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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....
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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Summary: Poorly written book thinly disguised as a thriller .........
Review: It is best not to believe everything you read - for instance international thriller this book is most certainly not as put forward by an editorial review. See has a very long way to go before she can even remotely be compared to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as yet another editorial review so unbelievably claimed. This book had poor characterisations with unquestionable plots, there were too many loose ends, the story too pat - in fact a really dreadful book. I did not remotely enjoy anything about this book - it is a poor excuse for a thriller and I do not recommend it. Give this one a miss.
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Summary: Weak, but here's an idea . . .
Review: Lisa See's family memoir "On Gold Mountain" was terrific, which is probably why I'm so angry at "The Interior" and its predecessor, "The Flower Net." The stilted dialogue and clunky, improbable plot rendered "The Flower Net" unreadable, and while "The Interior" has many of the same problems, it also has the seeds of what could be a really interesting book. In "The Interior," heroine Lin Hulan goes undercover on an assembly line in a factory producing goods for a U.S. company. There, See almost seems relieved to be able to abandon the pretense of writing an international thriller and puts herself into the heads of regular people trying to walk the survival tightrope in a changing China. This is good stuff. See writes with confidence, and very quickly creates characters the reader can care about. Once the book goes back to its international-business-conspiracy plot, it becomes frenetic and indicative. Lisa See obviously has great feeling for China and its people. Why doesn't she drop this thriller thing and write a novel about China, focusing entirely on Chinese characters? That would be worth reading.
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Summary: Fascinating
Review: This book is as fascinating as Flower Net. I thank Lisa See for presenting China in a way that I would never have imagined it. The mystery is good and there's nothing outrageous about it like so many mystery novels. All in all a wonderful read. Ignore the bad reviews and "see" for yourself!
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Summary: Brilliant, complicated and original
Review: This book is clearly not for the simple minded. Brilliant, complicated and original - if you like mysteries (and like to think) The Interior is the book for you. Following in the steps of Pearl S. Buck, Lisa See has once again proven herself to be one of America's top writers.
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Summary: Lisa See-Defining The Cross Cultural Heroin.
Review: With the publication of The interior, Lisa See shows her staying power and ability to build an existing character in the personality of Liu Hulan, a detective in Communist China's Ministry of Public Security. See uses her considerable knowledge about Chinese life in China to ad depth to her characters and a tangible landscape within to unfold a complex tale of cross cultural international intrigue. If you are interested in straight forward characters, and a clear idea of who the good guys and bad guys are, then maybe this novel is not for you. But if you are hungry for complex characters operating in difficult cultural and political circumstances, then this book is highly recommended. I believe we will see more of See, and it will not be on anyone elses coat tales. The interior shows an increased level of maturity and focus in her writing which I am sure will continue to grow with her characters and novels.
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