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|  | |  | | | Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven | | | | | SKU:
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Usually ships in 1-2 business days | | Only 1 left in stock, order soon! | | | | | | They were young, brilliant, and bold. They set out to conquer the world. But the world had other plans for them.
Bestselling author Susan Jane Gilman's new memoir is a hilarious and harrowing journey, a modern heart of darkness filled with Communist operatives, backpackers, and pancakes.
In 1986, fresh out of college, Gilman and her friend Claire yearned to do something daring and original that did not involve getting a job. Inspired by a place mat at the International House of Pancakes, they decided to embark on an ambitious trip around the globe, starting in the People's Republic of China. At that point, China had been open to independent travelers for roughly ten minutes.
Armed only with the collected works of Nietzsche, an astrological love guide, and an arsenal of bravado, the two friends plunged into the dusty streets of Shanghai. Unsurprisingly, they quickly found themselves in over their heads. As they ventured off the map deep into Chinese territory, they were stripped of everything familiar and forced to confront their limitations amid culture shock and government surveillance. What began as a journey full of humor, eroticism, and enlightenment grew increasingly sinister-becoming a real-life international thriller that transformed them forever.
Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven is a flat-out page-turner, an astonishing true story of hubris and redemption told with Gilman's trademark compassion, lyricism, and wit. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Susan Jane Gilman | | Hardcover: | 320 pages | | Publisher: | Grand Central Publishing | | Publication Date: | March 24, 2009 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0446578924 | | Product Length: | 6.25 inches | | Product Width: | 1.0 inches | | Product Height: | 9.25 inches | | Product Weight: | 1.14 pounds | | Package Length: | 9.2 inches | | Package Width: | 5.8 inches | | Package Height: | 1.1 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.05 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 131 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 131 customer reviews )
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85 of 93 found the following review helpful:
A slow fuse on a big powder keg Jan 27, 2009
By korova
I almost stopped reading this book after the first couple of chapters. Boy, am I glad I kept going! Susan Jane Gilman has written a memoir that begins in deceptively languid fashion but ends in an explosion of surreal and shocking events.
Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven starts off very slowly. If you're not paying close attention to what's going on, as I was not, the book seems like yet another "clueless recent college graduate with backpack" travel journal. Even the book's title is somewhat misleading; it made me expect a cobbled together collection of exaggerated, drunken adventures in developing countries.
I was wrong, very wrong.
Small, seemingly insignificant, things begin happening to Gilman and her traveling partner. As patterns emerge, the story begins to take on threatening, even malevolent, overtones and the pace quickens. What began as two innocent and idealistic girls taking an around-the-world trip turns into an uncontrolled descent into chaos, fear, and personal destruction.
Sure, this all sounds like a plot for a bad Roger Corman horror movie--especially that last bit!--but Gilman manages to make everything unfold in a mesmerizing yet believable manner. She writes in an engaging, flowing style that truly brings the story to life. Gilman's experience as a journalist has given her a talent for capturing key details of people and places, so that even the parts of the book that may have been embellished don't feel out of place or totally implausible.
The story also benefits from twenty years of hindsight. Gilman occasionally breaks away from the main narrative to comment on the things she thought and did at the time of the story, when she was twenty-one. In these asides, Gilman deftly skewers a lot of the self-serving beliefs held by the backpack-youth hostel-railpass crowd both then and now.
Bottom line: Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven starts out slowly but rapidly gains momentum as the author begins to realize that she has lit the fuse on a gigantic powder keg. When the big explosion finally happens, you won't be able to stop reading. Four stars.
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And now, some books I was reminded of by this book:
WARNING: this link is a possible spoiler
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44 of 47 found the following review helpful:
 Ironically, noirishly satisfying! Feb 17, 2009
By Daffy Du
What happens when two recent female college graduates decide to circumnavigate the world on a shoestring in 1986, starting in the tourism-challenged People's Republic of China? Let's just say that "Innocents Abroad" doesn't begin to describe it.
Gilman and her pseudonymous companion, Claire, are arm's-length friends when they embark on the adventure of a lifetime, inspired by the map on an IHOP place mat. At some point in our lives, each of has probably pursued a brash dream with someone we hardly knew, but in Gilman and Claire's case, the consequences surpass anything they and their apprehensive families could have imagined. Beyond their naivete and the sheer foreignness of the environment the two young women plunge into, at 21, Gilman increasingly finds herself forced to deal with her friend's rapid descent into psychosis (which, she points out in the afterword, may have been the product of antimalarial medication). Along the way, she encounters some unforgettable characters: a generous, English-speaking Chinese man who befriends them in the hope that they will help him defect; a clueless, lumbering German misfit; a free-spirited American mother and her two rambunctious sons; a Chinese waitress who prepares Western food for homesick backpackers; a German hunk whose kindness matches his considerable romantic appeal; and a Canadian nurse who rallies to her aid at her time of greatest need.
As compelling as the people she meets is her take on the country itself. The picture she paints of 1980s post-Kissinger China is rich and textured, frequently rendered with delicious irony and dark humor. The bravado with which she handles various encounters with Chinese culture, cuisine and government authorities is both unnerving and astonishing. (Her description of a rural hospital should be an eye-opener for anyone who hasn't traveled in the Third World.)
Part travelogue, part coming-of-age story, part memoir, this book is at once entertaining, revealing and insightful. As China's well-documented rise to industrial superpower inspires headlines (and dominates the U.S. national debt), this delightful, if occasional discomfiting book provides a vivid reminder of how far our largest creditor has come...and how impetuous, reckless and ultimately resourceful young people in dire circumstances can be.
19 of 23 found the following review helpful:
 Innocence or arrogence? Mar 28, 2009
By Mary G. Longorio
"Texasbookgirl"
Beware of making travel plans, what to do after college plans, any kind of plans based on the placemats at the International House of Pancakes. One night in 1986, fueled by post graduate giddiness and a large amount of alcohol Susan Jane Gilman and friend Claire decide to circle the globe, starting with China (newly opened to any type of tourist activity), one of the sites on IHOP's placemat. Making sure they have the necessities...the complete works of Nietzsche, an astrology love guide, endless optimism and visions of hostel travel the two embark on a romp that quickly goes awry. Were it not for the peril of venturing into areas of China closed to foreigners, the lack of funds, constant hunger, the threat of arrest and a general lack of awareness of the seriousness of their situation this might be a fun trip. Gilman manages to tell the story with wit and no small amount of hubris. If I wasn't so irritated by her devil-may-care attitude I might have enjoyed it more. Well written with great dialog and a keen eye for detail , but this book really rubbed me wrong even knowing it all ended well.
38 of 49 found the following review helpful:
Hilarious and heartbreaking memoir Feb 19, 2009
By LA
Two well-educated, intelligent young women decide in a moment of naivete and foolishness to travel to China together in the 1980s. They struggle in the communist country with language, food, hygiene, and other things we take for granted in the United States.
The author's friend at first seems a bit kooky but gradually becomes totally separated from reality. In other words, she loses her mind and becomes a danger to herself and others. The goal then becomes how to get her friend back to United States before anything too terrible can happen to her.
Although this sounds grim and depressing, Gilman has written it in the style of Our Hearts Were Young and Gay. It is at times hysterically funny, and I often read passages out loud so my partner could understand why I was laughing.
This is a wonderful book that proves that most people are decent and sweet. I can absolutely see it being made into a film.
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Witty, Compelling, and Moving Memoir of tourism in 1986 Communist China Mar 31, 2009
By Schtinky
"Schtinky"
Susan Jane Gilman sits in an IHOP with her Brown University friend Claire Van Houten, when Claire declares they need to take a backpacking trip across the world, starting with the only recently opened Communist China. The next thing Suzie knows, they are equipped and ready, and landing in Hong Kong. From Hong Kong, they take a boat to Shanghai, where they stay in the worst accommodations, (the cheap ones) recommended by their backpacking guide. After all, this is supposed to be a rustic trip, not tourism. Clair is mortified by the open toilets (often an enclosed trench) and open shower facilities. But its still not rustic enough for her.
They meet a German named Gunter, and a Chinese man who speaks English named Jonnie. Jonnie talks them into coming to his hometown of Dinghai, where no Americans have ever traveled. Reality crashes home here when Claire becomes sick and literally has to be "rescued" from a third world hospital with chickens in the reception room and rusty needles offered by misunderstanding doctors.
On to Beijing, The Great Wall, Guilin, and Yangshuo they travel through worse and worse conditions, eventually finding a rose petal named Lisa in Yangshuo who has learned to cook Western food.
During their travels, Claire, who starts out upbeat and the energetic enthusiast of the trip, slowly begins to slide into paranoia and hallucinogenic episodes. She's convinced she's being hunted by the Mossad, the CIA, and the FBI because "her father is a very important business man". She deteriorates daily, until its up to Suzie to find a way to get her insane friend back into the United States before Claire sets off any alarms in Communist China.
'Undress Me In The Temple Of Heaven' is not just an entertaining book but an important one also, one of the few ways you will "see" China as it was back then, before Western commercialism. These two young girls traveled there only ten months after tourism had opened, and all tourists and backpackers were suspect - and the traveling papers horrendous. The overwhelming goodness and decency of the poverty stricken inhabitants of China shocked the two young Americans. The Bureaucracy often confused them. The living conditions disgusted them. The food made them sick. The language barrier frustrated them. But you must read this book to travel along with them and feel each of these thoughts and feelings with Susan Jane Gilman.
Gilman is an excellent writer, keeping her memoir in a very engaging style. She tells the story with wit, enthusiasm, atmosphere, and believability. There are no "lags" in the memoir, its interesting from page one to the end. She has completely captured the heart and soul of travel. In the book, when Suzie is reluctant and Claire is still buoyantly urging her on, Claire says "All good writers have traveled". Perhaps that's true, because this book is extremely well thought out and expertly executed. Don't miss out on this amazing travel tale. Ten Stars. Enjoy!
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