Ok. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to get through this book. I could blame being busy with work. Or that The Boyfriend and I have been doing a lot of summer outdoor things. Or all the insane tv that pops up over the summer (SO glad True Blood is back!) But the reality is that I was just not into The Russian Concubine.
It was just so…. Long. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not afraid of a long book. I made it thought (most of) Moby Dick and decided that I wanted to read Anna Karenina for my 25th birthday. The Russian Concubine though seems unnecessarily long. This is one of those epic sweeping stories with a large cast of characters and they each have their own individual plots that intersect and weave together. There are almost too many characters. Just when I would start to get interested in one story, it would switch to the next, and I never felt fully engaged with what was going on or cared very much what was happening to these people. Not to mention that none of these people are very likable.
On one side we have a bunch of European ex-pats settled in China refusing to embrace the culture and forcing their westerness on everything. And on the other side we have Chinese war lords only interested in their own gain. From the historical perspective, it’s an interesting view into what was going on in China between the wars. As a novel, the central story felt like another retelling of the star crossed culturally doomed lovers story that has been told a hundred times.
I don’t know. I feel at a loss as to what to say about this book. I guess that pretty much sums up my experience with it. I didn’t hate it. I just didn’t have any strong lasting feelings of enjoyment.
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