This story takes place in the years before and right after the Boxer Rebellion. It is a work of historical fiction and shows you the old ways of the China nation where girl children are only a commodity. ( )

Book Review: The Courtesan by Alexandra Curry
Released Sep 8 2015 by Dutton
In 1881, seven-year-old Jinhua has enjoyed a fairly good life. Her father has refused to have her feet bound and has shown her nothing but love. Then he displeases the emperor and is beheaded.
Jinhua's wife is not interested in caring for the daughter of her husband's mistress and sells the girl for a handful of silver coins. Jinhua ends up in a brothel where she is taught the "bed business" with poses like Fishes Eye to Eye, White Tiger Pouncing, and Silkworms Tenderly Entwined. But there is little tender about bed business, as she discovers when she is given to her first client at the age of twelve.
She is told repeatedly that her life is not her own. When she is bought again by a man who thinks she is the reincarnation of his former mistress, she accompanies him on his ambassadorial trips to the West.
I had such hopes for this novel. I requested an ARC from the publisher because the synopsis described a woman’s journey from culture to culture and eventually to herself. Although she does eventually lead her own life, she does so by returning to the brothel after the owner dies and the business passes on to her best friend. There she is raped during the Boxer revolution, her friend is also violated, and her friend gives up her life to save Jinhua’s. So she doesn’t really ever own her own life.
This I could have lived with if the writing had been stronger. The publisher described a fairytale like prose that promised a depth that rewarded a careful reader…exactly the kind of thing I enjoy, and exactly the kind of prose that can fit exceptionally well with historical fiction.
But here the execution is weak. The prose is too spare, and the details tend to be repeated. The repetition does not highlight symbolic or important elements, so it comes off as a weakness in the author’s research.
I’m begrudgingly rating this at 3 stars because, although I would normally rank this as a 2 or 2.5, I recognize that a number of readers will enjoy this a great deal. Just be aware of the flaws before you spend time with this work.
3 begrudging stars.
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"Curry subverts Jinhua's actually quite messy and sordid history into a series of tropes we've all seen before"
read more: http://likeiamfeasting.blogspot.gr/2016/02/the-courtesan-alexandra-curry.html ( )

There are many fine reviews that tackle the specifics of the story. I have chosen to craft my review from a different perspective.

I want to provide information about the author and her background and introduce some facts about the real Jinhua to enhance the reading experience for others.

For more information visit my books reviews in my blog at https://itzeyblog.wordpress.com

Author Information
Alexandra Curry is as fascinating as the characters in her debut novel, The Courtesan. She was born in Canada to Austrian and British parents and spent most of her formative years in Southeast Asia. She has lived in Europe, Canada and the United States. She is a graduate of Wellesley College, served as Director of Finance at Cambridge Professional Group, and AVP at Chase Manhattan Bank. Ms. Curry is married and currently living in Atlanta. She lists her current occupation as novelist.

Review
As courtesans in Chinese history, and Jinhua in particular, are unknown to the American reader I looked into her biography before I began reading the book. I found learning about Jinhua in real life better prepared me for the fictionalized story. There are traces of Jinhua in photographs, her face revealing nothing but haunting empty eyes.

With those black and white still images in my mind, I found that Curry brought Jinhua to life. The physical scenes were almost too "real" to handle; they assaulted my mind's eye. The language directed at her was so coarse, abusive and vile that I felt sickened by the thought that this was reality for little girls in 19th century and still is for many in our 21st century world today.

Readers of Memoirs of a Geisha have been exposed to the exploitation of women and the sex trade but the descriptions of life in a Chinese brothel are so hideous as to seem unbelievable. It was striking to me that Jinhua's childhood coincided with my grandmother's childhood; worlds apart in much more than geography.

On a personal note, I read this book recuperating from ankle surgery. The painful passages about the foot binding hit a little too close to home and I will admit to a shedding a few tears.

Despite living in a vacuum void of respect and dignity let alone love and affection, Jinhua never loses a positive sense of self, innate curiosity or hope that the future will be better. She survived such unimaginable horrors over and over; it is a wonder she didn't succumb to the fate of so many unable to live in this wretched life any longer. At least that is how Curry decided to write her story. One is left to wonder if she ever truly experienced joy, happiness or peace in reality.

The glimpses into imperialism, the Boxer Rebellion and the emergence of West influence on Chinese life were not deeply covered but did provide a comfortable backdrop to the heart of this book...Jinhua's poignant life story.
Curry has done her best to create a plausible story for this lost soul who has been subject of conjecture and hyperbole for decades. It should be remembered that this is a work of fiction and the author has taken the literary license to conflate her life and in doing so has gaps in time that leave the story a bit confusing. It would have been interesting to have created a trilogy of her life in three separate books; happy childhood, orphan sold to the sex trade, and adult. Greater depth on social conditions and the changes in the world could have been better developed.

Overall I found the book a very worthy read. The first half of the book captured my attention. The second half seemed to flow less smoothly.

Curry writing style is as one reviewer wrote "almost lyrical". I look forward to reading to her second book!

I want to thank Netgalley and Edelweiss for both providing with advance e-reader copies of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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This is the story of Sai Jinhua, a legendary figure in China. The author admits that she has taken great liberty in this re-creation of her life, as many contradictory stories have been written and passed on about her. In this story, Jinhua herself often creates the legends about herself by spinning yarns about her past life, a past she wished she had had. She lived during a time of great turmoil and the author presents a picture of the history of China from 1891 until 1905 that places her squarely in the time frame.
Jinhua was the child of Lao Mangzi’s second wife, his concubine. His first wife, Timu, stopped speaking from the time he brought her home until his death, so jealous and angry was she of her intrusion into their life. When the second wife died during childbirth, the first wife resented the child that was born. That child was Jinhua. Lao Mangzi adored her, however, as he had adored her mother, which made matters worse for the child.
Lao Mangzi was the executioner in The Forbidden City. He did what the Emperor commanded. He had no other choice. Jinhua had beseeched him to disobey the Emperor and remain at home with her. She adored him and the stories he told her. One day, he did not return. The Emperor had accused Lao Mangzi of a crime for which the punishment was death. Soon, he was no longer the executioner, but instead was executed himself. Jinhua blamed herself for his death since she had asked him to question the Emperor's command. She wore the mark of that guilt around her neck for the rest of her life.
Without her father, Jinhua’s happy life was suddenly in chaos and at an end. She was at the mercy of his first wife who had hated her since her birth, and as punishment for her existence, she sold her to a “go-between” who quickly sold her to a brothel. She was to be trained as a courtesan, although she was merely 7 years old at the time. Taught all of the skills of “bed business”, she became a “money tree” as soon as she was mature enough to bed the men. This occurred, according to Lao Mama, the owner of the brothel, shortly before her 13th birthday, before she actually “became a woman”. As far as the owner of the brothel was concerned, she was old enough. It was time for her to earn her keep. The men were allowed to do whatever they wished to the girls in the brothel, and they suffered from their brutality, without complaint, for they had no other choice. In the brothel, Jinhua made a very close “sister” friend. Her name was Suyin. Suyin guided her through the years, helping her to learn what was necessary.
When Wenqing, a wealthy gentleman, took an interest in Jinhua, she was purchased, and like her mother, she became a concubine. She was parted from Suyin whom she dearly missed. With her husband she traveled to Vienna, a land of barbarians, according to him. He explained that these people thought the Chinese were heathens, they were not Christians. He said, however, that they held the moral high ground respecting virtuous behavior and the foreign devils did not. She was naïve because of her lack of experience, but her curiosity continued to grow as she watched this new world that existed outside her window in the Palais Kinsky, and she began to question what Wenqing told her. One day, she decided to see for herself, and she left the house and mixed with the barbarians, becoming quite enamored with a Count from the Austrian Court. When her husband discovered her indiscretion, defying the very rules of decorum he had set down, she became a prisoner, locked within the confines of the house, permitted only one visitor, a woman he approved of, and she was forced to submit to his desires since he wanted a child, a son, an heir, and it was her duty to her husband to satisfy and please him.
Eventually, she escaped and returned to Suzhou where she found Suyin. Together they moved to Peking and set up a brothel. They treated their girls well, allowing them the freedom to come and go. In the meanwhile, foreign invaders were continuing to conquer Chinese lands and the Boxer Rebellion cane to a head with the full force of the destruction and death that they left in their wake. They created chaos and fear as they rampaged throughout the country, burning, beheading and dismembering the bodies of their victims. They showed no mercy, but rather they taunted and tortured their victims with the approval of the Empress and the Emperor. When the foreign powers finally regained control, they too pillaged and abused the population.
When Jinhua finally recognized the damage her own behavior and selfishness had caused, she returned to Suzhou and fulfilled the dream of her beloved “sister” friend, Suyin, by opening a bakery and living a quiet life with the sound of flowing water nearby.
The Chinese believed that the rest of the world was made up of barbarians while they, the Chinese, were far superior, morally and culturally. They believed the rumors about the sadistic, depraved and disrespectful behavior of the “barbarians”. There were stories about the way the foreign devils abused their women and children. Yet, it was actually the Chinese that sold their children, often into a lifetime of cruel bondage or servitude in brothels, it was the Chinese that had more than one wife, and the Chinese who basically imprisoned their women and used them as objects of pleasure.
The author presented a picture of the history of China that was quite illuminating, putting the reader right in the midst of the confusion after Lao Mangzi’s death, as Timu signs the contract for Jinhua’s sale to the “go-between”, followed by her sale and abuse at the hands of Lao Mama in the brothel. We experience Vienna with Jinhua and her reunion with Suyin when she prevails upon her to move to Peking to open a brothel where they will treat the girls well. She does not reveal to Suyin, her reasons for wanting to resettle there, but Suyin is devoted to her. We experience their fear as the Boxer Rebellion reaches them, and we watch as Jinhua returns to her home town of Suzhou, finally fulfilling Suyin’s dream.
The book exposes the true meaning of love and freedom as it exposes the prejudice, propaganda, and ignorance of the era. ( )