This book was truly horrible. http://mirishorten.tumblr.com/post/101875298522/song-of-the-silk-road-by-mingmei...

I gave this book 3 stars because I was compelled to finish it. I took one away for the gratuitous and unimaginative sex scenes and another because I could not picture the story (characters and scenery) in my mind.
If the author had used her extra words on bringing the settings to life instead of the pathetic nature of the men in the story, I would have enjoyed it much more. (Alex is so needy and condescending I wanted to gag!)
The premise of the story really had promise for me and I was looking forward to the adventure, but it fell short in so many ways.
Yip explores the idea of chasing riches and depicts human nature as greedy and banal. That's ok, but it doesn't mesh with the supposed self-discovery that should have taken place.I think it should have been a life altering experience, but only the setting changed and the discoveries were not earth shattering as I expected them to be.
With all that, it was a promising story line, that could easily be "fixed". ( )

Not sure if I should read more by this author. Too irreverent? ( )

This is a fun and tantalizing read, but the writing style bothered me as it did not seem to have the sophistication of the author's earlier books; it felt too much like a journal, not even a memoir, with the characters not fully developed. I had the feeling that perhaps editors had liked the story and wanted to make it more marketable jazzing it up with lots of sexual episodes and a brash immature main character giving the whole effect a zippy attitude. So I'm sure it will be well read, and I'm glad to have read it myself as it is descriptive of a China I am not likely to experience firsthand. ( )

Is it possible or even sane to be jealous of a fictional character? I so wanted to be Lily Lin, the main character in Mingmei Yip's newest novel, SONG OF THE SILK ROAD. Lily is offered the opportunity of a lifetime when an aunt she has never heard of offers her an inheritance of $3-million if she will successfully trace the aunt's earlier travels along China's Silk Road. With $50,000 to get her trip underway, Lily doesn't have much to lose: she is currently struggling to finish her first novel, waiting tables to pay the rent, and waiting for her married lover to leave his wife. (O.K. So, at this point in the story I wasn't yet jealous of Lily!) Armchair traveler that I am, I would have undertaken this trip for far less than $3-mil!

I really like deserts, and a good part of the Silk Road is through the Taklamakan Desert. It follows some of the most isolated and remote parts of the world. This doesn't prevent Lily from meeting extraordinarily interesting people and experiencing life-changing adventures. The author has a wonderful descriptive ability which transported this reader thousands of miles and allowed me to see through Lily's eyes. Here's a bit of Yip's description of the fearsome beauty and danger of the Taklamakan:

". . . flat, immense horizon with no foreseeable vanishing point . . . dunes of golden sand . . . robust, curvaceous women; sleeping dragons; even ruined cities with long-forgotten names . . . in a cobolt blue sky, a few clouds swam like shiny white fish and exotic birds chirped their shamanic chants . . . Not a car or truck was in sight. For thousands of years, these same sands, like huge whales, had swallowed caravans entire---merchants, wives, children, camels, goods for sale, everything . . . Over the centuries, desert explorers . . . met horrible deaths from thirst, heatstroke, starvation, sandstorms, bandit attacks, poisonous snakes, even demons. It was told that in the Tang dynasty, merchants and adventurers could simply follow the trail of skeletons . . ." (page 222, advanced reading copy)
Mingmei Yip has created some of the most memorable characters I've come across in fiction. I absolutely love this passage describing Lily's first meeting with the herbalist Lop Nor:

"The creases on his forehead read like abstruse philosophical truths etched in an esoteric language waiting to be deciphered . . . His eyes, though sad, also emanated strong yang energy. However, what really caught my attention and made my heart ache were his hands---large, brown, leathery, scarred. His fingers were thick, calloused, tipped with nails lined with faint dark ridges. What had this man done with those hands---just collecting herbs on the mountain, or digging graves to house ghosts?" (page 74, advanced reading copy)
My only complaint about SONG OF THE SILK ROAD is the author's too frequent use of the F-word. For me, it rendered scenes that could have been luxuriously sensual to being clinical at best and crass at worst. Perhaps it was meant to reveal a frank and open attitude toward sexuality, but I found the overuse of the word to be clunky in comparison to the refinement and sensitivity of other passages.

What I liked best about this novel is the way Mingmei Yip has woven the story of a young woman discovering her own strength and character with fascinating Chinese history, folklore, and culture and also mixed in mystery and romance. SONG OF THE SILK ROAD is a multi-layered and satisfying story full of images and characters that will linger in my mind for a long time.

I'm still jealous of Lily Lin and wish I could follow her trail along the Silk Road, but for now I'll have to content myself with reading the author's previous novels. I have a feeling treasures await me along that path as well. ( )