Customer Reviews

THE RUSSIAN CONCUBINE

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Kate Furnivall has captured the Russian soul, the Chinese soul, the English soul and my own soul. I was torn between wanting to read it slowly so it would never end and wanting to finish it because of too much suspense. The characters are unforgettable. The history is researched and fascinating. Kate's own mother was a White Russian refugee in China so no wonder she had such an advantage in getting everything so authentic. One has to read this with reverence for the Chinese people. This is the first time I have ever really understood the motivations of the Chinese Communists.

I have never read a novel in which so much suffering could be intertwined with so much love, courage and joy. It wasn't only the suffering and joys of the main character, Lydia, but of all the characters which made it a joy to read. They were all complex characters and therefore came alive and believable at the skillful hands of this wonderful novelist.

Whether it is the opium trade or Sun Yet San or Chiang Kai Shek, Ms. Furnival gets it all just right.

Please let this be a best seller and let there be a sequel. I can't say goodbye to Chang and Lydia and Albert and the rest of them.

Here is a warning, but not a spoiler: It is full of surprises.

This book was -- although not perfect -- absolutely extraordinary. It was an ambitious effort to say the least: Chinese, English, and Russian history at one of the most tumultuous times in all of history all in one novel! What saves it is the relatively short time span covered.
There were times when the plot took some odd and awkward turns. Every once in a while I would find myself saying "Who is this character, where on earth did they come from, and why are they doing that??" Liev Popkov and the re-introduction of Tan-Wah are a couple of examples where the necessity of their presence to the plotline was not immediately clear. It was never very clear what Christopher Mason had over Theo Willoughby and how that translated into Opium trafficking either (surely there are other ways to save a school...), at least not until the end. The majority of the book cooked along at a good pace, and when it got a little boggy, I could generally go back and skim the last few pages and get back on track. The underlying theme of a girl growing into a woman in spite of her difficult circumstances is a universally understood one though, and artfully captured in this novel. The love story may be improbable, but it was beautiful. And who says a novel has to be completely probable?
Furnivall is a gifted writer. When she describes something that smells bad, feels good, is excruciatingly painful, or breathtakingly beautiful, you feel those things with all of your senses, to the core of your soul. I look forward to her future efforts.

When I first started The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall, I thought it had the potential to be a great book. By the end, I determined that it was a good book, but I don't think that Furnivall lived up to my expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed the historical aspects of The Russian Concubine, but felt that the plot and character development had some weaknesses.

The Russian Concubine opens with Valentina Ivanova and her daughter, Lydia, fleeing Russia during the revolution. They end up finding a home in the Russian Quarter of Junchow, China. Junchow (a fictional Tientsin), has a large international presence due to treaties between China and England. Valentina is a classically trained pianist, but can barely make enough to support herself and her daughter. As a teenager, Lydia resorts to stealing valuables and then fencing her loot to help pay the rent and put food on the table. At least Lydia has a scholarship to attend the Willoughby Academy. Both mother and daughter believe that Lydia's education will be their ticket out of China. Lydia meets up with Chang An Lo, a 19 year old member of China's growing Communist Party (the year is 1928). They eventually fall in love. It is dangerous to be a communist, and especially, for a foreigner to be associated with one. It is also unpopular for Chinese to be associated with foreigners, who are nicknamed Foreign Devils. But Lydia and Chang seem to have a psychic relationship that is usually associated with identical twins.

This is a fascinating time in Chinese history as Chiang Kai-shek and his armies are vying for control of the country, while the communists are also fighting for their cause. Both the Chinese and the foreigners consider the other uncivilized. Furnivall has a love of China, which shines through in The Russian Concubine. And English headmaster considers his love of China and its beauty: "It had stolen his heart...the sumptuous curve of a Ming vase, the upward sweep of a calligraphy brush, the hidden meanings of a watercolor of a man fishing, a vivid sun sinking behind a raft of sampans...These things filled his senses. Sometimes he couldn't breathe, his passion for them was so strong."

Unfortunately, I thought there were too many subplots in The Russian Concubine that didn't always add to the story. Also, I never bought into the love relationship between Lydia and Chang. In fact, there weren't a whole lot of characters that I ever grew to like.
And just when I reached the end of the 517 page book, Furnivall sets the reader up for a sequel. While I'm glad that I finished The Russian Concubine, if Furnivall does come out with a sequel, I not sure I'd be interested.

It's amazing, pure and simple. The Love story is masterfully done! The characters are strong and vibrant, and their relationship contains a touch of realism that draws you in and never lets you go.
I finished it and felt completed in a way I didn't know i was lacking.
I pray she writes a sequel, Im an avid reader and this book is surely one of the top 5 I have ever read.

I got through about half this book on the advice of a friend who had read it in her book club and am sad that I spent any time at all on it. Perhaps the book would successfully engage someone who doesn't know much about Sino-Soviet history, but those seeking a work of high quality historical fiction will be disappointed: Furnivall is indeed no Stephen Ambrose. I found the book to be basically a Russian Harlequin with random historical references and descriptions thrown in here and there. Moreover, the prose was, at best, simplistic and unsophisticated, not to mention silly. An example:

"He felt the loss of her from his side when she rose to her feet, kicked off her sandals, and waded into the shallows. A golden-headed duck, startled from its slumber in the reeds, paddled off downstream as fast as if a stoat were on its tail, but she scarcely seemed to notice, her hands busy splashing cold water over the hem of her dress. It was a shapeless garment, washed too many times, and for the first time he saw the blood on it. His blood. Entwined in the fibers of her clothes. In the fibers of her. As she was entwined in the fibers of him."

I wish Furnivall all the best, but all the same was happy to delete this book off of my Kindle.

I didn't buy this off of Amazon...I went and bought it at a local bookstore. At first it didn't sound intresting, (sometimes the back of books really ruin the story for me) so I read the first chapter and was automatically hooked. I was reading it in line while I was waiting to pay for it. It is very hard to put down, with its compelling characters and fluid moving storyline. Kate Furnivall was able to put together an outstanding book that had surpises around every corner.

Lydia Ivanova is a bi-racial 15 year old woman struggling with poverty in the Russian quarter of Junchow in the late 1920's. When she was a young child her mother, Valentina, fled from Russia just after the fall of the Romanovs avoiding capture even though the Bolshevik soldiers took her husband, a Danish man named Jens Friis. Valentina managed to convince the soldiers to allow her entry into China with Lydia but for the last decade she has been known as a white Russian refugee and forced to live in squalor because of this. The result of her mother's status and alcoholism is that Lydia has to steal to provide while Valentina relies on the kindness of men to provide for her and her daughter. On one of her excursions Lydia meets a young Chinese man with familiar eyes who saves her from a snake with martial arts. He makes an impression on her that she carries for some time.

After some time Lydia meets the young man again. His name is Chang An Lo, and he is one of the secret communist faction that is trying to undermine Chiang Kai-shek's regime, but prominent drug cartels, criminal gangs, and Kuomintang troops are both working against him and his friends. Lydia becomes involved with him and his cause emotionally and finds herself yearning for him when he is not around, particularly when he disappears for several months. She endeavors to find him, hoping that he is still alive, because he has become so much a part of her.

This historical fiction based on Furnivall's mother's life as a white Russian refugee in China blew me away. It was such an enjoyable read I devoured more than half of it in a single sitting. Of course it largely is a romance story between Lydia and Chang An Lo, however the romance is not cheesy and largely does not come into play until later in the book. For a the whole build up to the romantic climax I was hoping it wouldn't turn pedestrian or over emphasized and I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't. My only gripe is that she felt like she left open the ending for a possible sequel, and I didn't feel as if the story needed furthering. I would have been much happier if she had not opened up that ending. Overall though Furnivall is definitely a great narrative voice and I will be reading her again in the future.

This was a big disappointment - characters and plot so weak. Usually Amazon gets it right but 4 stars this is not. I am a huge reader and historical fiction is my favorite. I suffered through all 500 pages and insisted on writing a review so others don't do that.

I bought this book because of the book's back cover synopsis and especially because Diane Gabaldon wrote a good review of it. I love Diane Gabaldon's Outlander Series with Jamie and Claire. All of them are on my list of well written books too.

I basically bought this book because I thought it was a love story. It definitely is but the first half of the book is spent introducing all the important characters and describing their personalities and also describing the surroundings where the story takes place - the social and political climate in 1920's China. This is all very important to the development of the book's plot. The love story begins in the last half of the book. I have to admit that I really started to get irritated because I WANTED A LOVE STORY from beginning to end. But it was well worth the wait. Lydia and An Lo's story had me laughing and at the same time crying. Kate Furnivall gives the two main characters in her book depth, intelligence and a good reason to fall in love!!

If she doesn't continue this love story that will be okay because we can just leave it up to our imagine. However, I do hope she writes a second book because I love her writing!!!!!!!

The only reason why I give her four stars and not five is because Lydia and An Lo's story didn't start soon enough.

I absolutely adored this book from start to finish and found it to be an unexpectedly terrific read. Ms. Furnivall truly captured the essence of what it must have been like living in the International Settllement in pre-revolutionary China...the sights, smells, dangers, characters, customs, etc were so impeccibly deteailed that it was impossible not to get swept up into the world of Lydia, the precocious Russian protagonist. The culture-clashes and traditions of the various groups of people depicted in this novel- British, Russian and Chinese- are truly fascinating and there are plot twists and turns throughout the novel to keep it interesting.

One of my favorite aspects of the book was the way in which the author didn't tell the reader every single piece of the story. Too often, I find writers in this genre feel the need to spell out every single detail, which doesn't allow the reader to interpret a scene or sitation for him/herself. This book was brilliantly written and would make a great book club choice...I highly recommend it!