Water Ghosts: A Novel [Paperback]

Shawna Yang Ryan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 27, 2010

A mesmerizing debut novel that weaves history and mythology around a community of Chinese immigrants and the ghosts that haunt them

Locke, California, 1928. Three bedraggled Chinese women appear out of the mist in a small Chinese farming town on the Sacramento River. Two are unknown to its residents, while the third is the long-lost wife of Richard Fong, the handsome manager of the local gambling parlor. As the lives of the townspeople become inextricably intertwined with the newly arrived women, their frightening power is finally revealed.

A lyrical imagining of what happens when a Chinese ghost story comes true, Water Ghosts is a rich tale of human passions and mingling cultures that will appeal to readers of Lisa See, Anchin Min, and Gail Tsukiyama.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A dreamlike haze shimmers over Ryan's debut, the tale of a real-life immigrants' enclave in early 20th-century California. In the mining town of Locke outside Sacramento, Richard Fong's Lucky Fortune casino and Poppy See's brothel provide the only entertainment for Chinese workers sending their wages back to the families they can't bring into the country. For Chloe, a white prostitute who is Richard's favorite, it's also a place to hide from her family just a few towns over. Mired in the past, the town's residents are jolted into the present when three strange Chinese women, including Richard's long-lost wife, arrive during the Dragon Boat Festival looking for their husbands. After years of her absence, Richard struggles to adapt his bachelor lifestyle to accommodate a woman who has become a stranger to him, and Chloe dreams of starting over somewhere new when Richard abandons her bed. Ryan's fluid flashbacks allow the past to sweep over the collective population of Locke, and her elegant female protagonists manage to exercise their own agency even when they're hemmed in by life in Locke. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

On a foggy morning in 1928, the arrival of a boat carrying three women upsets the equilibrium of Locke, a small California community created by Chinese immigrants in which the minister’s wife is the only white women not a prostitute. No life is more altered than that of Richard Fong, manager of the Lucky Fortune Gambling Hall, who left his wife, Ming Wai, in China 10 years earlier to make his fortune in America and has yet to return to see her. One of many men in Locke without a woman, he consorted first with brothel operator and seer Madame Poppy See, then with one of her younger girls—until he finds that a worn Ming Wai is one of the women in the boat. Poppy, who still loves Richard and is disturbed by the arrival of the women, must determine whether her concerns are dreams fueled by jealousy or premonitions of danger. Ryan explores love, desire, loss, and betrayal as she combines history and myth in lyrical prose that is both delicate and sensuous. An accomplished and affecting first novel. --Michele Leber --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Reprint edition (July 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143117270
• ISBN-13: 978-0143117278
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #883,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Water Ghosts--Who Knew?, June 6, 2007

By 

PHoenix (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Locke 1928 (Paperback)

Having just put this book down, I am still slack-jawed at the richness of Ms. Ryan's descriptions. Her characters can almost be felt with my own hands. I can most certainly smell them, hear their voices whispering in my ear...
I knew nothing of this time and place before I read this book and I now feel like I have a deep understanding of yet another story of how our country was built on the backs of immigrants. (Reference to the brothel workers not intended but makes for an interesting pun I now see...)

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Locke This One Up And Throw Away The Key, July 7, 2009

By 

Tara (Utah) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Locke 1928 (Paperback)

I purchased this book hoping to get a good feel on life in 1920s California and early immigration. What I got was a 1920s love triangle with a lone man at the core that is a very unlikeable guy. You have Robert, a Chinese immigrant that has left his wife in China for the last ten years and takes up with one prostitute after another. Poppy, a former prostitute that pimps out younger women, is madly in love with Robert. However, Robert is enamored with yet another prostitute named Chloe. BUT Chloe is in love with another girl, the preacher's daughter. Meanwhile, Robert's wife shows up on a boat with two other strange women and she loves Robert! Utterly ridiculous story plot and absolutely none of the characters are appealing nor does any of them make you want to read further to find out what happens to them.

Do not be fooled by the attractive cover. There is nothing attractive about the plot or characters.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A watery look at a Chinese town in California, August 24, 2010

By 

S. Smith-Peter (Staten Island, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Water Ghosts: A Novel (Hardcover)

This book has been quite controversial in the reviews, and I can see why. The author deals with race, class, gender and sexual orientation in this story of the manager of a gambling hall, the prostitute he frequents (and abuses), the minister's daughter she's in love with, the minister's wife and her suicidal thoughts and three mysterious Chinese women who come to town in a small boat. It's true that not all the characters are especially likable, but they all are well drawn and their interactions are believable and telling. This book would be especially good for a class on American fiction engaging in these kinds of issues.