The Lost Daughter of Happiness: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Story of Hope and Survival
Review: Fusang is kidnapped from her tea-growing village in the mountains of China and shipped to San Francisco. While many of the other young women die on the journey, she survives and is sold into a brothel, becoming one of many women lining the windows of Chinatown. She is sought after because of her beauty and friendly nature and a wealthy, young Californian falls in love with her. However Da Yong, a notorious criminal is obsessed with owning her.

There's enough of the story right there to keep you tuning the pages of this five star story that is filled with wonderful writing. I just loved this book.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but not compelling
Review: I understand why Harriet is the #1 reviewer - she put in words exactly how I felt about the book. I thought the setting and "history" of the period was interesting, but I just could not become attached to any of the characters.

Rating:
Summary: Eye-Opening Piece of History in Avant-Garde Style
Review: This book sheds light on a really eye-opening bit of history in the free-for-all boomtown that San Francisco was in the late 19th Century. The style is interesting as well: a contemporary Chinese immigrant to the US speaks directly to a Chinese prostitute in the 19th Century, experiencing her life in those turbulent times and seeing what has changed and what has not. The prostitute, Fusang, is enigmatic because she defies categorization. She does not need to be rescued and, despite her lot, she is not an object of pity. She is who she is, accepts her fate, and has an almost Boddhisattva-like compassion for those who wrong her.