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Culture shock!Jul 30, 2010
I'm not your typical critic... in fact, I'm not going to use big words or fancy jargon... I'm just going to tell it like it is from my point of view. I read this book because I read Snowflower and the Fan. Both captivated me... I had no idea that the Chinese lived under such a microscope. I was truly engrossed in this book, but just to be on the up and up, I liked Snowflower and the Fan more. This past year I have been trying to read books that taught me about other cultures and life styles. I have not had any expectations but each and every book I've read has given me something I was not expecting. This book certainly did just that. If you are into intrigue, trying to figure the plot ending, can't put the book down, this will do that for you. Thank you Lisa See for teaching me how another part of the world lives.
 Interesting but lacks polishApr 08, 2010
I am a huge Lisa See fan, and have enjoyed all of her other books. As usual, this one contains many interesting descriptions of Chinese life and history, and the plot itself is also intriguing. However, there are many jarring word choices, and a few false notes that suggest that she does not value this type of book as much as her others. If Ms. See and her editors would spend as much time working out the awkward transitions in this book as they do on her others we would have a series worthy of her abilities.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Interesting view of China but clunky plot and dialogueSep 18, 2009
This thriller, set in Beijing and Los Angeles in 1997, has some real strengths. Its insight into Chinese culture and the emergence of a Chinese nouveau riche class is both interesting and authoritative. The author speaks knowledgeably about the mysteries of gaining or losing face. Her evocation of Beijing at this point in its emergence from Maoism (the book takes place in 1997 just before the death of Deng Xiaping) is also fascinating. China has changed a great deal since then so this book is already a kind of time capsule.
The book also has some weaknesses. The plotting is clunky and relies too much on coincidence and the characters are wooden. The author occasionally slips into "professor" mode, even at moments of high tension, and delivers a five paragraph tutorial on various aspects of Chinese history or culture. The dialogue is often stiff and unnatural. For example, after the heroine Hulan delivers a heartfelt confession about her role in the Cultural Revolution as a little girl, culminating in a powerful scene where she is forced to denounce her own father, she is whisked away to a swanky boarding school in Connecticut. "That must have been quite a culture shock," her lover David says. Hmmm.
The plot concerns a Chinese underworld conspiracy to smuggle bear bile into the United States using the son of the U.S. ambassador to Beijing. When a deputy U.S. attorney uncovers a murder in the United States, he's put in touch with a Chinese police investigator who has been probing a similar murder in Beijing. By coincidence, the two happened to have been former lovers years ago who still hanker for one another. Their love story, to me, was unconvincing, lacking in passion. But the plot hums along and there is enough interesting stuff going on all the time to keep the reader hooked.
File this one under "good, but could have been better."
first of a good seriesAug 29, 2009
the insight into modern China is fascinating to me, the romance a bit lame, but Liu Hulan is my new favorite detective!
"Flower Net"May 25, 2009
Flower Net: A Red Princess Mystery (Red Princess Mysteries)
"Flower Net" (1997) is the first of the Red Princess mysteries. The other two novels in the series are "The Interior" (1999) and "Dragon Bones" (2003).
"Flower Net" introduces the reader to Liu Hulan, inspector in the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and a Red Princess, and to David Stark, Assistant U.S. Attorney, who loves Hulan. The novel moves quickly and involves the reader in the fascinating, complex world of Deng Xiaoping's China - its history, culture, and role expectations as they change violently over a relatively short period of time. It is a world filled with paranoia, because knowing who you can trust is often the key to staying alive.
The novel begins with the murders of two young men, one the son of the U.S. ambassador and the other the son of a prominent Chinese power player. For reasons not clear to Hulan and David, the Chinese and American governments come to the unusual decision that both nations want the two to investigate the murders. See also describes Vice Minister Liu and his frosty relationship with Hulan, his daughter. It is only at the end of the book that the wide flower net brings up from the depths his painful past and the tragic toll it has taken on his life and that of his family.
The novel's complex Dickensian plot gradually becomes clearer the further one reads. Underneath the dangerous world of national politics and high stakes scheming and plotting is See's concern with family - especially the relations between father and son, father and daughter. Almost everything that happens in "Flower Net" can ultimately be traced back to these concerns.
Despite the beauty of the plot, it is Hulan who ties the whole novel together. Even when she is silent, which she frequently is, she dominates almost every scene she is in. See slowly reveals the complexity and painful internal conflicts which Hulan must deal with. In a vast dark world of violence, betrayal, and suspicion, she is a radiant star.
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based on 31 reviews
