Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven

I cannot even tell you how absorbed I got in this book ... how difficult it was to tear myself away to prepare dinner or get my son from the bus stop. This is simply the most fascinating, compelling, intense travel memoir I've ever read. It has everything you look for in a travel memoir: exotic locales, excellent writing, insight and a compelling narrative. Let's take a look at these elements one by one.EXOTIC LOCALESIn 1986, Gilman and her college friend Claire embarked on an "around the world" backpacking trip that starts in China, which (as Gilman puts it) "had been open to independent backpackers for roughly ten minutes." This is a very Communist China that, at the time, was not yet very modernized. It is also, as Gilman finds out on a return visit 20 years later, a China that no longer exists. Gilman's account of the difficulty of travel, the incredible bureaucracy, the food, the sights, and the people (often generous to a fault) brings to life a country and a culture that may be a mystery to many Westerners.EXCELLENT WRITINGGilman has a sharp wit and a way with words that make this book--which is, at times, as harrowing as any thriller--a pleasure to read. Her self-depreciating and wicked sense of humor grounds the book, and her creative use of metaphors delighted me time and time again. Consider this self-description:"Most of my time at Brown, I'd felt like geometry: a collection of unlovely, isolated parts that needed to be proven over and over."Seriously, how awesome is that metaphor? The book is full of this type of wonderful writing--making the book flow like a stream of crystal clear water. (As you can tell by my seriously lame metaphor just now, it isn't the easiest thing in the world to come up with apt and creative metaphors.) In addition, Gilman's personality comes shining through on every page, and I found her to be winning, hilarious, down-to-earth and just plain awesome. (I'd love to hang out with her some time. I bet she is a hoot.)INSIGHTI'm thankful that Gilman waited before attempting to write this memoir. The events in the book require a certain type of maturity and hindsight to fully understand and view properly. Had she written this book shortly after the events described, I don't think it would have been nearly as effective. With the benefit of 20 years to ponder the events of the trip, Gilman is able to analyze her younger self and the decisions she made with a wisdom that would have been lacking had she written the book in "real-time." Thus, we have two Gilmans writing this memoir: the 22-year-old Gilman who experienced the events and brings them to life and the grown-up Gilman who has the wisdom and maturity to understand and comment on her younger self and her experiences. I've read memoirs that lack the introspection and commentary that time can bring, and I think this book benefited tremendously from Gilman's choice to write the memoir as an adult versus a young adult.COMPELLING NARRATIVEAlthough this could have been a "two naive American girls traveling in China" travel narrative (and you almost wish it could have been), Gilman and Claire's journey takes a bizarre and riveting turn when Claire begins to unravel psychologically. As little oddities begin to crop up (such as Claire's insistence that she is writing a "world curriculum" and must go by herself to do research and make contacts), both the reader and the grown-up Gilman can see that the warning signs were there from the start. But Gilman's analysis and reasoning on why these warning signs don't register until it is too late are compelling and reasonable. I could totally see my 20-year-old self making the same decisions and getting into the same harrowing situations in which Gilman finds herself at the end of the book. The last third of the book was as suspenseful, harrowing and riveting as any thriller I've ever read. My pulse and anxiety level were rising with each new development, and I couldn't imagine experiencing this kind of nightmare myself. Yet, as Gilman writes in the epilogue, it was this experience that helped shape her into the woman she is today.The bottom line is that this book is simply the best memoir and travel narrative I've ever read. I simply can't recommend it enough. I'm usually pretty stingy with my stars, but I'm giving this one 5 stars without hesitation. Make time for it ... you'll be glad you did. It is an excellent piece of writing that tells a riveting and compelling story that has something important to say about life, love, and being a citizen of the world. Despite Gilman's often nightmarish experiences, it will make you wish you'd taken that backpacking trip you always said you would but never quite got around to doing.

It doesn't seem like all that long ago, but China in the 1980s was only just creaking open its doors to foreign travelers for the first time since before the Revolution - initially to package tours and later in the decade to individuals. But if the Government was ready to receive foreigners and their hard currency and quickly slapped together expensive hotels for this purpose (where backpackers on a shoestring often had no choice but to room), most of the rest of the country was not. It was a forbidding place, necessarily so, with the largest population in the world living in a bleak wartime-style economy as a result of the catastrophic policies of a lunatic leader. To handle so many people under such extreme conditions, such a society was structured very differently from what we are accustomed to, with drastically curtailed lifestyle choices (the very term "lifestyle" would have been incomprehensible to the Chinese then). I sampled the tail end of this era on my first visit to the country in 1990 for an exhausting two-week, six-city tour. The place was fascinating in its sheer strangeness. China is a much more foreigner-friendly place these days, to be sure, but it has been a long time in coming.Enter in 1986, among that first wave of independent foreigners allowed into China, two spoiled young American females fresh out of college, the author Jane Gilman and Claire, her friend and classmate from a wealthy family, neither previously having set foot outside of the US and embarking on what they thought would be a yearlong worldwide tour, beginning with an indefinite stay on the Chinese Mainland. After a brief stopover in Hong Kong, they last a respectable six weeks before they are spat out, the worldwide tour abruptly ended after Claire goes psychotic on Jane and has to be accompanied on the flight home by a registered nurse.Things get off to a shaky start with Jane freaking out on their shaky airline preparing to land in Hong Kong (neither has much flying experience), and things only get worse amidst the squalor of their Chungking Mansion room when she threatens to head right back home and needs to be slapped into reality by Claire. I worried that the author's histrionics would prevent me from making it past the first ten pages. But it gradually becomes apparent that this is a clever foil framing the rest of the narrative, as we discover that it's Claire who has the major difficulties adjusting to their shockingly different reality. While the two are shunted around from one mysterious, disorienting location to another by shady locals who may or may not be trying to take advantage of them, dealing with hostile hotel staff with no English ability, unpalatable food and nothing to do, Claire grows increasingly paranoid of not just the Chinese but the CIA, Mossad and other nefarious agents she thinks are out to get her. She stops eating and becomes ill and delusional. By this time we are in the more hospitable surroundings of a Western hippie hangout in Guilin. Just as Claire meets and falls for a German traveler, Claire loses it and wades naked into a river in a suicide attempt. The tense final pages have Jane and the German frantically contacting the police to locate Claire. They find her and things are brought to a breathless and fraught conclusion.Thus a word of warning. This is not a travelogue for uninitiated readers expecting a comprehensive or in-depth account of the PRC by a seasoned travel writer with extensive knowledge of China. It's a fast-paced and, perhaps appropriately, breezy description of a country experienced as a nightmare from the get-go - a country itself caught in the nightmare of its recent past. At times I wasn't sure if the melodrama and emotional hysterics, whether Jane's or Claire's, were contributing to or getting in the way of the book. Nevertheless, I did find myself being briskly pulled along the narrative as the girls lurch from one shock to the next. I have not yet read Gilman's more recent work, and I am curious to see whether she has been able to replicate her narrative skills in other contexts.

I'm halfway through and I'm hooked. I feel like I am travelling around communist China with a nutcase. If you've ever travelled South East Asia, this book is a gem. Makes you remember how silly you were, how excited, how beaten down and everything in between. The characters are very easy to resonate with, even the nutty one. Cannot put it down. Teenage naivety at it's absolute best - but a great read for any adult.

Really enjoyed this. It helped that I've travelled in China but a fascinating true story

I chose this book after reading a recommendation on pinterest. It lived up to the rave reviews; I have no trouble in recommending it to others. I would like too read more by this author.

...if I'd been the parents of these two spoiled girls. They were in no way ready or prepared to be out on the open road together alone.The writing is fine, but there are some cringe-worthy moments. And why did it take 20 years before this finally turned into a sort of travel book. And photos would have been nice - how convenient that both cameras got broken.The book reminded me painfully of what I don't like about travelling - all those iterminable, boring, uncomfortable in-between times. And it didn't really do very well on reminding me of why it's good, interesting, illuminating to travel.

Truthfully, I chose this travel memoir solely on the title alone. It sounded provocative and just too tantalizing to pass on by. The tale of two recent American college graduates setting out to explore Asia in 1986 was intriguing. I expected lessons in culture shock, identity, and friendship all entwined with some humor. But there's also a much deeper story going on in these pages and by the end, I felt quite a bit sad for all that Susan and "Claire" go through during their months in China. I certainly did not see exactly what was going to happen but oh my this is definitely a most memorable book of 2020 nominee.Earlier today, l had assigned a 3-star rating but tonight I can't deny that this is one of those books that leaves me a little raw and shattered. I suspect I will think about this one for a long, long time.Goodreads review published 23/03/20