The Interior

Rating:
Summary: A Story you might not want to know....
Review: and a very entertaining mystery from one America's most important young writers.

Lisa See writes books thinking people like to read...and follows an important tradition for American Women Genre writers, writing books about something which fits into a style which allows the reader to actually learn something.

The lives of Chinese women who make the toys which entertain your children do matter. And See has created a thriller which takes us inside the new China and shows how close it really is to us....

Rating:
Summary: A fun and interesting thriller
Review: As a reader of detective fiction and sometimes thrillers, I found The Interior a very pleasant surprise. I read about it in the paper, so I thought I'd pick it up. I read a lot of books with female protagonists (Sue Grafton, etc.), and I really enjoyed the character of Liu Hulan. It brings a whole new twist to the female lead when the character is Chinese. There are so many cultural hurdles that Hulan has to jump just to do her job (as a Chinese police detective), not to mention to keep her relationship with American attorney David Stark intact. I felt like I really learned a lot about China and its culture, while also reading a good mystery/thiller. I highly recommend The Interior.

Rating:
Summary: THE INTERIOR--Fabulous FLOWER NET Follow-up
Review: Being the author of mysteries with multicultural backdrops, I am a great admirer of Lisa See's works. In FLOWER NET, she staked out her territory with a spectacular novel. In THE INTERIOR, Ms. See solidifies her claim to her territory. In THE INTERIOR, a few months have gone by since the events in FLOWER NET. Liu Hulan is sent to a village where an American toy manufacturer runs a sweat shop. Hulan is given the task of investigating a woman's death. David Stark arrives in Beijing to head up his law firm's office. His first task is the acquisition of you can probalby guess what manufacturing operation. THE INTERIOR is a top-notch mystery with a solid plot. It also features Hulan and David, with their strong personalities and individual interests/desires. It is a fascinating book about a fascinating place. Another winner for Ms. See.

Rating:
Summary: THE INTERIOR--Fabulous FLOWER NET Follow-up
Review: Being the author of mysteries with multicultural backdrops, I am a great admirer of Lisa See's works. In FLOWER NET, she staked out her territory with a spectacular novel. In THE INTERIOR, Ms. See solidifies her claim to her territory. In THE INTERIOR, a few months have gone by since the events in FLOWER NET. Liu Hulan is sent to a village where an American toy manufacturer runs a sweat shop. Hulan is given the task of investigating a woman's death. David Stark arrives in Beijing to head up his law firm's office. His first task is the acquisition of you can probalby guess what manufacturing operation. THE INTERIOR is a top-notch mystery with a solid plot. It also features Hulan and David, with their strong personalities and individual interests/desires. It is a fascinating book about a fascinating place. Another winner for Ms. See.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable read
Review: Having been to China for the first time several years ago, I found this novel enjoyable. See's description of Chinese culture jives with what I experienced in meetings with officials and businessmen. As an Asian-American curious about such things, I find her explanations of Chinese culture helpful. In the end, though, it's just a good read. I'll look for her other books.

Rating:
Summary: The Interior is a penetrating novel
Review: I finished The Interior several days ago and have had time to absorb it. I consider it a better than normal, if not perfect, commercial novel. The main character, Lui Hulan, is well-developed and a great example of verisimilitude in writing. Though she is under forty, her life story is a chronicle of changes in both her personality and in China. I found David Stark, her lover and partner in crime-solving, a less convincing character. Someone who has been a criminal lawyer in a major American city should be more familiar with the duplicity of human nature than Stark is. Another possible failing is See's depiction of one of the villian's, who shall remain unnamed. If the character is insane, that needs to be clearer. If he is just evil and greedy, that should have been the focus. As it is, his motivation is much too unclear.

Those criticisms aside, the novel reasonates realism in its depiction of the secondary characters and their motiviations, dreams and desires. From a friend whose greatest goal is to reap a good crop from her small farm to another Chinese woman who aspires to increase her wealth by any means possible, See does an excelent job of developing the characters who are outwardly similar, yet quite different as persons. Her description of urban/rural contrasts is also praiseworthy, as other reviewers have noted.

Who am I to be reviewing this book? An avid reader -- usually of literary fiction. A former journalist, like See, who was impressed with her debut book -- a biography of her Chinese-American family. Another writer and chronicler of cross-cultural ties, who knows what the challenges are in attempting the kind of book See has written.

J.G.

Rating:
Summary: The Interior is a penetrating novel
Review: I finished The Interior several days ago and have had time to absorb it. I consider it a better than normal, if not perfect, commercial novel. The main character, Lui Hulan, is well-developed and a great example of verisimilitude in writing. Though she is under forty, her life story is a chronicle of changes in both her personality and in China. I found David Stark, her lover and partner in crime-solving, a less convincing character. Someone who has been a criminal lawyer in a major American city should be more familiar with the duplicity of human nature than Stark is. Another possible failing is See's depiction of one of the villian's, who shall remain unnamed. If the character is insane, that needs to be clearer. If he is just evil and greedy, that should have been the focus. As it is, his motivation is much too unclear.

Those criticisms aside, the novel reasonates realism in its depiction of the secondary characters and their motiviations, dreams and desires. From a friend whose greatest goal is to reap a good crop from her small farm to another Chinese woman who aspires to increase her wealth by any means possible, See does an excelent job of developing the characters who are outwardly similar, yet quite different as persons. Her description of urban/rural contrasts is also praiseworthy, as other reviewers have noted.

Who am I to be reviewing this book? An avid reader -- usually of literary fiction. A former journalist, like See, who was impressed with her debut book -- a biography of her Chinese-American family. Another writer and chronicler of cross-cultural ties, who knows what the challenges are in attempting the kind of book See has written.

J.G.

Rating:
Summary: Wish I could choose NO star
Review: I have what my wife considers a real problem - I have to finish every book I start reading. Over my lifetime I've probably read 50 books that I should have given up on halfway into the first chapter. In the past few years I've made a conscious effort to pay attention to the signs and quit reading. Most of the time I will speed read through to the end to find out what happened.

'The Interior' is really a breakthrough for me. I quit reading it less than one third of the way into it and couldn't care less how it turned out.

The plot? huh?

The characters? huh?

huh?

At least I didn't pay for it - I checked it out from the library and made a note in pencil on the page opposite the front flap, "this book stinks."

Rating:
Summary: Dull and unbelievable
Review: I was really disappointed. Just when I was hoping for a good escapist read, I had the misfortune to pickup this poorly done nonsense. The author should not attempt fiction again, as she has no grasp on proper plotting or creating characters that have more dimensions that one.

Rating:
Summary: Not for me (a fan of Patterson, Grafton, Connelly, & Deaver)
Review: I'm writing this review after reading about 1/4 of the book, The Interior by Lisa See. I have not read her previous books, but her explanations of the characters and their past make it easy enough to follow without that background. At this point, I'm stuck between skimming through the rest of the book to see if it gets better and just giving up on it altogether.

I find the characters, even minor characters, too thoroughly explained. Paragraph after paragraph explains the settings, the people, the impressions you should have of the people. There's not enough "thriller" in the plot to hold me. Also, much of the major plot elements are over-emphasized. It makes me feel as though she is trying too hard to lead the reader one way, probably in the hopes of then achieving a surprise ending. However, the only surprise for me is whether or not I'll decide to read the rest of it.