Water Ghosts: A Novel [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Shawna Yang Ryan (Author), Laural Merlington (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 2009

Locke, California, 1928. Three bedraggled Chinese women suddenly appear out of the mist one afternoon in a small Chinese farming town on the Sacramento River, and their arrival throws the community into confusion. Two of the women are unknown to the townspeople, while the third is the long-lost wife of Richard Fong, the handsome manager of the local gambling parlor, who had left her behind in China many years earlier and had not yet returned for her.Richard's wife's unexpected arrival complicates his life in no small way-not least with two prostitutes at the local brothel he frequents. One, the beautiful young Chloe, depends on him but has eyes for someone else, someone even more forbidden: the local preacher's daughter. The other, Poppy, the psychic madam of the brothel, is desperately in love with Richard, and she begins to sink into despair as he grows further and further away from her.As the lives of the townspeople become inextricably intertwined with the newly arrived women, Poppy's premonitions begin to foretell a deep unhappiness for all involved. And when a flood threatens the livelihood of the entire town, the frightening power of these mysterious women who arrived in the mist will be revealed.

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

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged,MP3 - Unabridged CD edition (May 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400161851
• ISBN-13: 978-1400161850
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.6 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: #1,376,717 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

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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.

11 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do Your Research!!, July 20, 2009

By 

C. Fong (Upland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

I wanted this book to be an enjoyable story about Locke in 1928, but I found instead a poorly researched novel with a bad plot. There is no sense of place and no local color, just a turgid plot. Don't waste your money! If you want to read this book get it from your library.
I don't know where Ms Ryan got her information for this book although she acknowledged some of Locke's longtime residents who "warmly welcomed" her to their town. I personally know most of those whose names she cited, and I do not believe that the author interviewed them for this book. She may have talked to them and gotten some tidbits of their stories, but this work of historical fiction is historically inaccurate. I spent my first 18 years in this town, and so I know its physical layout as well as anyone would know his or her hometown. Ms Ryan's descriptions of the locales do not jibe with the lay of the town. It is bounded by the Sacramento River on the west and the slough on the east and consists of just a few streets and several alleyways. How can she spend a month in this town doing research and not get it right?
I was also dismayed that the main character is a sleazy manager of a gambling parlor and the plot consists of his complicated relations with 2 prostitutes and the unexpected arrival of his wife. The morose prose is overblown, the plot has nothing to recommend it. The town of Locke was a happening place in the 1920s, but we sure don't see it in this book. It remains the only town in the U.S. founded and settled by the Chinese. There is no discussion of how the people made their livelihood, or indeed why it was necessary for them to settle there, aside from the fire that is mentioned in the last two paragraphs on page 2. Surely the author could have given some back story. Why did the she choose this town for her story if she respects its history so little? It would be infinitely better had she simply made up a location than to give readers a false impression of the Sacramento Delta and the Chinese who settled in this agricultural region.

Update:
How gratified Ms Ryan must feel to have such ardent defenders of her writing. Within 2 days of my posting this critical opinion of her book there were 3 comments criticizing my post. I acknowledge that I am perhaps too close to the subject to be entirely objective about this book. I wonder how many descendents of Locke's original settlers have picked up this book and read it, and how many of them enjoyed the story? It is obvious to me that Ms Ryan did not write the book for those of us who have sunny memories of their idyllic childhood growing up in Locke.
I think about our great-grandparents and grandparents who lived in 1928 Locke, and I cannot reconcile what is depicted in this novel with their actions and aspirations. Their greatest hope was that their children and future generations would continue to honor their cultural roots and yet succeed in their efforts in life while they had to face discrimination on all sides. The public schools were not integrated in the area until the late 1940s; a Chinese language school was established that children attended after getting home from public school. Most of the residents worked hard and maintained the Chinese ethos while pursuing the American Dream.
I picked up this book thinking that it would refresh some of the memories of the colorful stories I heard in childhood of opium dens, prostitutes, and gambling houses. Sadly, I would describe the book to be "arty", not "artful". I find the writing to be vague and the characters to possess no redeeming qualities. The plot and characters simply do not ring true. But again, I may be too close to the subject and so must decry the book's shattering of illusions still so closely held.
This book purports to be historical fiction. Its original title was Locke 1928. With such a title wouldn't you expect at the very least that the geographical descriptions be accurate? I could not recognize the town of Locke as it is described in the book. But Ms Ryan wrote this book for a much wider audience who would appreciate it for its "dreamlike haze" and "magical writing", and if that is what readers want, why, then go for it. It can be had for a paltry amount (like new!) at Amazon's used bookstore, but I still recommend that you get it from your local library.