A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar
This book was interesting from the standpoint of life in Turkistan in the 1920's. The unrest was very realistically described as were the desert scenes. The main characters were strong women with stong survival skills. I would not recommend this as reading for any of my three book clubs as I felt all the characters could have been better developed. I felt I learned more about the places than the people.
Rated of 5
by Marjorie (Florida)
Intimately real and hauntingly shocking.
Vulgar and blunt, yet achingly rhymatic in a harmonious prose that seeps into your conscienceness. The text challenges your preconceptions of the literary world but dares you to connect to the stark harshness of the locale. A foreign world that blinks through your mind, flirting with your imagination, such as a film reel spun out of control. The brutal observations are written in such a lush descriptive narrative that words congeal together nearly at too fast of a pace. There is a disconnection in dichotomy between the lives of the protagonists and the interplay of the native land.
Five women, four of the past, one of the present, set off on a journey that none of them signed up to partake in. They are cast into an impossible sequence of circumstances that lead three of them to a journey towards personal enlightenment. It is these women who stand out to the unsuspecting reader as the main voices of the evolving story: Evangeline, Ai-Lien, and Frieda. You become a purveyor of their thoughts and emotions as one might discover whilst digging through a personal diary. Intimately real and hauntingly shocking. Their fragility and frailties split open and raw on the printed page.
Rated of 5
by Elaine G. (West Lafayette, IN)
A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar
There are quite fine passages mixed in with others that did not measure up. She shows sensitive insights to those from vastly different cultures. With maturity there is almost a certainty she will become a fine, creative writer. The negatives will not prevent reading every page.
Rated of 5
by Pat M. (San Antonio, TX)
A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar
I started to read this book the first day it arrived. Halfway through it, I had no idea where I was with the characters and their relationship to one another and with the past and the present. So I started to read again from the beginning and I began to focus on the story and the possibilities of how the characters were interrelated. I guess this is the reason that I stayed with the book. Would I recommend this book to my book club, I don't think so. This book needs to go back to the drawing board. The premise is good, but it is poorly developed and it leaves many questions unanswered.
Rated of 5
by Hilary H. (Tucson, AZ)
Lady Cyclist's Guide
Overall, I enjoyed this book though I would not put it into the same category as Major Pettigrew's Last Stand which I loved. Suzanne Joinson has created two interestingly interconnected stories stretching from 1923 in Kashgar to present day London. Both tales were engaging though I liked the present day one better. I think Joinson could have developed the Kashgar tale more fully - I did not engage with all of the characters. I also would have liked to have the map which was not in the ARC edition.
Rated of 5
by Jan B. (Tetonia, ID)
A LAdy Cyclist's guide to Kashgar
I love the idea of what the writer was creating with this story. Three women who leave London to become missionaries in Kashgar. Each of them with their own "agenda" as to why they were really going. I found some characters not very well developed, and the writing fairly bland, especially in the earlier part of the book. I also felt that the description of the different cultures were not fully realized, though the emotional intent was. It felt like this story is still in rough form, though with great potential if fleshed out more. I do like the counter story of modern day London, and the woman who gets left this estate with no idea of the connection to her. And the growing romance between the modern protagonist and an immigrant from Yemen was to me a delightful set of circumstance that unknowingly reverberated with her families past. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. It feels undone.
Rated of 5
by Andrea S. (Lafayette, IN)
Not What I Thought
I read the description of this book and thought I might find it interesting. Upon reading it, I found it to be slow and uninteresting. It is what I would call literary fiction, a genre I don't always enjoy. The plot was interesting, but Suzanne Joinson's writing style slowed it down and I would often just want her to get on with it. I did finish the book, but I was never really involved with the characters. I just wanted to see how she would end it.
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of 5
by Elinor S. (Loudonville, NY)
of 5
by Elaine G. (West Lafayette, IN)
