What do You think about Thousand Pieces Of Gold (2004)?
Thousand Pieces of Gold tells the true story of Lalu Nathoy, who grows up for the first decade of her life in the male dominated world of the late 1800's in China. Her Father unlike many other men calls her his 'thousand pieces of gold', and even when hard times come, resists the urge to sell her as his only daughter but when the family is threatened by bandits a few years later as he is watching his sons and wives starve cultural and societal pressures come together and Lalu's Father sells her for nothing more than a few bags of seed. After this the reader follows Lalu's life through journeys with bandits, dark roads into brothels, and it follows a path that leads her to America where she is sold to a saloon and renamed Polly. She eventually regains her freedom, and as a reader it was a book I could not put down as you celebrated with her as she found happiness love, and ultimately redemption.For other reviews my blog site is: http://www.booksalicious.blogspot.com/
—Elizabeth
This book is based on the real life story of Lalu, later Polly, who was sold by her family during a famine to bandits, sold to a brothel, and then sent to America and bought as a slave by another Chinese settler where she settled in Idaho in mining town. I found the story compelling and well written up through her journey to Idaho. After that, it jumped too much and without smooth transitions. Polly was an enduring character, but the actual development of her wasn't there as I wished it had been. I think the author did a better job filling in the unknown gaps of Polly's early life and it seemed like a different story and style for the later part as if she drew too much for actual evens. I think story would have benefited from more creative liberties.
—Trish
I first read this quite a number of years ago and have come back to it several times.It is a fascinating look into the life of a Chinese woman trying to make her way in the New World.For some reason, this is usually referred to as "fiction" when it is, in fact, a biographical story. Unfortunately, the fact that it is mistaken for fiction entirely, has led some to rankle at some of the more violent events, even calling the characterization of the events leading up to Lalu Nathoy's arrival in America, particularly life in as "racist".To quote from the publisher's website: "A few fictitious characters have been added and certain events transposed for the sake of the narrative, but the essential story of Polly's life remains accurate."Unfortunately, life in China of the 19th Century wasn't a bowl of cherries. Nor, was life in America easy for a Chinese ex-prostitute/slave, attempting to make her way in the world. That is history. One can't skirt around the issues in order tell the story of a woman sold by her father to a brothel, then to slave traders, a saloon-keeper as a prostitute, and eventually lost in a poker-game...While the writing isn't necessarily Nobel Prize-worthy, it tells the story of Lalu Nathoy in a way that "feels" like it was told by her."Most of what we know about Lalu /Polly's early life can be traced to an interview she gave Countess Eleanor Gizycka in 1922 and three newspaper articles published in the next decade. From these accounts, we learn that Lalu Nathoy was born on September 11,1853, in Northern China, near one of the upper rivers, in an area frequently ravaged by bandits. Although Lalu's parents were impoverished farmers, her feet had been bound as if she were from a family of means, then unbound. When Lalu was eighteen, there was a prolonged drought, and her father was forced to sell her to bandits in exchange for enough seed to plant another crop that would, he hoped, save the rest of their family from starvation."http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi...http://www.mccunn.com/Polly3.htmlhttp://www.mccunn.com/Polly1.html--
—Anneke Dubash
