The Interior

Like the Flower Net The Interior was bogged down with so many details it became tedious. I love stories about China and that is why I read it but Ms See puts so much detail in her stories it makes me want to skip sections of it. Apparently I’m the only one who feels this way.

I first read Lisa See's Flower Net and couldn't wait until I read The Interior. Both books are beautifully and complexly plotted with betrayals that one does not see coming but, when they come, seem just right. The complexity of Chinese society, so much that is so positive yet also so much that seems enignmatic and/or corrupt to a Westerner, is conveyed beautifully by having both an American and a Chinese protagonist. The first book dealt with the drug trade (but not a conventional one), the second with entrepreneurial corruption and avarice, as well as with love in a variety of forms. See does not focus just on Beijing but on the countryside, not just on the role of the investigator but also that of the factory worker, not just on those who are prominent in Chinese society but on those who are poor and often exploited, not just on the situation of women but also of men, and, lastly, not just on those who are professionals today but on those who lived during the Cultural Revolution. Both books are long, but I wanted neither to come to an end. Now I look forward to Dragon Bones!

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.

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....

The previous reviewer doesn't seem to have actually read The Interior -- at least not the same book I did. I was struck from the beginning of this book by just how different it is from your average thriller. Just the information about what life is like in rural China was enough to keep me reading -- it seems like See has done a lot of research on the subject (either that or she has a great imagination...) In any case, I felt that she used this very specific local, and lifestyle as a jumping off point for what turned out to be a great story as well. I just love the character of Liu Hulan -- she's new new twist on the detective fiction heroine -- and her relationship with David Stark is one we can all identify with in this global village we live in. How can people from two such different backrounds make a relationship work? This book is much more than a thriller - it's a rich and complex novel.