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My Last Empress (2012)

by Da Chen(Favorite Author)

2.58 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0307381307 (ISBN13: 9780307381309)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Crown

review 1: Samuel Pickens, New England WASP aimless heir becomes obsessed with Annabelle, a woman he hardly knows, after she dies smoking opium with him in a New Haven barn. He then spends the rest of his life scheming to get to China and then crashing around looking for her reincarnation, totally sure that the coincidences that have allowed him to do this are Romantic Fate and entitle him to pursue any end. As a tutor to the young puppet emperor, he transfers his obsession to the Fourth Empress, a young half-European woman, and manages to bring down the emperor in a palace scandal and ruin everything he touches, including himself. I would be happier with this if I could be sure that it was an extended allegory about Americans in 19th century China, but really, I don't want to giv... moree the author or Pickens one more page of real estate in my head.
review 2: I find it difficult to write a review on a novel that I have mixed feelings about. First this is really not my kind of genre, historical yes in the sense that it takes place in the Forbidden City in the Orient, but also very sexual and obsessive as well. The prose is beautiful, if at times almost over the top, and it is this that kept me reading. The main character is very self obsessed, very unlikable and his obsession with his dead love was extreme. Definitely a different type of book but this author can definitely write well. ARC from NetGalley/ less

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