undress Me In the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman is an absolute must-read. Gilman's travels, while different from my own brought back a flood of memories of the country I was privileged enough to live and travel around, of the peoples and places that will always be in my heart. Gilman's memoir is one that should be read by anyone, whether they have traveled the globe or never left their hometown. I was pleased to note there was a reader's guide at the end o...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Alicia added it

This book started out without much promise. Two recent Ivy League graduates going off on an adventure backpacking around the world, deliberately taking the road less traveled in order to 'really experience' their ordeal. Gilman was tongue in cheek deprecating of herself and her friend "Claire," but I wasn't fooled. I knew I would think both of them were silly twats. And I was mostly right. They kind of were. But I did take great pleasure in reading the book, but perhaps for the wrong reasons. It...more

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Dec 27, 2008 Genene Murphy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is easy to pick up. You'll vicariously embark on the globe-trotting adventure Gilman prepares to tell. And you'll quickly learn that there are two stories: one you thought you knew and one you couldn't predict. That's what gives this gem character, apart from travel memoirs that read like travel magazine essays rehashed into book deals.

Here's the deal: Gilman and her college friend craft a plan at Denny's to travel the world. They first land in Hong Kong. Postcards are sent. Collect calls...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs

Story Description:

Grand Central Publishing|February 8, 2010|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-446-69693-7

In 1986, Susan Jane Gilman and a classmate embarked on a bold trek around the globe starting in the People’s Republic of China. At that point, China had been open to independent backpackers for roughly ten minutes. Armed only with the collected works of Nietzsche and Linda Goodman’s Love Signs, the two friends plunged into the dusty streets of Shanghai. Unsurprisingly, they quickly found themselves...more Story Description:

Grand Central Publishing|February 8, 2010|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-446-69693-7

In 1986, Susan Jane Gilman and a classmate embarked on a bold trek around the globe starting in the People’s Republic of China. At that point, China had been open to independent backpackers for roughly ten minutes. Armed only with the collected works of Nietzsche and Linda Goodman’s Love Signs, the two friends plunged into the dusty streets of Shanghai. Unsurprisingly, they quickly found themselves in over their heads – hungry, disoriented, stripped of everything familiar, and under constant government surveillance. Soon, they began to unravel – one physically, the other psychologically. As their journey became increasingly harrowing, they found themselves facing crises that Susan didn’t think they’d survive. But by summoning strengths she never knew she had – and with the help from unexpected friends – the two travelers found their way out of a Chinese heart of darkness.

UNDRESS ME IN THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN is a flat-out page-turner, an astonishing true story of naivete, friendship, and redemption told with Susan’s trademark compassion and humor.

My Review:

In 1986, Susan Jane Gilman and Claire Van Houten, both 21-years-old, decide to embark on a journey around the world in a year. After traveling for thirty-one hours, they arrived at Kai Tak Airport in the People’s Republic of China to a cabin full of clapping people. They purchased around-the-world airline tickets which began with a flight from New York to Hong Kong that September. The furthest west Susan had ever been prior to this was to Cleveland. However, they yet had no idea how complicated the world could be, or of their place in it, or just how much trouble they were in for. All their lives they’d both been straight-A students and during this trip didn’t want to pamper themselves at all. No Hilton Hotels, no air conditioned buses or tour guides. They wanted to stay off the beaten path entirely, stay in local place only, eat local food, be totally hard core and authentic and experience the “real” world.

Prior to leaving the United States they purchased a budget guidebook, ‘Southeast Asia on a Shoestring’, published by a bunch of hippies calling themselves Lonely Planet. They recommended staying in Hong Kong Kowloon section at a place called ‘Chungking Mansions.’ This was not only a great base for backpackers, they said, but a good source for information about obtaining Chinese visas and arranging transport across the border, so that’s where they decided to go. The place turned out to be a dump, it wasn’t even a hotel but instead a warehouse for transients.

Luckily for Susan and Claire, they ran into a Chinese man named Jonnie who spoke very good English. He turned out to be an absolute life-saver for the two women becoming everything to them from confidante, communicator, food expert and anything and everything else they needed. I loved this part of the memoir. Jonnie couldn’t pronounce their names correctly and as a result called Susie, Sushi and Claire, Crair. It was so cute, really to read him communicating with them. They had made a real friend in Jonnie while in China and had a hard time saying good-bye before heading off to Beijing. They had actually caused him to “lose face” in the end but you’ll have to read the story to find out why. I’m not sure I could have done to Jonnie what they did after all he had done for them. However, it takes all kinds to make the world go around.

In Beijing, they found the well-known Tiananmen Square to be nothing more than the largest piece of poured concrete they’d ever seen but found other sites they enjoyed immensely. From Beijing they headed to Guilan which took 34 hours! From Guilan to Gunagzhou. That flight was only 55 minutes, a little easier to take.

Claire slowly begins to lose her mind during the trip. She thinks people, governments, officials, and others are following them. She becomes prone to these yelling, crazy, totally zoned-out screaming tantrums in public that Susie just doesn’t know what to with or how to help her anymore. She never knows what is going to set her off. Claire has become a Jekyll and Hyde. On the other hand, poor Susie is stricken again and again with various physical ailments like fevers, sick stomachs and most worriedly she is having great difficulty breathing, coughing up hordes and hordes of phlegm. Walking quickly even causes her to stop, bend over with her hands on her knees trying hard to catch her breath. This trip is turning into a nightmare with one of them falling to pieces psychologically and the other physically. Eventually they find their way out of this absolute nightmarish trip they embarked upon and end back up in New York. However, what they had to go through and endure will pop your eyes wide open!

UNDRESS ME IN THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN is terrifyingly real and you’ll come away wondering how you would have survived what Susie and Claire did. This would make a great book for bookclubs as well, there is so much to discuss. I’ll definitely be telling my family and friends about this memoir for sure.

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Oct 08, 2012 Tatiana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, pleasant-surprise, travel, coming-of-age

So good reading people, I have a confession to make: I TOTALLY judge books by their covers! That said the cover of this book does not do it justice at all-- I´ve had this book for over a year and never thought to read it. How did it get in my possession you ask?

Surely you understand, I have this thing, it´s called an obsession--but not any kind of obsession, it´s an obsession with books, especially the free kind. If unchecked I´d collect books like your g-ma´s pristine, unused, plastic covered,...more So good reading people, I have a confession to make: I TOTALLY judge books by their covers! That said the cover of this book does not do it justice at all-- I´ve had this book for over a year and never thought to read it. How did it get in my possession you ask?

Surely you understand, I have this thing, it´s called an obsession--but not any kind of obsession, it´s an obsession with books, especially the free kind. If unchecked I´d collect books like your g-ma´s pristine, unused, plastic covered, formal living room furniture collects dust. Over a year ago, a lady who used to work as a book reviewer just dumped a ton of books in the apt bldg laundry room (the common area for all reusable things no longer desired). I took roughly half of that ton to my apt. Some were good additions, some not so much; this one was left unread.

I quickly grabbed this book outof my storage unit in hopes of having something to read on the plane or during down time while in Brazil, and I´m really glad I did.

The main charaters aren´t always likeable, in fact they aren´t for most of the book, but what was important for me is reading this made me feel something. I was invested enough in the characters and their journey around the world that I could be angry or thoroughly annoyed by their actions, attitudes...or inaction.

They are, like many in the past 2 generations, entitled, adventurous and woefully unaware of their privilege (despite thinking the opposite.) I aplaud the author for her reflexiveness and ability to critique her own behavior (in hindsight of course) while recognizing she has the license to present herself however she pleases. This book was a pleasant surprise because not only did I find that I identified with it in many ways, the boldness,free-spiritedness, the occasional fear, the sense of adventure and wanting to take the road less traveled, the wanderlust in these two recent( by recent i mean 1986) college grads who graduated without having secured employment.

If nothing else it causes me to remember my own travel adventures, how much being on my own has allowed me to grow, and reminded me of all the places I wanted to see before life got real and bills needed to be paid.(less)

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May 29, 2012 Simcha Lazarus rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had added this book to my To Be Read list a while back because it claimed to be an account of two young women backpacking through China in 1986, shortly after the country became open to tourists. But because of the unfortunate title and the naked woman on the cover, it wasn't until I ran out of all my other reading material that I finally got around to picking it up.

I didn't really know what to expect from this book but my wary suspicions were quickly laid to rest after being introduced to Sus...more

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Aug 16, 2011 Mo rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Friends, writers, world travelers

Recommended to Mo by: Book Club Pick

Shelves: memoir

I have some conflicted feelings about this book.

To start: the writing is beautiful. Gilman not only gives an account of visiting the other side of the world, she shares the experience of being there in 1986, just after China opened its borders to independent travelers.

After graduation, Gilman and a friend pack malaria pills, water purifiers, picky appetites, and some naivety, and hop on a plane to Hong Kong. The goal? Travel around the world. Stop 1: China. Gilman describes a route that most pe...more

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Dec 09, 2010 Laurie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, memoirs

It was an honest book, and easy to read, periodically interesting or amusing. But I have to say, I truly disliked both of them throughout, which made the reading experience a bit uncomfortable. Notwithstanding Susie's disarming self-deprecation, and her occasional insights, the degree of their ignorance and arrogance was just horrifying. I understand that she recognized it even then, and certainly in retrospect; it was not for nothing that she included her recollection of the black man ranting a...more

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Jul 24, 2010 Heidi rated it 4 of 5 stars

This memoir was a great book to read while traveling. After graduating from college in the mid-eighties and not knowing what to do next, Susan and her friend Claire decide to backpack around the world. They stop for a few days in Hong Kong on their way to Communist China, which has just barely opened its doors to tourism. This is not your typical travelogue; their harrowing adventures include interactions with the military police, medical emergencies in towns where the medical care was worse tha...more

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May 30, 2010 Benjamin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When Phil was over the other week he picked up this book, read the back of it, and suggested that the book would have been better titled "Two Dumb C**ts". After slogging through the second half of the book, I'd have to agree.

It started out interesting enough. Two naive girls, fresh out of Brown, decide to travel around the world for a year. They start in China and quickly realize they have no idea what they are doing. They do meet some interesting and incredibly generous people along the way, se...more

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Feb 15, 2010 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Well-written, entertaining, and quick to read, while still providing a bit of insight. Especially interesting if you've been to China in the last decade.

Gilman reflects on her backpacking trip to China in 1986 with a fellow recent Brown graduate with brutal honesty and self-awareness (developed, she readily admits, only in retrospect). I think she accurately portrays the mindset of two relatively coddled 22-year-old American college graduates in a strange foreign land. But at the same time, 20 y...more

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Jan 16, 2010 Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My review was for the audio book version. I won this audio book from a book reviewer's blog.

Initially, I was mildly not interested when I heard the author's voice, and this I assume is just because I have grown accustomed to actors reading audio books. I would say that roughly ten minutes into the book, this became a non-issue.

I was taken in fairly quickly by the possibilities that this story gave me. Two young women embarking a year-long journey into the world. What could be more exciting than...more

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Sep 18, 2009 Shantiwallah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: china-chinese, non-fiction

Not judging the book by its title, which might lead you to believe it is quite a sexy book (it’s not), I really just expected this to be another backpacker’s account of her jaunt through Asia. As someone who, like many others, has “done the jaunt” herself, I found a lot to relate to so, excuse me as I write this review from a very personal viewpoint.

The book is set in China in the mid-eighties, a couple of years before my own first, brief encounter with mainland China. Susan Gilman and her not-...more Not judging the book by its title, which might lead you to believe it is quite a sexy book (it’s not), I really just expected this to be another backpacker’s account of her jaunt through Asia. As someone who, like many others, has “done the jaunt” herself, I found a lot to relate to so, excuse me as I write this review from a very personal viewpoint.

The book is set in China in the mid-eighties, a couple of years before my own first, brief encounter with mainland China. Susan Gilman and her not-very-well-known friend, Claire Van Houten hatched a plan on the back of a paper placemat while out late one night of conquering the world on a trans-planetary trip. They decided to start in China and the descriptions Gilman writes of encounters with bureaucracy, once grand but now falling apart ships and other transport barely held together with spot welding, hotel and travel agent staff who tow the party line as far as only presenting what was allowed to be presented…and no more, not to mention other backpackers, is spot on. Anyone who travelled to China in the late 1980s right up to the mid-late 1990s will relate to this book on some level and probably really enjoy it for the nostalgia factor.

Places too, ring true from freakishly tiny and sparse, swimming pool tile-lined guesthouse rooms in Chunking Mansions, a backpacker icon that is still existing in that ‘state’ as far as I know. If you haven’t been there or read the book yet, I don’t want to give anything more away as her expectations versus reality play-by-play about the place is brilliant. And this is just the first part of the journey.

Yangshuo is another centre of the backpacking world in China and, in those days, was one of the few places foreigners could go and decompress from all the experiences had during travel in China. To have been struggling, quite out of your depth, with renegade bus drivers, unknown animal parts served up in soup, and language barriers for weeks on end then, finally coming upon the then little village of Yangshuo with its rows of cafés serving Western-style food from English, French, and German menus just seemed like a godsend. I really liked how Gilman placed their visit to Yangshuo in the story as sort of the beginning of the end as that is exactly how the place feels to many who’ve travelled there. You get a sense of having slogged your way round in relative hardship and this is the intrepid backpackers’ reward…banana pancakes all around!

Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t just the reminiscing factor that I enjoyed about the book. There is also the storyline of what it is like being with someone you barely know, 24/7, for weeks on end. In this case, the increasingly bizarre relations between Gilman and her friend Claire whilst travelling in a country with a high difficulty rating, as far as backpacking goes, make for an interesting thread that runs throughout.

Call me non-imaginative, but I do like books that go back and tie up lose ends. Gilman does this in her Afterwards chapter really well. For readers who haven’t travelled to China, you could easily get a sense that what the book describes is how it still is to travel around the vast country. In some places it really is still like that, but China has been hurtling towards a developed travel infrastructure at an alarming pace. Even 10 years after the book was set, it was sad to my Western nostalgic sensibilities to already see beautiful old temples crumbling or being replaced by white tiled square boxes of buildings. In fact, the first time I went to Shen Zhen on the mainland near Hong Kong in 1989, it was a small village with dirt roads. I remember an old man pulling his cart full of pigs past me. The next time I went there in 1998, it was full of gleaming white sky scrapers. I actually had to check my journal to see that I was indeed thinking of the right place. I was. In 9 years the place had become unrecognisable. Gilman’s modern description of the places her and Claire had been to really expresses the changes that have taken place. Changes that would have to be seen to be believed otherwise.

In short, although I had low expectations of the book, I was pleasantly surprised. I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in travelling independently in China. And I would strongly recommend this to those who have already participated in the backpacking rituals associated with travel in China. You will be reliving much of that experience!
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Aug 31, 2009 Maltaise rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I wanted to like this book-I really did-I love travel stories and memoirs. However part way through the book I found myself almost despising the author. I have never run across such a narcissistic, selfish and self-absorbed author before. What ever made her write this story is incomprehensible. Susie as she is known in the book, gets the idea to hop around the globe off of a placemat at IHOP. Young, inexperienced and looking for adventure armed with The Lonely Planet she heads off to Hong Kong a...more

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Aug 31, 2009 Jess rated it 4 of 5 stars

Aside from reading books, one of my favorite things to do is travel. I could spend most of my time jumping on planes and border hopping, and I would be perfectly content with that. To be honest, I would absolutely love to take a few months and just travel around, go and see the world, and do everything I haven’t had the chance to yet do.

Susie Jane Gilman does just that, and in 1986, when most borders were closed to the U.S. during the Cold War. Information was scarce and travel was truly an adve...more Aside from reading books, one of my favorite things to do is travel. I could spend most of my time jumping on planes and border hopping, and I would be perfectly content with that. To be honest, I would absolutely love to take a few months and just travel around, go and see the world, and do everything I haven’t had the chance to yet do.

Susie Jane Gilman does just that, and in 1986, when most borders were closed to the U.S. during the Cold War. Information was scarce and travel was truly an adventure, without the same luxuries we’re exposed to today.

Susie and her friend Claire, freshly minted graduates of Brown University, decide to embark on a world-wide tour, starting with the People’s Republic of China. As the book unfolds, it becomes clear just how little Claire and Susie really do know each other: Claire is a tall blonde from New England with a family that sails and has money. Susie is a Jewish girl from Manhattan who works hard for her money and is used to noise, verbosity, and tall buildings. However, when they both disembark the plane in Hong Kong, they realize they are both strangers in a strange land. While Susie struggles to adapt to a culture that is both welcoming and alienating, Claire becomes more and more unhinged.

When the trip moves almost overnight from seeing the Great Wall of China for Susie’s 22nd birthday to Claire’s emergency trip to a rural Chinese hospital, it is then that the reader begins to suspect something darker happening, guised in the form of physical illness. As Gilman writes about trying to take care of a friend who hears voices and is convinced she is being followed, the reader’s sympathy is engaged by the details she provides about her own struggles to adapt. One almost wants to shout at Claire to stop doing whatever she’s doing and let Susie enjoy herself. It is only until later that it becomes remarkably clear how mentally ill Claire has become.

One admirable effort on Gilman’s part is her accommodation to try to understand Claire’s point of view. Whenever Gilman writes about her anger with Claire’s mood swings, she pauses to consider what Claire might have been thinking at the same time. There is a sense of witsfulness there, almost guilt, as though Gilman wishes she could have done something that would have made it all better. By the end of the story, it’s clear there is nothing anyone could have done, but one still feel Gilman’s sense of regret. Yet she still somehow manages to incorporate a sense of confusion, frustration, and anger with Claire and with China throughout the book, subtly reminding the reader of how great the language and cultural barriers were in 1986.

Ironically, though I was anticipating a book that would detail all of Claire and Susie’s excellent adventures, it wasn’t until Claire began acting out that I really became absorbed with Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven. Juxtaposed with the culture shock both girls experience, it is hard to distinguish how much of it is stems from Claire’s frustration with the lack of access she was used to as a privileged upper class white female and how much was her descent into illness. The scene that stands out and will continue to stand out for me is when Claire disappears in China for a day and completely breaks down.

When it is finally revealed what Claire had done and where she had gone, Gilman writes with so much passion and empathy and confusion and concern that it is impossible for all those feelings to not transfer to the reader as well. I felt as though I was in the valley with Claire, watching her wade into the river, less and less coherent and more and more paranoid, and my senses were completely engaged. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Claire, if she was purposely trying to kill herself or if she had become so unhinged that she didn’t even know what she was doing anymore. Claire in her own right becomes a compelling character, almost as though she were a work of fiction rather than flesh and blood. Finding out how Susie reacts and what happens to Claire became imperative and I simply could not put the book down.

When I picked up Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, I anticipated a book that would provide much of the same wit and humor that Gilman’s other books do, Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress, and Kiss My Tiara. What I didn’t expect was the note of seriousness her book would take on and how entrancing her writing would be. Granted, there were some moments that aspired to be more literary and failed, but there were so many others that so firmly entrenched me in the fields and mountains of China, that it far outweighed the few overwritten sentences.

I put the book down, feeling as though I too needed to travel to China, to work in the fields along rice workers, and befriend people I would never speak to normally, except having the commonality of being an explorer is what links us. Needless to say, this work of nonfiction more than holds its own in the canon of travel literature. It simultaneously managed to remind me of all the uncertainty of travel while rekindling all the adventure and wonder and magic.(less)

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Aug 31, 2009 Osho rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, psychology

As Keath Fraser's anthology Bad Trips amply illustrates, travel is fraught with difficulties and unexpected events, of which only some are humorous. Gilman tells the story of her out-of-college, around-the-world trip with Brown University acquaintance "Claire." It starts like any travelogue that recounts the misadventures of young travelers out of their depth. However, it's quickly clear that something is wrong with Claire, and in the context of the People's Republic of China in the mid-1980's,...more

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Jun 24, 2009 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Heres what Nancy Pearl said:

Nancy Pearl Book Reviews for 6/20/2009
06/20/2009

In her memoir, "The Sisters Antipodes," Jane Alison describes what happens to the children in the wake of a complicated family swap. It's about two couples who get divorced in order to exchange spouses. Our book critic Nancy Pearl says it's a gripping memoir marked by writing that is searing in its honesty and pain. Our book critic spoke with KUOW's Dave Beck.

Once there were two families: one Australian, one American. E...more Heres what Nancy Pearl said:

Nancy Pearl Book Reviews for 6/20/2009
06/20/2009

In her memoir, "The Sisters Antipodes," Jane Alison describes what happens to the children in the wake of a complicated family swap. It's about two couples who get divorced in order to exchange spouses. Our book critic Nancy Pearl says it's a gripping memoir marked by writing that is searing in its honesty and pain. Our book critic spoke with KUOW's Dave Beck.

Once there were two families: one Australian, one American. Each family had a mother, a father who worked for his country's foreign service, and two little girls. The older two girls were the same age, while the younger two — one of them Jane Alison, whose memoir this is — shared the same birthday, although Jenny was a year older. In "The Sisters Antipodes" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), Jane describes the events that followed when the adults got divorced in order to exchange spouses: Jane was four and her older sister, Patricia, was seven. In less than a year, it was all over: the divorces and remarriages, the new fathers and the new lives. For Jane, this meant leaving her native Australia and moving to the U.S., always conscious of the fact that there was another family, almost identical, that was living a kind of mirror life to theirs. (One of the other almost uncanny similarities was that both couples had a third child, a boy, born two weeks apart, two years after the marriages.) Although Jane and Patricia got frequent letters from their father (and fabulous birthday presents), they didn't see or talk to him for seven years. (This was, of course, well before the days of Skype, or inexpensive long distance phone service, or even email.) During her difficult, wild adolescence, there was always Jenny's shadow, a few dozen steps ahead of her, the mirror sister who had somehow stolen Jane's father, Jane's grandparents, and even Australia from her. This gripping memoir is marked by writing that is searing in its honesty and pain, but never maudlin or over the top. And the question (never really answered) will haunt readers, as it still haunts Jane is this: Which father decided first to abandon his daughters in favor of a new wife and a new life?

Quite honestly, had I judged Susan Jane Gilman's "Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven" (Grand Central, 2009) by either its cover or by its title, I would never have read it. I didn't find either particularly appealing (perhaps it's aimed for a different demographic than I am in.) And if I hadn't decided to start reading it despite my misgivings, I would've missed an engrossing travel narrative/coming–of–age memoir. Like many others who are about to graduate from college, Susan had no real idea what she wanted to do next. Almost on the spur of the moment — the proximate cause being a paper placemat at an IHOP in Providence, Rhode Island that featured "Pancakes of Many Nations" — a slightly drunk Susan Jane Gilman and her friend Claire decide to spend the year after their 1986 graduation from Brown University traveling around the world. They want a real–life experience: No first class hotels, no three star meals, no easy–to–maneuver English–speaking countries, and no travel agent itineraries. They decide to begin their trip in the People's Republic of China, which has just opened its borders to foreign visitors. But right from the moment they start looking for a place to stay in Hong Kong (which is their jumping–off point for entering mainland China), they discover how unprepared they are for the journey they've undertaken. Homesickness is the least of it. As we discover in "Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven", little goes as they've planned, although in a sense we're fortunate; because of Susan and Claire's experiences, we get a look at a part of China far, far off the beaten track. And I learned, once again, you can't judge a book by its cover (or, in this case, at least, by its title).
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Jun 22, 2009 Lisa Loder rated it 4 of 5 stars

I like books with strong women characters or those who pretend to be strong and have taken a chance in the unknown. Since I did a 3 mnth backpacking trip to Europe and eastern parts in early 1970's, I have always liked to read about other folks who set out with the notion that it will be easy:) This book opened a whole new venture into a country I never went to, China, which I suspected for years is complicated, scary and somewhere way behind the rest of the world. It takes place in the 1980's w...more

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May 30, 2009 Wrighty rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a memoir from Susan Jane Gilman, a best selling author who decided to take an adventure and backpack around the world. In 1986, Susan and her friend Claire had just finished college and wanted a daring and original experience. They decided to travel for a year and they would start their trip in the People's Republic of China. Since it had only recently begun to allow independent travelers, they were almost immediately in over their heads. With their backpacks and only a few supplies, the...more This is a memoir from Susan Jane Gilman, a best selling author who decided to take an adventure and backpack around the world. In 1986, Susan and her friend Claire had just finished college and wanted a daring and original experience. They decided to travel for a year and they would start their trip in the People's Republic of China. Since it had only recently begun to allow independent travelers, they were almost immediately in over their heads. With their backpacks and only a few supplies, they ventured off into the streets of Shanghai and were overwhelmed by culture shock and unexpected obstacles. This was not going to be the carefree adventure they had anticipated.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this story. I hadn't read Gilman's past work but had heard good things about them. I thought this was going to be a similar style, a witty account of her travels, but apparently it is very different. This is the author's own account of her trip that was suppose to take her and her friend around the world. As two Ivy League graduates, they were excited to try something new. In a women's dormitory in China they realized just how unprepared they were when they compared themselves with other women travelers from other countries who had been on the road for months, and even years.
...they'd dispensed with all Western frivolities a long time ago. They were expert navigators now, muscular with experience. Sitting among them with our brand new backpacks, my snow-white virginal Reeboks, our crisp pastel-colored L.L. Bean sportswear. Clair and I weren't impressing anybody. (pg. 73)
You'll have to read the book for yourself to see how they fared for the first time in a public "restroom". A small, bare concrete room with only a trough running though the middle, with a trickle of water from a rusty spigot that carried waste toward a drain in the floor. Ugh.

Although they were faced with hardships they also met many amazing people along the way. With their help and a trusty guidebook, they were able to become full-fledged tourists and experience The Great Wall of China, Tienanmen Square and many other breathe-taking sites. And it was also with the help of these people that the girls were able to deal with illness and another major crisis.

I really enjoyed this story and learned so much about the Chinese culture and history. I am not a traveler so I wasn't sure if this would appeal to me but Gilman's writing along with the increasing suspense made this a very interesting read. It also made me appreciate my own bed and running water! Give it a try. I bet you'll enjoy it too. I'll be looking for more of Gilman's books to read next.

Thank you to Miriam from Hatchette Books for sending me an early copy of this book.
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Apr 25, 2009 cat rated it 3 of 5 stars

a very quick and fairly interesting read, this book chronicles the author's trip to China as she and a friend from college (both newly graduated from Brown where they hatched their travel plans at 2am in an IHOP) begin a year-long backpacking journey around the world. the plan quickly disintegrates as they become aware of what traveling in China in 1986 actually means, and as the friend begins a descent into mental illness - all while in the first month of the trip. the writing is a bit overly d...more

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Oct 08, 2010 Kate Mosbarger rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an interesting story, not to mention a light and easy read, and yet I don't think I have ever read a book where I have disliked two characters as much as I supremely disliked Claire and Susie.

As a recent college graduate myself, I was excited to stumble upon a book that I thought might provide some humor and insight about this monumentally turbulent time. Unfortunately, Susan Gilman's memoir only seemed to by turns annoy and offend me. The characters narcissism was unbearable and the d...more

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May 12, 2009 Brandi Rae rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-non-fiction, biography-memoir

So not what I was expecting. I thought this was going to be a memoir about two girls, Susan Jane Gilman and her friend Claire Van Houten and their backpacking trip through China; something where I could read about their adventures and for some of it, reminisce, "Ahhh, it was like that when I went there..." And parts of it were like that. Despite the fact that she went in 1986 and I didn't travel there until twenty years later, Gilman's description of visiting the Great Wall, of seeing glimpses o

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May 12, 2012 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

I cannot even tell you how absorbed I got in this book … how difficult it was to tear myself away to prepare dinner or get my son from the bus stop. This is simply the most fascinating, compelling, intense travel memoir I’ve ever read. It has everything you look for in a travel memoir: exotic locales, excellent writing, insight and a compelling narrative. Let’s take a look at these elements one by one.

EXOTIC LOCALES

In 1986, Gilman and her college friend Claire embarked on an “around the world” b...more I cannot even tell you how absorbed I got in this book … how difficult it was to tear myself away to prepare dinner or get my son from the bus stop. This is simply the most fascinating, compelling, intense travel memoir I’ve ever read. It has everything you look for in a travel memoir: exotic locales, excellent writing, insight and a compelling narrative. Let’s take a look at these elements one by one.

EXOTIC LOCALES

In 1986, Gilman and her college friend Claire embarked on an “around the world” backpacking trip that starts in China, which (as Gilman puts it) “had been open to independent backpackers for roughly ten minutes.” This is a very Communist China that, at the time, was not yet very modernized. It is also, as Gilman finds out on a return visit 20 years later, a China that no longer exists. Gilman’s account of the difficulty of travel, the incredible bureaucracy, the food, the sights, and the people (often generous to a fault) brings to life a country and a culture that may be a mystery to many Westerners.

EXCELLENT WRITING

Gilman has a sharp wit and a way with words that make this book—which is, at times, as harrowing as any thriller—a pleasure to read. Her self-depreciating and wicked sense of humor grounds the book, and her creative use of metaphors delighted me time and time again. Consider this self-description:

"Most of my time at Brown, I’d felt like geometry: a collection of unlovely, isolated parts that needed to be proven over and over."

Seriously, how awesome is that metaphor? The book is full of this type of wonderful writing—making the book flow like a stream of crystal clear water. (As you can tell by my seriously lame metaphor just now, it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to come up with apt and creative metaphors.) In addition, Gilman’s personality comes shining through on every page, and I found her to be winning, hilarious, down-to-earth and just plain awesome. (I’d love to hang out with her some time. I bet she is a hoot.)

INSIGHT

I’m thankful that Gilman waited before attempting to write this memoir. The events in the book require a certain type of maturity and hindsight to fully understand and view properly. Had she written this book shortly after the events described, I don’t think it would have been nearly as effective. With the benefit of 20 years to ponder the events of the trip, Gilman is able to analyze her younger self and the decisions she made with a wisdom that would have been lacking had she written the book in “real-time.” Thus, we have two Gilmans writing this memoir: the 22-year-old Gilman who experienced the events and brings them to life and the grown-up Gilman who has the wisdom and maturity to understand and comment on her younger self and her experiences. I’ve read memoirs that lack the introspection and commentary that time can bring, and I think this book benefited tremendously from Gilman’s choice to write the memoir as an adult versus a young adult.

COMPELLING NARRATIVE

Although this could have been a “two naive American girls traveling in China” travel narrative (and you almost wish it could have been), Gilman and Claire’s journey takes a bizarre and riveting turn when Claire begins to unravel psychologically. As little oddities begin to crop up (such as Claire’s insistence that she is writing a “world curriculum” and must go by herself to do research and make contacts), both the reader and the grown-up Gilman can see that the warning signs were there from the start. But Gilman’s analysis and reasoning on why these warning signs don’t register until it is too late are compelling and reasonable. I could totally see my 20-year-old self making the same decisions and getting into the same harrowing situations in which Gilman finds herself at the end of the book. The last third of the book was as suspenseful, harrowing and riveting as any thriller I’ve ever read. My pulse and anxiety level were rising with each new development, and I couldn’t imagine experiencing this kind of nightmare myself. Yet, as Gilman writes in the epilogue, it was this experience that helped shape her into the woman she is today.

The bottom line is that this book is simply the best memoir and travel narrative I’ve ever read. I simply can’t recommend it enough. I’m usually pretty stingy with my stars, but I’m giving this one 5 stars without hesitation. Make time for it … you’ll be glad you did. It is an excellent piece of writing that tells a riveting and compelling story that has something important to say about life, love, and being a citizen of the world. Despite Gilman’s often nightmarish experiences, it will make you wish you’d taken that backpacking trip you always said you would but never quite got around to doing.(less)

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Aug 07, 2011 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I couldn't put this memoir down. Not sure how I missed it when it came out in 2009, since I am a travel memoir fanatic. Susan Jane Gilman remembers her trip to China after graduating from Brown in 1986. She and her college friend, Claire, experience The Peoples' Republic of China just a few years before Tiananmen Square and the eventual opening of China to more mainstream Western tourism. Its a story of the realities of back-packing through a Third World country, unclouded by the romanticism tha...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Twilight rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: china, travel, travels, asia, hong-kong, mental-illness

Pathetic.

I couldn't get past the first 1.5 chapters because the two main people came across as whiny, obnoxious, naive women who stupidly decided to travel to an area where they knew no one and could not speak the language.

I realize my view is probably colored by the fact that I couldn't read much further than the two of them arriving in China and the very end to find out what happened, but I just didn't care. I'm glad the author became a stronger person and did eventually travel around the worl...more

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Oct 09, 2010 The Cyber Hermit rated it 1 of 5 stars

I had high hopes for this book considering the subject matter - two novice tourists in mainland China just after the gates had begun to be open to foreigners. But this was not that book.

While the author does take pains to note that she was young and immature, it comes across more as a way to excuse the behavior she's writing about rather than a real understanding of who she was then. She goes to great pains to point out the differences between her and her travel companion (Companion is rich, sop...more I had high hopes for this book considering the subject matter - two novice tourists in mainland China just after the gates had begun to be open to foreigners. But this was not that book.

While the author does take pains to note that she was young and immature, it comes across more as a way to excuse the behavior she's writing about rather than a real understanding of who she was then. She goes to great pains to point out the differences between her and her travel companion (Companion is rich, sophisticated, beautiful and urbane while the author is...not, according to the author) and it comes across like sour grapes. Rather than work to embrace the new culture in which they *willingly* landed themselves, Gilman first calls home in a series of passive-aggressive attempts to get one of her family members to tell her it's okay to bail and return to America. Then, once she realizes she is stuck, she ignores the ever-increasing signs of her travel companion's instability for...I'm not even really sure why; apparently, it worked for her at the time.

The author spends too much time navel-gazing and wondering "what if". She spends pages detailing what she *thinks* might have happened when her friend wasn't in her line of sight and all the conversations and unsavory characters said friend *might* have run into before belly flopping into a excruiatingly detailed explanation of how she might feel about all these imaginary encounters. While I can understand the author might not have been equipped to deal with a heretofore unknown serious mental illness at a young age, I would think the fact that your friend - who you will be stuck with in close quarters for a year - going on and on about being followed by the PLO and other nefarious agenies, along with the fact that the guy who cleans her father's boat is really a Mossad agent might have been a big honkin' clue that it was time to go no matter what.

I would agree with other readers that the author comes off, ultimately, as fairly unlikeable and self-absorbed. Unfortunately, that makes the book read like more of a superficial story of hijinks in China versus the story of a young woman growing and maturing under fantastic and trying situations (and in a fantastic country) that it could have been.

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About Susan Jane Gilman

Writer, journalist, inadvertent humorist.

Background: Made, born, raised in New York City

Career: Author of three nonfiction books, Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, Hypocrite
in a Pouffy White Dress, and Kiss My Tiara (see bookshelf). Have contributed to numerous
anthologies, worked as journalist, and written for New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Ms.,
Real Simple, Washington City Paper, Us magaz...more

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Books by Susan Jane Gilman

Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing up Groovy and Clueless

Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a SmartMouth Goddess

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“I’m aware that there is a bigger, far more complicated world out there than I’d ever realized, and just like the students at Beijing University, I’ve glimpsed it only fleetingly, peripherally. I’ve sensed the vast expanse of my own ignorance now. I feel antsy and constricted and a deep, almost sexual yearning for velocity, for some sort of raw, transcendent experience that I cannot even begin to articulate.” — 1 person liked it

“Everything became a metaphor, a talisman, a sign that I was still actually connected to people—that I wasn’t so completely on my own.” — 1 person liked it

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