WHITE LOTUS: Amazon.ca: John Hersey: Books

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7 Reviews

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4.4 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars Heavy-handed, Jun 21 2004

By

Goshen (Ypsilanti, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Lotus (Hardcover)

This book is so concerned about making its moral point and drawing historical parallels that all genuine emotional truth is missing. The main character isn't particularly compelling or likeable: just a typical strong and flawless victim/activist (who is a young and attractive female, of course). Nothing in this book touched me emotionally at all; it's just melodrama. I love how in the first chapter a sister to the main character is mentioned once, then completely forgotten about. This is typical; the novel's people all just seem to be placeholders being used to work out the author's intellectual exercise. After reading the other reviews here, I was expecting much better!

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4.0 out of 5 stars Contemplations on (White) Slavery, Oct 6 2002

By

Harry C. Peters (Winnipeg, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Lotus (Hardcover)

As the book 1984 illustrates, a plausible but fictional vision of the future can be a powerful stage on which a great writer can explore human adaptation and adapibility to hitherto unconsidered circumstances. Orwell explored technology's effect in the political arena. Hersey invents a world where white Americans are captured in Arizona, not so secretly transported to China, and enslaved there; this can happen because America lost World War II, or maybe the Vietnam War. A weakness of Hersey is a lack of convincing evidence this would ever happen, but this premise is not the focus of work. Its much less science fiction and more the journal of a female slave through a succession of masters and mates. The latter two add another view to the subject of slavery (cruel master;escape from slavery;religions role in justifying it; servant/slave etiquette; drunken lover;passing for yellow etc.) Often White Lotus' experiences resonate with the history of slavery in the New World: the Underground Railway exists in this work of fiction too. I enjoyed most Hersey's invention of the sleeping bird tactic to shame the yellow to treat the whites decently, and assume its a reference to the sucess of Gandhi's method of non-violence opposition.I agree that Hersey makes White Lotus a convincing character and I plan to read more of his novels.

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5.0 out of 5 stars This one will make you think..., July 22 2002

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Cinda M. "fromtheback40" (the back 40) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Lotus (Hardcover)

I first encountered this book in college, which is (presumably) a radical time in anyone's life. As a student of anthropology, I was being confronted with a number of issues, and this book pretty much served as the wrecking ball which finally destroyed my old opinions regarding race and gender in any given society--and thank heavens for that! This book made me laugh and cry and, most importantly, think. I know it made me a more conscious member of society, and maybe that's what the author set out to do, in addition to simply telling an incredibly gripping tale. In any case, this one is more than worth the effort it takes to track it down. In any age, this one is a classic.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Read several times
I first read White Lotus when I was in high school (and that's been awhile). I have read this book three times and would read it again. Read more

Published on May 22 2000 by Aleda Louise Dethloff

5.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing
This is absolutely the best fictional work about slavery and emancipation I have ever read--eat your heart out, Toni Morrison. Read more

Published on Dec 29 1999