The Concubine's Children: Amazon.ca: Books

Product Description

Ingram

Chong tells the story of her grandmother, brought from China as a young concubine by a sojourner to the New World, of the man's wife and children left behind, and of the author's incredible discovery of those children six decades later. "Beautiful, haunting, and wise."--New York Times Book Review. Photos.

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.3 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reading!, Nov 4 2011

By

Louise Jolly "Bookaholic" (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Concubines Children (Paperback)

Story Description:

To me, China was what was left behind when the boat carrying my grandmother, pregnant with my mother, docked in Vancouver. China was the soil underfoot in the photograph of the two sisters who, as I thought then, would never meet the third, my mother. China was where you'd find yourself if you dug a hole deep enough to come out the other side of the Earth.

THE CONCUBINE'S CHILDREN is the story of a family cleaved in two for the sake of a father's dream. There's Chan Sam, who left an "at home" wife in China to earn a living in "Gold Mountain" North America. There's May-ying, the wilful, seventeen-year-old concubine he bought, sight unseen, who laboured in tea houses of west coast Chinatowns to support the family he would have in Canada, and the one he had in China. It was the concubine's third daughter, the author's mother, who unlocked the past for her daughter, whose curiosity about some old photographs ultimately reunited a family divided for most of the last century."

My Review:

This was an exceptional work of family history that was well researched and well written. The story was utterly amazing, gripping and held my attention from the first page on. It took a great deal of courage for Denise Chong to pen this fictional memoir of her family and she made the story come alive against the backdrop of two widely different countries. It had a narrative flow that captured the essence of the truth.

This was an intriguing journey that crossed all cultural boundaries. I'll be keeping this book as part of my permanent collection. Excellent!

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5.0 out of 5 stars True story of one man's plight. - *Spoiler Alert*, Jan 21 2011

By

Kay (B.C. Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Concubines Children Portrait Of A Family Divided (Paperback)

This book tells the true story of a Chinese immigrant named Chan Sam who lived in a small village in China, married and then eventually moved to America referred to as 'Gold Mountain'. He worked hard to make money so he could send it back to his wife and acquire more land in his village. He traditionally takes a concubine and marries another much younger Chinese girl who eventually bores him children. She moves to America too and works as a waitress in the Chinatowns in Vancouver and Nanaimo, B.C.
I really enjoyed this book...not only because the setting is local but you really get a sense of what life was like for many Chinese immigrants in the 1930's.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Captivating Read, Oct 25 2001

By

"fonz0r" (Windsor, VT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Concubine's Children (Paperback)

I may be a white, teenaged, american male, but I still can appreciate the value and hard work that went into this book.

This book was absolutely wonderful in that it covered the family history so well, leaving out very few details, even though it was all put together by word of mouth, letters and photographs!

This must have been an extremely difficult book to write for all parties involved, and for that the author and her relatives have my deepest respect.

This book is absolutely beautiful and represents Chinese culture very clearly and in an interesting manner. I would recommend this book to ANYBODY

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Page turner...
but I did find that I had a bit of a difficult time getting myself through this book, maybe because this story with the exception of a concubine, hits close to home. Read more

Published on Aug 3 2001 by Chynared21