Rating: 
Summary: A tasty literary morsel with bite
Review: I was completely hooked by "The Binding Chair." Kathryn Harrison has written a completely enthralling literary . . . I'm not sure what to call it. It's a mystery, it's a series of character studies, it is a study of the social mores of the late 19th/early 20th century, and it is ever so slightly rotten, which makes everyone and everything in it just that much more interesting.May-li is a Chinese woman with bound feet who has married into a British Jewish family living in Shanghai. Her story leads "The Binding Chair," and the others swirl around it in vivid detail. There's her sweet Australian husband with his love of social do-gooding, a lisping genius of a governess, May's niece, who takes her aunt's encouragement too much to heart, and a heartbroken Russian on the Siberian Express. I didn't care for the ending, but understand it. I would much rather have had the book go on.
Rating: 
Summary: good yet wanting more
Review: I've really enjoyed reading The Binding Chair. Harrison is a talented writer and takes you to the various locations, Shanghai, the train across Russia, the seaside town in France. And her characters are original, by turns strong and weak, very human. Yet, like one of the other reviewers, I kept wanting more of the story or more development of the characters. The book will captivate you and keep you reading, but you'll wish there was more.
Rating:
Summary: Storytelling at its finest
Review: It is always wonderful when you pick up a book at random and find yourself thoroughly engrossed in the reading. The Binding Chair was on a shelf of books at the airport and I grabbed it, having miscalculated the amount of reading material I would need. And I found it wonderful. Sometimes a multiple viewpoint story becomes broken and feels choppy to its readers. But Harrison has the control over her stories to weave the different narrations, viewpoints, times and places together to produce an outstanding novel. I have already recommended this book to my friends and family, as I think that this is a great book. I am sure that it will linger in my mind for years to come.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Memoirs of a Geisha...
Review: It seems to be the fashion among writers currently to be as non-linear as possible. For those of us who read for the story, not technique, this really is quite annoying! The Binding Chair by Kathryn Harrison is such a book. The primary story, of May-li Cohen, could be a fascinating immersion into a foreign culture a la Memoirs of a Geisha. Instead, we have hallucinatory prose, side trips to learn about unimportant characters, symbolism so blatant it's laughable. Especially grating to me were the graphic, kinky sex scenes. Do we really need to know where May-li's father enjoyed placing his wife's bound foot? And what he expected her to do once her foot was in place? Was it absolutely necessary to give the gruesome details of May-li's niece's (Alice) assignations with her Russian lover? They certainly did not add to the story in my opinion! The parts of the story that concern May-li, footbinding, & Chinese culture prior to 1900 are compelling. It makes the total novel seem like a waste, when these glimpses of what the novel might have been shine through. If The Binding Chair had simply told May-li's story from childhood thru her marriage to Arthur Cohen, it would be on a par with Memoirs of a Geisha. As it stands, it is simply an exercise in literary technique. Too bad.
Rating:
Summary: Probes deeply into the hidden abscesses of human behavior
Review: Kathryn Harrison is one of those writers who make her readers squirm. And this novel, set in turn-of-the century Shanghai, London and Nice where colonial and Chinese culture come together. is no exception. The central character is May-li, who suffered the anguish of having her feet bound as a child. Married at 15 to a brutal sadist, she runs away and become a prostitute in Shanghai. She later marries Arthur Cohen, a gentle philanthropist who brings her into the opulent household of his sister, her wealthy husband and their two young daughters. Her niece Alice becomes especially important to her and their relationship is one of the themes of the book. The story is sad, erotic and macabre. There is cruelty and passion, and a cast of fully developed characters who each have some sort of mental or physical disfigurement. Everyone suffers in this book and it's hard to read, but also hard to put down. One weak point is the many the dream sequences which tend to stop the narrative. Another is the rather unsettling way it jumps back and forth in time. Also, the author has chosen to make the family Jewish, but yet the only thing Jewish about them seem to be their name. Ms. Harrison is a writer with a fine talent and who is not afraid to probe deeply into the hidden abscesses of human behavior by using startling details to depict her twisted characters. It comes across as both disturbing and enlightening. I applaud her willingness to deal with the forbidden. I recently enjoyed her 1995 novel, Poison, which was better paced and richer in texture. The Binding Chair, however, was perhaps written too quickly. This happens sometimes with popular writers who are on a deadline. Therefore, although I enjoyed reading it, I cannot give it an across-the-board recommendation although I do intend to read whatever she writes next.
Rating:
Summary: A Haunting, Swirling Tale- I couldn't put the book down
Review: Kathryn Harrison writes a haunting, swirling tale of love and suffering and joy and pain in this amazing historic novel that pulled me into a strange and exotic world. Other reviewers have complained of the pain and often terrible plight of the main character, May-Li, but life is not all sweetness and light. May-Li is strong character that endures and perserveres and makes a life despite the cruelties she's suffered. The book has funny moments and adventures and great characters and is throughtfully interwoven with trancelike imagery. I couldn't put this book down and have become a devoted Harrison fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Like being in an opium haze...
Review: Kathryn Harrison writes with beautifully flowing cinematic language, but that wasn't enough to retain my interest in this book. She spreads the narrative too thinly over several characters, and I had to forcibly prevent myself from skipping chapters that didn't have May-li (the central character) in them. While I appreciate the need to retain an air of mystery about the protagonist, the smoky haze surrounding this book caused drowsiness and a growing sense of dissatisfaction. Even the sexual shock tactics failed to distract after the umpteenth description of the metaphorical round peg being forced into the square hole. The book displayed so much imagination and skill, but so little direction.
Rating:
Summary: Tragic, lyrical, moving.
Review: Mai is a young Chinese girl who, after having her feet bound and being forced into marrying an abusive man, runs away to a Shanghai brothel. It is there that she meets her future husband, Arthur, a man involved in the "Foot Emancipation Society" (dedicated to stopping the foot-binding tradition) until, that is, he becomes obsessed with Mai's feet. They marry and move in with Arthur's sister and brother-in-law and their children. Reading this novel is almost like looking at a magnificent painting. Kathryn Harrison weaves her words together like a true artist. The tale jumps back and forth between "present time" (early to mid-1900s), when Mai is struggling with depression and her niece - who is closer to a daughter to her - has been shipped off to boarding school, to the past, where Mai's life story is recounted. At first, the jumping around can be a little confusing, but once you catch the rhythm of the novel, it flows smoothly until the surprising end. If you're looking for a novel that'll make you think, pick up The Binding Chair and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Smart & Sexy
Review: Maybe the best book I read all summer. This novel absolutely transported me - I couldn't put it down. It reminded me a little of _Memoirs of a Geisha_, another book I found myself rivetted to. Harrison's _The Binding Chair_ combines a good story, original and unpredictable, with good storytelling, making her language as sensual as the main character, May's, crippled feet and the soft, damaged skin wrapped in gauzey bandages. The shock of the book is equalled only by its subtlety, resisting the urge to make simple political statements or moral judgments, but revealing the complexity and complicity present in any system of oppression. Unlike, for instance, Anna Quindlen's _Black and Blue_, this novel does not turn out how you expect, instead turning this way and that in seductive narrative moves in every chapter. I liked it far better than _The Kiss_, her memoir, which seemed less skilled in handling controversial content.
Rating:
Summary: Rich, well researched and insightful
Review: Ms. Harrison has once again produced a fine piece of work. This is a very heavy book that takes you into the mind of the protagonist, allowing one to experience empathy in the way that literature should. You really have to sit back and let the book come to you versus trying to extract from it. I read this book on the train, during my commute to and from work and often I found myself drawn into the story and in the places she describes, whether it was in Shanghai, the south of France, or on the train ride across Russia. Very introspective and nonapologetic.
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