Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I too am an Amy Tan fan and I too am very disappointed by this tediously long book. As I trudged through it, I kept wondering if Ms Tan had begun it before she hit her stride as a writer. It is romance novel, with all of the swooning and silly rescues and ill fated silliness of that genre. I wanted to smack Violet frequently, especially when she lost Little Flora and then hardly bothered to mention her lost child again. When things seemed to finally be winding up with Violet climbing that mysterious mountain (which, sorry to say, seemed like an incredibly contrived device that I never could quite understand), the blasted book didn't end but started a whole new episode of the boring Lucia and her love nest in the turret and her over wrought reaction to the painting of that other contrived device, The Valley of Amazement. I am so sorry that I disliked this endless book so much and that I finally gave up about the time Lucia was traveling to Shanghai. I simply couldn't read any more and I suggest you skip this one altogether and hope for something better next time from this usually wonderful author.