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Dream of the Blue Room
On a warm July night, thirty-two-year-old Jenny finds herself sitting on the deck of a Chinese cruise ship next to a charming but secretive stranger. Her husband is down in their cabin sleeping, and in Jenny's lap is a cookie tin containing the ashes of her best friend, Amanda Ruth, brutally murdered fourteen years earlier in a small Alabama town.
In this foreign landscape, filled with ancient cities that will soon be inundated by the rising waters of the Yangtze River, Jenny must confront her haunted past and decide the direction of her future. As the ship moves slowly upriver, from one abandoned village to another, Jenny journeys deeper into her own guilt and eroticism.
In this foreign landscape, filled with ancient cities that will soon be inundated by the rising waters of the Yangtze River, Jenny must confront her haunted past and decide the direction of her future. As the ship moves slowly upriver, from one abandoned village to another, Jenny journeys deeper into her own guilt and eroticism.
297 pages, Paperback
First published February 19, 2003
22 people are currently reading
568 people want to read
About the author
Michelle Richmond
32 books1,097 followersThank you for stopping by! To read my serial novella, sign up for my newsletter at michellerichmond.substack.com
I also share books I love & glimpses into my writing life on TikTok: @michellerichmondwriter.
I grew up in Alabama and have lived in California for 20 years, with a two-year stint in Paris. My 2017 literary thriller, the Sunday Times bestseller THE MARRIAGE PACT, examines marriage under the extreme pressure of constant monitoring from a powerful organization called The Pact. The Pact promises to help couples have a happy, lasting marriage...but the punishments for breaking the rules are severe. THE MARRIAGE PACT is available in 31 languages.
My latest novel, THE WONDER TEST, a suburban suspense novel set in Silicon Valley (Grove Atlantic in, 2021) was an Amazon Best Book of July. In a starred review, Booklist called THE WONDER TEST "a gripping blend of danger and sharp social commentary on high-stakes education, the 1%, and suburban tropes." The first in a series, THE WONDER TEST introduces a tough and spirited new protagonist, FBI agent Lina Connerly, and her teenaged son Rory.
To get updates, exclusive previews, free audio short stories, and (coming soon) serialized fiction, sign up for my newsletter at michellerichmond.substack.com.
You can also read my true stories of living in Paris, traveling, and writing at wanderingwriter.substack.com
My previous books include the New York Times bestseller THE YEAR of FOG, GOLDEN STATE, HUM: STORIES, NO ONE YOU KNOW, DREAM OF THE BLUE ROOM, and THE GIRL IN THE FALL-AWAY DRESS (stories).
I like to write about ordinary people in crisis: a kidnapping (The Year of Fog), a hostage situation (Golden State), a decades-old murder that became a true crime sensation (No One You Know). My novels are often set in San Francisco and the Bay Area, where I've made my home, but my books also take inspiration from many of the places I've lived and traveled. My story collection HUM (2014) features Americans caught up in espionage, surveillance, and all manner of marital crimes.
If you love discovering new books, or if you've enjoyed any of my books, I'd love to send you my author newsletter! It includes notes on what I'm reading, and dispatches from the writing life. You can sign up for the newsletter at http://michellerichmond.com.
Back story: I knew I wanted to be a writer for almost as long as I can remember, way back when I was a kid growing up in Alabama. I used to write skits to perform for my parents with my two sisters. After graduating from a huge public school in downtown Mobile, I studied journalism and creative writing at the University of Alabama, then worked in advertising, as well as in restaurants and a tanning salon (!) for a few years before enrolling in an MFA program in creative writing. I bounced around the South for a while and lived in New York City for a couple of years, with a brief work stint in Beijing, before settling in Northern California in 1999. I've been writing here in the fog ever since.
My first book, The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress was a short story collection that I wrote during my years waitressing and doing other odd jobs in Knoxville and Atlanta. My first novel, Dream of the Blue Room, was inspired by my time in Beijing. My second novel, The Year of Fog, gathered many rejections before being acquired by a young editor at Bantam. The Year of Fog was a life-changing book in that in allowed me to connect with readers in ways I'd never quite imagined, and it gave me the freedom to pursue writing full time. Writing is my dream job. It's a job I do alone in a quiet room, but because it allows me to connect with readers, it never feels lonely.
I also share books I love & glimpses into my writing life on TikTok: @michellerichmondwriter.
I grew up in Alabama and have lived in California for 20 years, with a two-year stint in Paris. My 2017 literary thriller, the Sunday Times bestseller THE MARRIAGE PACT, examines marriage under the extreme pressure of constant monitoring from a powerful organization called The Pact. The Pact promises to help couples have a happy, lasting marriage...but the punishments for breaking the rules are severe. THE MARRIAGE PACT is available in 31 languages.
My latest novel, THE WONDER TEST, a suburban suspense novel set in Silicon Valley (Grove Atlantic in, 2021) was an Amazon Best Book of July. In a starred review, Booklist called THE WONDER TEST "a gripping blend of danger and sharp social commentary on high-stakes education, the 1%, and suburban tropes." The first in a series, THE WONDER TEST introduces a tough and spirited new protagonist, FBI agent Lina Connerly, and her teenaged son Rory.
To get updates, exclusive previews, free audio short stories, and (coming soon) serialized fiction, sign up for my newsletter at michellerichmond.substack.com.
You can also read my true stories of living in Paris, traveling, and writing at wanderingwriter.substack.com
My previous books include the New York Times bestseller THE YEAR of FOG, GOLDEN STATE, HUM: STORIES, NO ONE YOU KNOW, DREAM OF THE BLUE ROOM, and THE GIRL IN THE FALL-AWAY DRESS (stories).
I like to write about ordinary people in crisis: a kidnapping (The Year of Fog), a hostage situation (Golden State), a decades-old murder that became a true crime sensation (No One You Know). My novels are often set in San Francisco and the Bay Area, where I've made my home, but my books also take inspiration from many of the places I've lived and traveled. My story collection HUM (2014) features Americans caught up in espionage, surveillance, and all manner of marital crimes.
If you love discovering new books, or if you've enjoyed any of my books, I'd love to send you my author newsletter! It includes notes on what I'm reading, and dispatches from the writing life. You can sign up for the newsletter at http://michellerichmond.com.
Back story: I knew I wanted to be a writer for almost as long as I can remember, way back when I was a kid growing up in Alabama. I used to write skits to perform for my parents with my two sisters. After graduating from a huge public school in downtown Mobile, I studied journalism and creative writing at the University of Alabama, then worked in advertising, as well as in restaurants and a tanning salon (!) for a few years before enrolling in an MFA program in creative writing. I bounced around the South for a while and lived in New York City for a couple of years, with a brief work stint in Beijing, before settling in Northern California in 1999. I've been writing here in the fog ever since.
My first book, The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress was a short story collection that I wrote during my years waitressing and doing other odd jobs in Knoxville and Atlanta. My first novel, Dream of the Blue Room, was inspired by my time in Beijing. My second novel, The Year of Fog, gathered many rejections before being acquired by a young editor at Bantam. The Year of Fog was a life-changing book in that in allowed me to connect with readers in ways I'd never quite imagined, and it gave me the freedom to pursue writing full time. Writing is my dream job. It's a job I do alone in a quiet room, but because it allows me to connect with readers, it never feels lonely.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
October 15, 2010
NOTICE: I tried not to give any spoilers. If other readers think I gave away too much, please let me know and I'll warn other readers.
After Richmond's acclaimed The Year of the Fog, Bantam Books republished her first novel. Bad move. The book should have been massively rewritten.
I went back and skim/scanned throughout the book to be sure I wasn't being too negative. I found the main character to be totally bland and unexplained. Even when she is in life changing situations, the author does not bring us into her--all the way through the unbelievable ending. It is almost like an author who chose a series of events and then saw a jerrymandering way to put them together. At first, I was drawn to want to get to know all of the first characters but I too soon learned that I would not get there.
As a native Alabamian, I didn't even find the characterization of Demopolis and the river worked. The two Rivers are key images for the author, but she doesn't make either work, especially in the Three Gorges situations.
Thinking back, I am wondering: What two people living together in New York during the Internet/Information explosion age would set off to China on a long cruise without having any background about what they would see? The husband has some believable characteristics but the wife only seems to notice the symptoms that hurt her (too long after any reasonable spouse would have noticed them). When he is out of sight, he is out of her mind, except as minimal "oh, if only my husband were like this," characterizations. When he is in sight, he doesn't seem to have any insight into himself.
And the "other man"! What a schuckmy guy posing as a deep and insightful fellow! The whole set up and definitely outcome is unbelievable and a letdown to this reader. The idea that he would find the wife character "strong" and "able to do X action as would no other" is just crazy.
The young girlfriend, the lesbian relationships, and the bi-ethnic family situations sound as if the author saw but didn't understand much out of Mississippi Masala. The good part is that the lovemaking scenes between two young girls was tastefully done, but the "young girl crushes" versus the committedly "lesbian" issues were barely touched. By the time I got to the playout of the murder it was so far, far clear that I expected a surprise or a deeper delving into the motivations.
It just came to me that none of these characters seem to have reasonable outcomes to their actions, although a better writing could have made them very strong.
Having said all that, I liked The Year of the Fog better than this one, but again it seemed as if the female adult's actions and insights were too surface. This book could have been made much better with a thorough re-writing rather than a re-publishing of a first novel. A great deal of the blame for that lies not just with the writer, but the editors/publishers.
After Richmond's acclaimed The Year of the Fog, Bantam Books republished her first novel. Bad move. The book should have been massively rewritten.
I went back and skim/scanned throughout the book to be sure I wasn't being too negative. I found the main character to be totally bland and unexplained. Even when she is in life changing situations, the author does not bring us into her--all the way through the unbelievable ending. It is almost like an author who chose a series of events and then saw a jerrymandering way to put them together. At first, I was drawn to want to get to know all of the first characters but I too soon learned that I would not get there.
As a native Alabamian, I didn't even find the characterization of Demopolis and the river worked. The two Rivers are key images for the author, but she doesn't make either work, especially in the Three Gorges situations.
Thinking back, I am wondering: What two people living together in New York during the Internet/Information explosion age would set off to China on a long cruise without having any background about what they would see? The husband has some believable characteristics but the wife only seems to notice the symptoms that hurt her (too long after any reasonable spouse would have noticed them). When he is out of sight, he is out of her mind, except as minimal "oh, if only my husband were like this," characterizations. When he is in sight, he doesn't seem to have any insight into himself.
And the "other man"! What a schuckmy guy posing as a deep and insightful fellow! The whole set up and definitely outcome is unbelievable and a letdown to this reader. The idea that he would find the wife character "strong" and "able to do X action as would no other" is just crazy.
The young girlfriend, the lesbian relationships, and the bi-ethnic family situations sound as if the author saw but didn't understand much out of Mississippi Masala. The good part is that the lovemaking scenes between two young girls was tastefully done, but the "young girl crushes" versus the committedly "lesbian" issues were barely touched. By the time I got to the playout of the murder it was so far, far clear that I expected a surprise or a deeper delving into the motivations.
It just came to me that none of these characters seem to have reasonable outcomes to their actions, although a better writing could have made them very strong.
Having said all that, I liked The Year of the Fog better than this one, but again it seemed as if the female adult's actions and insights were too surface. This book could have been made much better with a thorough re-writing rather than a re-publishing of a first novel. A great deal of the blame for that lies not just with the writer, but the editors/publishers.
January 27, 2008
This book is haunting. And gorgeous. A really great examination of friendship, sexuality, love and loss, all told through a cruise up the Yangtze River, which naturally exposes some truths and questions about China and the modern Chinese culture versus traditional Chinese culture. I was enraptured the whole time I read it - it's one of those books that makes me wish I were a talented writer.
August 13, 2014
I'm not sure where to begin. My first impression was that the book deals with first love and how it has the potential to affect the rest of a person's life. It also brings up the issue of friendship and what we will or won't do for that person. Forgiveness is also a strong theme in the novel. The saddest part of the book is about sexuality. Lack of understanding plays a tragic role. All these things combine to make for a haunting novel set on a river cruise on the Yangtze River as the Three Gorges Dam nears completion.. This is a not so veiled damning of the project. There's lots to think about and that is the mark of a good book. The author's words linger for many days after you've read that last page.
November 26, 2008
There's a lot going on in this novel. Richmond loves to go to extremes as she sets up her plots and the history of her characters, and here we have violent death, China, ALS, First Love with Same Sex, and even a nearly extinct species of dolphin. She writes with a clear voice and great energy, making a world, drawing us in, stimulating our minds, and leaving us to find our way home. A 3.8 from my perspective.
January 22, 2018
I have read quite a few of Michelle Richmond's books and for me this was not her best, it was still a beautiful book but I expected a bit more. This book gives a small insight into communist China and the building of the Three Gorges dam. This book is also about saying goodbye to a marriage and finding new love. I would have loved to see a chapter or two more of what happened after.
October 2, 2018
The factor I enjoyed most with this book was that the setting was a character unto itself.
July 21, 2014
This book had been on my "to read" list for so long that when I finally got around to reading it and read the reviews again, I wasn't sure why I wanted to read it in the first place. It just sounded kinda blah. But I am glad I did read it. Although there is a lot going on, it is a beautifully written story about a young woman on a river cruise on the Yangtze river in China. Jenny is on the river cruise with her estranged husband as a last ditch effort to save her marriage and also to scatter the ashes of her best friend, Amanda Ruth. Told in flashbacks, we learn that Jenny & Amanda had a lesbian relationship in high school. I really didn't think this added anything to the story. Amanda is murdered (you find out why and who did but didn't really think this added much to the story) and her mother gives her ashes to Jenny to scatter on the Yangtze River. While on the cruise, both Jenny and her husband, Dave have affairs. Jenny meets a man, Graham, who has ALS and is looking for someone to help him die. See, a lot going on....And all this is set against the backdrop of the Yangtze River (3rd longest in the world) and the Three Gorges Dam (the world's largest hydropower project and most notorious dam). The beautiful descriptions of the Chinese people, culture, food, sounds and smell really transformed the reader into the setting. While the overall tone of the book is sad & depressing, I did enjoy reading it. I actually googled the Yangtze River and the dam-fascinating!
April 26, 2010
As always seems to be the case with Michelle Richmond, her imagery is a main character. There are so many themes in this book, so many characters seeking different types of redemption. The characters are all likeable and complex without being too unidentifiable. I can identify with elements of all these people. It's hard to pinpoint one thing to love here as there is just so much.
She floats you along the river with these likeable characters and drifts you through this odd landscape by layering it with Jenny's careful recollection of a friend who's friendship and death have shaped her entire being. Jenny is reflective and heartbroken without being maudlin, and I loved her instantly.
Just fair warning, the book is very sensual. There isn't really anything overtly graphic, but sex (whether it's making love or something different depends on the context) is a central part of Jenny's life. It also speaks of Michelle Richmond's skill to me that I finished this book at all, as I typically have no interest in reading about or traveling to China. But she made it all seem so fascinating and vitally important through Jenny's narrative.
She floats you along the river with these likeable characters and drifts you through this odd landscape by layering it with Jenny's careful recollection of a friend who's friendship and death have shaped her entire being. Jenny is reflective and heartbroken without being maudlin, and I loved her instantly.
Just fair warning, the book is very sensual. There isn't really anything overtly graphic, but sex (whether it's making love or something different depends on the context) is a central part of Jenny's life. It also speaks of Michelle Richmond's skill to me that I finished this book at all, as I typically have no interest in reading about or traveling to China. But she made it all seem so fascinating and vitally important through Jenny's narrative.
January 2, 2012
I have to say that I liked learning about China and the Yangtzee River more than the story itself, although it was a quick read. I did enjoy the book and the description of China. Jenny and her husband take a last ditch effort to save their marriage by taking a trip to China so that she may scatter her best friends' ashes as she wanted. The marriage doesn't make it and the characters could've been more developed, but I liked how it switched from the present (cruise thru China) to the past with Jenny and her best friend (a Chinese-American girl) growing up in Alabama and their friendship/relationship.
September 29, 2013
As a thirty something women cruises down the Yangtze, to distribute her long dead friend's ashes, we share her painful remembrances of the murdered friend and her longing for her estranged husband who is accompanying her one last time. Nostalgia and memory to the backdrop of a rapidly disappearing Old China, that is about to be flooded into oblivion by a new dam project, this is a poignant story of loss and redemption.
July 18, 2020
I don’t know what it is about Richmonds books that I love. I adore the troubled characters and she just seems to suck me in. They are hurting. They are ReAl and she doesn’t make everything tidy and neat in the end.
February 19, 2017
Wonderfully written. Ms. Richmond is a talented writer. I recommend all of her books.
June 11, 2020
Another excellent read from Michelle Richmond. I love this author.
August 3, 2023
Woman in Failing Marriage Tries to Keep Lost Love Promise on Mysterious China Trip
This book is brilliant. Ever purchased a novel then not read it because of its cover. Then 10 years later read it and wonder how you cheated yourself out of reading such a great story until you didn't. The book's cover is of a lady sitting on a dock, looking out on calm water and thinking about something. It's a nice picture but doesn't give us any compelling reason to read the book.
Yet despite the deceivingly calm cover, Michelle Richmond's 2003 book, "Dream of the Blue Room," it is an unusual story about love, loss, pain, rescue and/or finding the one you need. It plays out episodically and sometimes almost simultaneously in New York City, Alabama and China.
It's difficult to describe how such an odd beginning unwraps such wise realizations concerning the risks of any good relationship slowly or quickly but insidiously deteriorating.
Richmond's book brings to mind the grand 20th Century Fox film, "Soldier of Fortune" (1955) starring Clark Gable and Susan Hayward set in Hong Kong. The situations are remotely similar yet different.
In Richmond's bestseller, "The Year of Fog," San Francisco is a main character, particularly the mysterious fog that frequently enshrouds its beaches. Similarly, in "Blue Room" she expertly uses the mysterious qualities of sailing along the Yangtze River aboard an old cruise liner in the middle of the night.
Her book exudes the exotic mysterious quality of what used to be called the Orient, that serves as an effective backdrop for the palpable romantic tension that emerges once a woman meets a stranger aboard the ship. Her story is never less than beautifully told and is so gripping in a very down to earth very human way. It might seem overwrought or prosaic to some, but not to those familiar with something like the heroine's experience.
Other readers might label it melodrama. But when thoughts and feelings become so real, so recognizable, how could anyone diminish the bracing life supporting glow of its headlong rush into discussing various things that most people refuse to ever talk about.
There's something very poetically Proustian about Richmond's writing. Proust's narrator involuntarily recalls an episode from his childhood after tasting a madeleine dipped in tea. Richmond's heroine Jenny's leafing through pictures of her deceased first lover sets off an avalanche of perceptions about how life can either slowly or very quickly evolve from the wonderful into a horror one could have totally never expected.
The emotional immediacy of intense need seems so overwhelming throughout this novel's progression. Jaded readers might call this overwrought or cliched; when it is the opposite; actually very direct and raw discussion of the kind of things most readers would never openly discuss, let alone talk honestly about.
There is much detailed revelation of new China's ongoing destruction of its ancient Chinese heritage juxtaposed against the impending failure of what should have been a perfect marriage even if for a far too short length of time.
I highly recommend reading this book for its innate poetry, its beauty, its humanity and its intense grasp of how fragile human existence is today, both stateside and in the China of today and in the old China near the end of England's heyday there.
This book is brilliant. Ever purchased a novel then not read it because of its cover. Then 10 years later read it and wonder how you cheated yourself out of reading such a great story until you didn't. The book's cover is of a lady sitting on a dock, looking out on calm water and thinking about something. It's a nice picture but doesn't give us any compelling reason to read the book.
Yet despite the deceivingly calm cover, Michelle Richmond's 2003 book, "Dream of the Blue Room," it is an unusual story about love, loss, pain, rescue and/or finding the one you need. It plays out episodically and sometimes almost simultaneously in New York City, Alabama and China.
It's difficult to describe how such an odd beginning unwraps such wise realizations concerning the risks of any good relationship slowly or quickly but insidiously deteriorating.
Richmond's book brings to mind the grand 20th Century Fox film, "Soldier of Fortune" (1955) starring Clark Gable and Susan Hayward set in Hong Kong. The situations are remotely similar yet different.
In Richmond's bestseller, "The Year of Fog," San Francisco is a main character, particularly the mysterious fog that frequently enshrouds its beaches. Similarly, in "Blue Room" she expertly uses the mysterious qualities of sailing along the Yangtze River aboard an old cruise liner in the middle of the night.
Her book exudes the exotic mysterious quality of what used to be called the Orient, that serves as an effective backdrop for the palpable romantic tension that emerges once a woman meets a stranger aboard the ship. Her story is never less than beautifully told and is so gripping in a very down to earth very human way. It might seem overwrought or prosaic to some, but not to those familiar with something like the heroine's experience.
Other readers might label it melodrama. But when thoughts and feelings become so real, so recognizable, how could anyone diminish the bracing life supporting glow of its headlong rush into discussing various things that most people refuse to ever talk about.
There's something very poetically Proustian about Richmond's writing. Proust's narrator involuntarily recalls an episode from his childhood after tasting a madeleine dipped in tea. Richmond's heroine Jenny's leafing through pictures of her deceased first lover sets off an avalanche of perceptions about how life can either slowly or very quickly evolve from the wonderful into a horror one could have totally never expected.
The emotional immediacy of intense need seems so overwhelming throughout this novel's progression. Jaded readers might call this overwrought or cliched; when it is the opposite; actually very direct and raw discussion of the kind of things most readers would never openly discuss, let alone talk honestly about.
There is much detailed revelation of new China's ongoing destruction of its ancient Chinese heritage juxtaposed against the impending failure of what should have been a perfect marriage even if for a far too short length of time.
I highly recommend reading this book for its innate poetry, its beauty, its humanity and its intense grasp of how fragile human existence is today, both stateside and in the China of today and in the old China near the end of England's heyday there.
June 25, 2018
2.5/5 stars. Talk about a huge disappointment. When I first picked up the book I was going into it thinking it was about how her friend was murdered and the main characters dark path. However, the story focuses more on the trip to China and a few flashbacks of memories with her friend that was murdered. That being said, The synopsis is very misleading and doesn't even really explain the story really well. I rarely read books I don't enjoy but this fit that pile. I did like the writing style so I am hoping to read more books by this author that I might actually enjoy. Overall, I really didn't like the story or really understand the point of the book.
August 25, 2017
The story seemed unusually far fetched. Going on a cruise with an estranged husband to China? The characters did not feel real, and her old friend, Amanda Ruth didn't shine, either. The story was rather depressing; skip this one
January 2, 2020
It was fairly good until she is speaking with the old tea woman, it felt to me that this was a long drawn out piece that could have been left out. Especially because the book ends a few pages from that. I did enjoy the end overview and the personal story about the books inspiration.
March 18, 2022
Beautifully written story weaving the past and present together. Descriptions of China and the experiences on the cruise are very real. I enjoyed being on the journey of love and pain with Jennifer. It all comes together in the end.
March 3, 2020
Not sure what to think. The story was good, but was a little lost towards the end. I just lost my dad to ALS, so this story pulled at my heart.
March 23, 2021
So good!! A bit gloomy and dark but well written and very interesting. I had to look up some of the details about Chinas Yangtze river (all true and devastating btw)
June 10, 2021
This was sad.
May 10, 2022
Excellent book!!!!
July 6, 2025
Not a bad book, just wasn't into it as much as I would have liked. There seemed to be a lot of hints, but no follow through.
April 11, 2016
Jenny, our first person narrator, had been friends with Amanda Ruth Lee since childhood. They grew up together in Alabama, and their days and hours spent in a unique boathouse with a blue room is a time that Jenny often remembers now.
For Amanda Ruth is dead. Murdered 14 years before.
Our story carries us back and forth in time, with the present tense narration our clue to what is going on in Jenny’s world nowadays. She is on a cruise ship, visiting China, as a last remembrance to Amanda Ruth, whose father was Chinese. She is traveling with Dave, her husband, from whom she has been separated for two months, living on separate sides of Central Park in Manhattan. She is carrying Amanda Ruth’s ashes in a unique tin box. Does Jenny hope that the trip will bring her closer to Dave again? Will Dave’s need to “rescue” those around him help them reconnect?
As we learn more about Mr. Lee and his thoughts and feelings toward Amanda Ruth and her sexual orientation, we have to wonder why honoring her father would have been a wish of hers. But sometimes, the mind is a curious thing.
We also see how Jenny and Dave first fell in love, what drew them together, and what has slowly pulled them apart. Does Dave know the secret life that Jenny and Amanda Ruth shared? Did he hope to rescue her from that life?
On the ship, Jenny meets a man named Graham. Theirs is a unique bond that grows with each day. What will Graham ask of Jenny before they part? What will happen to her afterwards?
The story had a mournful tone, with all the dreams and imaginings…and there were a few answers to some crucial questions as we moved along. But were they really answers, or more imaginings? I couldn’t stop reading this book, but it left me feeling disoriented…and a little sad. 4 stars.
For Amanda Ruth is dead. Murdered 14 years before.
Our story carries us back and forth in time, with the present tense narration our clue to what is going on in Jenny’s world nowadays. She is on a cruise ship, visiting China, as a last remembrance to Amanda Ruth, whose father was Chinese. She is traveling with Dave, her husband, from whom she has been separated for two months, living on separate sides of Central Park in Manhattan. She is carrying Amanda Ruth’s ashes in a unique tin box. Does Jenny hope that the trip will bring her closer to Dave again? Will Dave’s need to “rescue” those around him help them reconnect?
As we learn more about Mr. Lee and his thoughts and feelings toward Amanda Ruth and her sexual orientation, we have to wonder why honoring her father would have been a wish of hers. But sometimes, the mind is a curious thing.
We also see how Jenny and Dave first fell in love, what drew them together, and what has slowly pulled them apart. Does Dave know the secret life that Jenny and Amanda Ruth shared? Did he hope to rescue her from that life?
On the ship, Jenny meets a man named Graham. Theirs is a unique bond that grows with each day. What will Graham ask of Jenny before they part? What will happen to her afterwards?
The story had a mournful tone, with all the dreams and imaginings…and there were a few answers to some crucial questions as we moved along. But were they really answers, or more imaginings? I couldn’t stop reading this book, but it left me feeling disoriented…and a little sad. 4 stars.
May 4, 2010
This was a Book Club selection and the author is from San Francisco.
The story of a childhood relationship between two young girls in the South during the Summer time that turns from friendship into a sexual one though Amanda Ruth is truly a Lesbian and the narrator is just experimenting. We learn that Amanda Ruth is brutally murdered and the narrator tells us all of this while she is on a ship going down the Yangtze River in China with her estranged husband looking at all the villages that will soon disappear when the river is flooded to build the 3 Gorges Damn. The Narrator meets a man on the ship who has come on this trip to die and he asks her to disembark in a village with him that has been evacuated and is lying empty to help him in his desire to commit suicide to rid himself of dealing with living with a terminal disease. There is a very melancholy tone throughout the novel.
You then read about Amanda Ruth and how she is the child of a a Chinese Immigrant father and this novel is also the story of a child of an immigrant and some of the interesting dynamics of that relationship. Very interesting twist at the end. The melancholy mood ensues from beginning to end in this novel.
The story of a childhood relationship between two young girls in the South during the Summer time that turns from friendship into a sexual one though Amanda Ruth is truly a Lesbian and the narrator is just experimenting. We learn that Amanda Ruth is brutally murdered and the narrator tells us all of this while she is on a ship going down the Yangtze River in China with her estranged husband looking at all the villages that will soon disappear when the river is flooded to build the 3 Gorges Damn. The Narrator meets a man on the ship who has come on this trip to die and he asks her to disembark in a village with him that has been evacuated and is lying empty to help him in his desire to commit suicide to rid himself of dealing with living with a terminal disease. There is a very melancholy tone throughout the novel.
You then read about Amanda Ruth and how she is the child of a a Chinese Immigrant father and this novel is also the story of a child of an immigrant and some of the interesting dynamics of that relationship. Very interesting twist at the end. The melancholy mood ensues from beginning to end in this novel.
July 5, 2010
I wanted to love this book. Michelle Richmond's command of language and the beautiful way in which she uses it is captivating. She knows how to create a mood with her words and there is a definite mood to this book.
Unfortunately, what the book cover seemed to indicate the book was about wasn't what it really focused on, and as such I felt misled and disappointed.
The overall plot is one of a woman who has set out on a cruise through China with her husband (with whom she has a strained relationship with) and the ashes of her dead best friend. My hope reading was that this character would repair the relationship with her husband and find peace with the death of her friend. This is, after all, the purpose of the trip.
Instead, it seems from the first chapters that both of these objectives are doomed. Her husband is cold and distant and altogether unlikeable in his apathy towards her. She, in turn, despite wanting to reconnect with him, seems intent on having an affair with a fellow traveler. And her past friendship is complicated beyond redemption.
All in all, though beautifully written, this story left me frustrated and depressed and unsatisfied.
Unfortunately, what the book cover seemed to indicate the book was about wasn't what it really focused on, and as such I felt misled and disappointed.
The overall plot is one of a woman who has set out on a cruise through China with her husband (with whom she has a strained relationship with) and the ashes of her dead best friend. My hope reading was that this character would repair the relationship with her husband and find peace with the death of her friend. This is, after all, the purpose of the trip.
Instead, it seems from the first chapters that both of these objectives are doomed. Her husband is cold and distant and altogether unlikeable in his apathy towards her. She, in turn, despite wanting to reconnect with him, seems intent on having an affair with a fellow traveler. And her past friendship is complicated beyond redemption.
All in all, though beautifully written, this story left me frustrated and depressed and unsatisfied.
October 24, 2016
I really did not like this book. I didn't the story line and the characters were very flat. I hated the lesbian love affair between the two friends that Jenny could never openly accept!! Then I hated the unrealistic story of the married couple who goes on a cruise to save/work on their marriage but then meet two other people and openly have affairs with them and that's ok!! Yuck!! So not ok!! Then there was the death of the lesbian friend who's ashes she has and one of the reasons for the trip is to spread these ashes, in the end it's said that the dad is the one that killed his daughter in a rage over her lesbianism but this fact is almost thrown in there as an afterthought.
I just really couldn't find anything I enjoyed about this book. The only reason I finished it is because I hate not finishing a book!!!
I just really couldn't find anything I enjoyed about this book. The only reason I finished it is because I hate not finishing a book!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 14, 2014
This book did not engage me the way the author's other books did. I really liked her descriptive passages about the Yangtze landscape and the towns along the way, but the actual story simply wasn't very plausible for me. I could see someone taking a trip to scatter ashes or I could imagine having a small fling on vacation, but to find the heroine not only scattering the ashes of her murdered friend but also involving herself in an intense relationship with a dying man was too much of a stretch. Even secondary characters were just implausible, such as the young woman Dave becomes involved with. No one with that kind of background would end up on that kind of voyage. So, I can't really recommend this book, it has too many unrealistic scenarios to accept.
August 6, 2015
I liked it, and at times I thought I liked it a lot... but, overall it just didn't really grab me. I just never really cared for the narrator, though I found her story interesting. None of the characters really grabbed me.
There is a lot going on in a relatively short book, but I felt like it was all dealt with and wrapped up and it wasn't overwhelming. But at the same time I am not sure what the book was really about. I guess it is the narrator coming to terms with what has happened in her life and getting ready for the next chapter.... but the connection to the Chinese river seems a bit weak.
All in all it just left me kind of "meh". Some beautiful writing, and makes me interested in some Chinese history, but not a book I'd pick up again.
There is a lot going on in a relatively short book, but I felt like it was all dealt with and wrapped up and it wasn't overwhelming. But at the same time I am not sure what the book was really about. I guess it is the narrator coming to terms with what has happened in her life and getting ready for the next chapter.... but the connection to the Chinese river seems a bit weak.
All in all it just left me kind of "meh". Some beautiful writing, and makes me interested in some Chinese history, but not a book I'd pick up again.
February 14, 2016
The language was beautiful, but I'm not sure how the book's plot got published. Spoiler ahead: There was too much going on--an unresolved teen lesbian relationship, no discussion of the switch from lesbianism to heterosexuality, a deteroriating marriage on a Chinese boat trip where both partners have affairs while still staying with their spouse, a strong environmental theme against a dam that's ruining China, a treatise about Chinese propaganda, and a mercy killing, not to mention lots of information about ALS. This was definitely a first novel that I wish had been reedited after The Year of Fog had been published, as Fog was beautiful and compelling. Definitely a highly educated author, but I'm kind of sad I spent time reading this.
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