Acquire Today The Palace Of Heavenly Pleasure Imagined By Adam Williams Supplied As Audiobook

Williams was very good at Chinese characterization which makes sense seeing how long he has lived there plus the fact he has a Chinese wife.


For the history I had never even heard of the Boxer Revolution, the portrayal of Chinese culture, the seemingly accurate portrayal of life in the earlys allstars.
I particularly liked how there was a deeper side to the Mandrin and all the different layers of all the Chinese characters, Very dead on. Truly well done.

I am not a blood and guts girl, though I can stomach it when appropriate as it was here, but, even knowing my own proclivities, they were still breached.
Too much. As several have mentioned, the darker side of whoredom and man's nature took up more words than I ever care to read again, The mob murders of foreigners were brutal, vicious, and described in excruciating detailthough I can see the reason for that, a little less eyewitness sensation would have suited me better.
I can only assume on the murders that Williams did not want to hide the horrifying truth, And he succeeded. Man as base, worse than any animal could ever be, It was sickening. As it was sickening in real life, So I don't fault Williams his descriptions, He was as gutwrenching as television news coverage, Just not sure of any benefit from having read how horrible it was,

As for the brothel scenes, again, entirely plausible, no doubt accurate, sadly, But also again, why eye witness the trauma Dark literature, I don't see it's purpose, Allusion suits me better and I more than get the gist, Although. I will admit, If you are wanting to create revulsion in an effort to keep such behavior from ever rising again, this is an effective way to do it.
My argument against that sentiment is I don't think you ever will horror continues to exist, I don't see the point in muddying my own sensibilities when no change for the good will come of it,

In regard to the Brits, for all the complexities, there was a onedimensionality to all the British characters, This was particularly acute in the case of Henry and Helen Francis HF, Tom's character pulled through in the end, and the doctor and his wife were passable, but there was a disjointedness to Manners and HF that never jived.
They were ghosts of themselves, lived too much in their minds, had no true connection to either themselves or others, Consequently their characters the MAIN characters never drew me in, In some books I want to shake a character, I didn't even want that, I basically wanted to put them on the shelf, But the other aspects of the story held me, Even so, I skimmed from Mongolia to the end, I didn't miss much, as those parts were more character driven and I don't think that is where Williams shows his spark, Nice read, adventurous historical novel about the boxers in

China round, A lot of things I didn't know about, A bit longwinded at times for my taste, so I skipped some pages, My friend and I found this book in the big BookOff store in Shibuya and the title made me laugh, but when I saw that it was the name of a brothel, I had to have it.
It wasyen only.

So, it turned out to be as cheesy as we expected, but it wasn't bad, it held my attention for more thanpages.
It's a historical romance which takes place in a fictitious town of Shishan in, during the Boxer Rebellion, The author was born in China in a missionary family, so he knows his stuff, and his sympathy towards the culture and people is obvious.


BUT, the characters are painfully stereotypical a beautiful and passionate middleclass girl, her lover the dashing spy, her boorish and naive fiance, a bunch of altruistic missionaries, a cruel brothel madam and her psychopathic son, a prostitute with heart of gold, an evil Japanese officer, a wise Chinese mandarin, a wiser still Mongolian shepherd.
. . They all resemble marionettes taken out of a dusty box which has the letters "Oriental drama" on it some of them must have been used by Clavell half a century ago.


The only interesting people are the crazy, fanatical Millward family especially their eldest son Hiram and Major Lin who has a shameful secret to hide.
BUT the author has a penchant for distorting his characters, both minor and major, and making them act against their nature and their initial motivations.
When I read what ultimately happened to Hiram after the rebellion broke out in Shishan, I kind of lost half of my interest in the story, but read on for Major Lin then as his character got assassinated as well in a writerly way I mean, I finished the book just because I didn't have much left.
I didn't care about Helen Frances and her lover they were just unrealistic, and the good doctor Airton, well, he was so stupid and whiny I just hoped to see him killed, but alas, the idiot lived to the last page.


As to the brothel, this was the most ridiculous thing of all, The madam who was supposed to be so cunning, together with her son kept torturing the girls and boys randomly, Why What for What do they gain out of this How is it good for business How does it affect the atmosphere Does it make the prostitutes work harder Does it contribute to their skill, effectiveness, or the satisfaction of customers.
. . I have this dim suspicion that it's got something to do with the author's personal preferences, and that he enjoys writing about sexual sadism, and that's all there is to it.
Now don't get me wrong, I think it's totally okay to fantasize about this stuff, or any stuff, that's what imagination is for but when it comes to putting one's fantasies on paper, it should be done in a plausible, believable, reasonable way.
Why Because the book is for the reader first, and for the author second, The author must seduce the reader, not only pleasure himself, I read this quite some time ago, but the memory of the experience is still fresh, Middlebrow historical adventure fiction is not a genre I usually indulge, but the narrative is riveting, and descriptions of Chinese society around the Boxer Rebellion which define a medieval people is absolutely believable.
A primeval and ominous xenophobia builds up and is spurred on by foreign presence in China until we are left with an epic clash, Great reading and will look for titles by the same author, This one caught my eye on the shelf at the library, I selected it mostly because it was set during the Boxer Rebellion, about which I knew very little and was curious, I did learn about the outlines of the Boxer Rebellion who was involved, what the motivations were, what generally happened, etc, so in that sense I got what I wanted to out of the book,

As a novel, it was fairly soso, Good enough to keep me reading for aboutpages, which I guess is saying something, But nothing spectacular, or particularly remarkable, Enjoyed this tale set in the fictional city of Shishan, Northern China at the end of theth century, The title of the book is the name of the brothel in the city run by a cruel Chinese madam and her sadomasochistic son, The foreign characters are in China due to their occupation as diplomats, missionaries, railway developers and merchants alkaline/soap, getting caught up in the Boxer rebellion and massacre described in gory detail.
I didnt know anything about this period of history and it prompted me to have a read on Wikipedia, so felt I learnt a little too.
Wow! I really enjoyed this book,

It took me about a week to read even though I had not had lots of reading time available at the time, This book is a little, . . well, quite massive. It made it harder to get it started since the size was so daunting, And honestly, the first chapter is dull, However, by ChapterI was interested,

This is quite the romance/action/adventure/historical fiction novel, I would say of all the historical fiction I have ever read, I liked this one best, The writing is well done, There is a rolling, meandering way to it, The bit with letters broke up the writing, I see why he included it for storytelling and also because he wanted to borrow from his friend's family, but I think it should have been written another way.
Or letters should have been included from the beginning, Adam Williams write a long and epic novel that seeks to bring together the political climate of Chinese dynasties and the religious conflict between Christian missionaries and Far Eastern religions.
Williams' character development is strong and powerful, however, the story merely plods along at an agonising pace and could be shortened, It is, on occasion, a thrilling and exciting novel and certainly creates a vivid image of Chinese civilisations from a Christian ethics perspective, An OK read. Spoiler alert.

Boxer history is pretty accurate for a western perspective, Repatriation,,taels of fine silver,,troy ounces,t,ozt/tael. China paid,,taels of silver fromto, equivalent into USbillion,

Chinese inscrutability embraced,

SampM porn was harsh,

Mongolia was mystical bullshit,

Has many 'Mills and Boon' romance moments,

Still Scotland the Brave.

Though it was very interesting to read about the uprising of the Boxers inChina, and even though it was horrible in a magnificent kind of way to see executions described in such a "sèc" way, I felt the book lacked a spine excuse the word play.
It was interesting, but not nearly interesting enough to make me want to recommend this book to friends, The lastchapters felt weird too, Almost as if an extra ending had been made up just to give the readers what they really wanted: a happy ending for Helen Frances and Henry.
It's a decent book, but not one of the better ones, Northern China,. As the Boxer Rebellion erupts, a cast of innocents, fanatics, sinners, and lovers are drawn to the Palace of Heavenly Pleasure an infamous brothel that overlooks an execution ground where the fury of the East will meet the ideals of the West and all will face their destiny.
Adam Williams's first novel is a historical tourdeforce and a triumphant return to traditional storytelling on a truly grand scale,
Ci sono libri che finiscono negli scaffali della tua libreria senza un apparente motivo, Lo fanno di nascosto, in silenzio, e quando te ne accorgi, il giorno che li vedi lì belli pomposi nella loro posizione ormai guadagnata da tempo, non ti ricordi neppure per quale motivo siano arrivati.
È il caso di questo Il palazzo dei piaceri celesti dalle considerevoli dimensioni molto simili a quelle di un mattone in terracotta: non ricordo come mai lo comprai, se ne avessi letto chissà quale recensione positiva o se semplicemente ne fui attratto dalla copertina in tinte sfumate e dal nome vagamente esotico ed echeggiante avventure erotiche di tipo orientale.
Quello che posso dire a fine lettura è che la copertina in effetti rimane bella, anche se il volume del libro lo rende difficile da trasportare a destra e a sinistra per leggerlo in qualsiasi momento, mentre il suo contenuto, comprensivo degli ipotetici episodi di natura sessuale, lascia alquanto a desiderare.
Non cè infatti nessun affondo carnale di una certa rilevanza, e quando due personaggi si avventurano nellintimo di un rapporto questi due personaggi sono sempre e solo due occidentali, quindi anche lombra dei rituali orientali va a farsi friggere un particolare davvero prodigioso visto che il palazzo che dà il titolo al romanzo è un bordello.
La storia è essenzialmente incentrata sulla rivoluzione Boxer avvenuta in Cina ai primi del, una sommossa popolare che in Europa non ha avuto molto richiamo e che io personalmente non avevo mai sentito nominare.
Si parla di una missione umanitaria intenta a cercare di convertire gli indigeni al cattolicesimo si parla di un amore clandestino tra una giovane ragazza e un soldato di ventura si parla di intrighi di potere di palazzo e rivoluzionari si parla del tentativo di modernizzare la Cina con la prima linea ferroviaria.
Si parla di molto ma poi in fondo non si parla di niente, Quello che rimane a fine lettura sono alcuni nei che proprio non sei riuscito a mandare giù e che non hanno reso credibili alcuni personaggi.
Uno fra tutti è la protagonista femminile, la quale si intestardisce a fare determinate azioni solo per il semplice fatto di far proseguire la trama secondo una strada un po forzata si potrebbe anche scrivere che decide con i lombi e poi cerca di giustificare, se stessa e chi è stato insieme a lei.

Non so di preciso cosa mi aspettassi a inizio lettura, ormai non me lo ricordo più, ma arrivi alla fine e non hai niente.
Lautore esegue il compitino senza sbavature, scrivendo in modo scorrevole e senza appesantire inutilmente lincedere dei fatti alla fine si prova anche un certo vago e vergognoso attaccamento nei confronti dei vari personaggi, ma è piuttosto facile in un romanzo di così tante pagine anche se arrivati apagine si ha limpressione che anche lui abbia deciso di tirare corto e cominciare a tagliare non riuscendo più a trattenersi dal vedere lui stesso la fine.

Lo smacco maggiore, almeno a mio avviso, risiede però nelle note finale, nelle quali lautore spiega che il suo intento era quello di cercare di capire da dove era nato il movimento dei Boxer che lui, nato in Cina da padre inglese e madre cinese, aveva sempre sentito nominare dai parenti autoctoni.
Ciò che strida con queste dichiarazioni è che nel libro non vi è traccia di questa curiosità, non cè neppure il minimo segno del desiderio di indagine di questo movimento: il libro inizia con i Boxer già alle porte della città e finisce.
. beh, finisce senza neppure viverlo in modo diretto,
Un peccato, perché a parità di pagine e di scomodità di trasporto, avrei potuto benissimo leggere Contro il giorno di Pynchon e a questora sarei qui a parlare di ben altro.
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