- Hardcover: 433 pages
- Publisher: Delacorte Press (Jan 1 1992)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 038530529X
- ISBN-13: 978-0385305297
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 771 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,994,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Adler follows up Peach and The Rich Shall Inherit with another glitzy roller-coaster saga. Using standard rags-to-riches ingredients, she gives us a trio of Cinderellas who suffer and survive their way to fortune, romance and a predictable happy ending. Set in turn-of-the-century San Francisco and Hong Kong, the novel tells the stories of lifelong friends Francie Harrison and Annie Aysgarth and of Francie's daughter Lysandra. All three are saintly women who've been hideously mistreated by the men in their lives. Indeed, virtually every male in this novel is either a brutal monster or a weakling. Fortunately, the misused heroines all fall under the benevolent influence of a mysterious Chinese mandarin, Lai Tsin; Francie, indeed, becomes his concubine. He guides them through their troubles and bequeaths them a legacy of worldly and philosophical riches. Though Adler's historical setting is appealing, the characters are stereotypes, drawn with no shades of gray, and they never come to life. The narrative drags where the author resorts to showing, not telling, and much of the plot hangs on bizarre coincidence. BOMC featured alternate.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Opium dream for shopgirls, without a pinch of grit in its 448 pages; by the author of such glitzy joys as The Property of a Lady (1990) and The Rich Shall Inherit (1989). Plot hippity-hops back and forth over a century of ties between San Francisco and Hong Kong, beginning in 1937 when mandarin Lai Tsin--San Francisco's ``most mysterious, most notorious, and richest man,'' and ``grandfather'' of Lysandra Lai Tsin, who is the illegitimate daughter of Francie Harrison--dies and leaves baby Lysandra a personal fortune of $300 million (in pre-WW II dollars), plus ownership (as taipan) of Lai Tsin Corporation, a trading company worth $900 million and based in Hong Kong. Which is nice--taxwise--for six-year-old Lysandra. Francesca, her mother, is named head of the company until Lysandra turns 18. At this time, in 1937, Francie's best friend is ex-Yorkshirewoman Annie Aysgarth, who has risen from poverty and is now president of Aysgarth Hotels International, a subsidiary of Lai Tsin Corp. Francie and Annie met during the San Francisco earthquake, during which Annie's lost brother Josh died--but not before impregnating Francie with Oliver. In 1906, Francie and Annie brought the poor coolie-gambler Lai Tsin great luck at poker, and he repays by taking them into his new and vastly expanding import-export business. Later, Francie has Lysandra out of wedlock with Buck Wingate, a three-time senator from California whose imperially snobbish wife Maryanne thinks he should run for president. However, Francie's horrible brother Harry, a distraught multimillionaire caught in the Depression, has the hots for Maryanne, who kills him when he starts to rape her, which leads to Buck and Francie's affair being exposed and Buck resigning his office. Then Lysandra comes of age and we discover Lai Tsin's deepest secret, that he's actually.... Never touches earth for a second. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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First Sentence
Tuesday, October 3rd Annie Aysgarth was a small, plump woman with large, expressive brown eyes, shiny conker-brown hair cut in a fashionable bob, and a permanent furrow between her brows. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Tuesday, October 3rd Annie Aysgarth was a small, plump woman with large, expressive brown eyes, shiny conker-brown hair cut in a fashionable bob, and a permanent furrow between her brows. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fortunate find :),
By
This review is from: Fortune Is a Woman (Mass Market Paperback)
I love this book. The secret of Lai Tsin, and the well-written characters of Francie, Annie, Lai Tsin, Lysandra and the rest make this book one of my favourites. You find yourself being drawn into the lives of each character, and into the history and growth of the Lai Tsin corporation. See my in depth review at [...]
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best book I've ever read in my life,
By A Customer
This review is from: Fortune Is a Woman (Mass Market Paperback)
I've read so... many books in different languages , but this book was something else. Awsome .
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fortunate is the READER,
This review is from: Fortune Is a Woman (Mass Market Paperback)
This is absolutely the BEST novel I've ever read! Further proof is the woman I saw in the check-out line of the office supply store who was so engrossed that she was reading it IN LINE! A MUST-READ!!!
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