Fortune is a Woman
Elizabeth A. Adler
Dell
592 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780440211464
Summary
The three met in the aftermath of San Francisco's devastating 1906 earthquake—the Mandarin Lai Tsin, a runaway American heiress, and a young Englishwoman. Against all odds they made their dreams come true, building one of the world's largest trading companies and most luxurious hotels... They had only each other—and bloody secrets to bury even as they rose to dizzying heights, wary of love yet vulnerable to passion in its most dangerous forms... The Mandarin would pass his multi-billion-dollar empire only to the women in the Lai Tsin dynasty—along with one last devastating truth....
Sweeping from the turn of the century through the 1960's, from the Orient to San Francisco and New York, Elizabeth Adler has written a magnificent novel of new wealth and old privilege, family passions and secret shame, of women surviving, triumphant, in the riveting saga of romantic intrigue. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Elizabeth Adler is the internationally acclaimed bestselling author of twelve previous novels. She lives with her family in California. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Adler follows up Peach and The Rich Shall Inherit with another glitzy roller-coaster saga. Using standard rags-to-riches ingredients, she gives us a trio of Cinderellas who suffer and survive their way to fortune, romance and a predictable happy ending. Set in turn-of-the-century San Francisco and Hong Kong, the novel tells the stories of lifelong friends Francie Harrison and Annie Aysgarth and of Francie's daughter Lysandra. All three are saintly women who've been hideously mistreated by the men in their lives. Indeed, virtually every male in this novel is either a brutal monster or a weakling. Fortunately, the misused heroines all fall under the benevolent influence of a mysterious Chinese mandarin, Lai Tsin; Francie, indeed, becomes his concubine. He guides them through their troubles and bequeaths them a legacy of worldly and philosophical riches. Though Adler's historical setting is appealing, the characters are stereotypes, drawn with no shades of gray, and they never come to life. The narrative drags where the author resorts to showing, not telling, and much of the plot hangs on bizarre coincidence.
Publishers Weekly
Opium dream for shopgirls, without a pinch of grit in its 448 pages; by the author of such glitzy joys as The Property of a Lady (1990) and The Rich Shall Inherit (1989). Plot hippity-hops back and forth over a century of ties between San Francisco and Hong Kong, beginning in 1937 when mandarin Lai Tsin—San Francisco's "most mysterious, most notorious, and richest man," and "grandfather" of Lysandra Lai Tsin, who is the illegitimate daughter of Francie Harrison—dies and leaves baby Lysandra a personal fortune of $300 million (in pre-WW II dollars), plus ownership (as taipan) of Lai Tsin Corporation, a trading company worth $900 million and based in Hong Kong. Which is nice—taxwise—for six-year-old Lysandra. Francesca, her mother, is named head of the company until Lysandra turns 18. At this time, in 1937, Francie's best friend is ex-Yorkshire woman Annie Aysgarth, who has risen from poverty and is now president of Aysgarth Hotels International, a subsidiary of Lai Tsin Corp. Francie and Annie met during the San Francisco earthquake, during which Annie's lost brother Josh died—but not before impregnating Francie with Oliver. In 1906, Francie and Annie brought the poor coolie-gambler Lai Tsin great luck at poker, and he repays by taking them into his new and vastly expanding import-export business. Later, Francie has Lysandra out of wedlock with Buck Wingate, a three-time senator from California whose imperially snobbish wife Maryanne thinks he should run for president. However, Francie's horrible brother Harry, a distraught multimillionaire caught in the Depression, has the hots for Maryanne, who kills him when he starts to rape her, which leads to Buck and Francie's affair being exposed and Buck resigning his office. Then Lysandra comes of age and we discover Lai Tsin's deepest secret, that he's actually.... Never touches earth for a second.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Fortune is a Woman:
1. Comment on Lai Tsin's will in which he says, "throughout the years it has been proven to me many times that women are more worthy than men. Therefore I decree that women shall always carry the fortunes of the Lai Tsin family." Does the book bear this belief out? Are the women characters more honorable and trustworthy than the men? Are there any exceptions?
2. In his will the Mandarin leaves his company in the hands of an 18-year-old young woman. Annie questions his judgment when she says: "It's not right to burden a girl with all that responsibility....we don't even know...if she'll even want to run the Lai Tsin Corporation. Francie, it'll just the past all over again, she'll be a woman in a man's world. And you, of all people, know who hard that is." Given how the book turns out, is Annie right or wrong?
3. Describe the two women, Francie and Annie, in this book and their friendship to one another. On what is their devotion to one another based?
4. How would you describe the men in this book, particularly the Harrison father and son—and Annie's father? What drives their hatred of women—especially, their wives, daughters, or sister?
5. What is the relationship between Josh and Sammy. Did you believe, early on, that Josh was the "Moon Killer"? What clues led you to believe he was...or to believe that he wasn't?
6. Why does Tsai Lin feel it necessary for Francie to front his company? What happens to Francie's reputation as a result of her relationship with Tsai Lin? How do the Chinese feel about Tsai Lin's involvement with Francie? What does it say about the values of the times? To what degree, if at all, have those values or attitudes changed?
7. When Lai Tsin returns to visit his brother and to build the temple, he sees his brother debase himself for money. Lai Tsin "knew poverty only too well; he understood that it could turn men to demons selling their souls to find food and shelter for their families or opium for the pipe of oblivion." With his understanding of the demeaning effect of poverty, why does Tsai Lin still despise his brother.
8. How does her brother's death make Francie's feel? What does she say?
9. When Francie and Buck fly over to Hong Kong to visit Lysandra, Philip Chen tells Francie that she is even more beautiful than when he had last seen her. When Francie speaks of her white hairs, Philip responds, "Wisdom arrives with the white hairs, and wisdom enhances beauty." Is that attitude toward aging part of our own culture today? How is aging viewed in the Western part of the world, in the early 21st century?
10. Did Tsai Lin's secret surprise you? Can you trace all the family ties in this novel—who is related to whom?
11. Are you pleased with how the book ends, with the decision that Lysandra makes? Why or why not? Does this then fulfill Annie's fears in question #2?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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