Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
Susan Jane Gilman
2009
304 pages
Last year when this book was first published I saw all sorts of reviews and thought… “Meh. China. Not interested.” Because China is one place I have no interest in traveling to. Call me eurocentric, but when I think about places I want to travel, I think of Ireland, and England, and Croatia, and Czechoslovakia, and Canada, and lots of places in the US, and if I’m really feeling adventurous, Mexico (because Hamburger thinks the cheaper the better, and if I ever travel to Mexico again I just know I’ll be sharing a room with a cockroach, and that’s so not my idea of a good time…and there’re a few cockroach scenes in this book that support this).
But then I read Dawn’s review and she included a few quotes from the book and I thought, “Hey. I like the way Gilman thinks. Maybe I should read this one after all.” And so I did. And it was totally worth it.
After college graduation, Susan and Claire, two casual college friends, decide to backpack around the world. They start their trip in China, which in 1986 had just started to allow tourists, and then the plan was to work their way west. Unfortunately, after a few weeks in China, Susan started to notice Claire was acting a bit paranoid. At first she explained away her observations with excuses like Claire just needed some alone time. However, it soon becomes very apparent that Claire was experiencing some sort of mental breakdown.
Since I’ve done the student backpacking trip (7 weeks through France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, (staring at the Yugoslavian countryside from the train because we had no Visa for Yugoslavia, and I just dated myself), Hungary, Austria and Germany (whew) I must say I spent most of the book feeling very grateful for the sanity of my college roommate, who was an awesome traveling partner, and with whom I’m still on speaking terms (although infrequently, as we now live in different states). My 40 year old self was appalled by some of the decisions that were made, although if I think back to my 21 year old self, she wouldn’t have been quite so shocked.
Anyways, I seem to be digressing more than usual in this review. Besides the fact that Claire’s increasing paranoia makes for an interesting story, and if you’ve ever done the student travel bit parts seem distressingly and comfortably familiar, and the people they meet are fascinating, Gilman has some fantastic observations about travel. Here are a few:
For perhaps the first time in my life, it became viscerally clear to me just how little I mattered, just how much I was not the center of the universe. It was like a swift kick to the gut. p. 13
…travel is a bit like the Internet – there’s a protective anonymity to it. Cast into a situation with people you never have to see again and shielded from repercussions, you turn brazenly candid. p. 41
Being a tourist, I was beginning to see, meant being infantilized much of the time. All power is contextual. Take a brain surgeon in Uzbekistan and stick him in Manhattan; take the toughest homeboy from Compton and leave him in Tuscany. Drop any of us, anywhere, in an alien environment, and you’ll see our IQ plummet. “IS THIS THE BUS STOP?” we holler at strangers, while dementedly pointing to the bus stop. To buy a sandwich, we’ll pantomime chewing. This is why, I suspect, so many otherwise decent people back home behave like assholes abroad: There’s nothing quite like feeling helpless to turn you into a world-class control freak, to make you forget your manners and throw a tantrum if your room isn’t ready and there’s no ice in your drink. In a strange environment you feel like a baby, and you’re often treated like a baby, and so you act like one. pp. 59-60
Soon we were all vying to establish our backpackers’ street cred, to prove how intrepidly we’d been traveling, how much discomfort we’d incurred at how little expense. The irony of this was wholly lost on us. We were too young and myopic to recognize the perversity of a logic that equates voluntary deprivation with authentic experience. We thought that by wearing burlap pajamas, contracting intestinal parasites, and opting to ride in third class with ‘the people,’ we were somehow being less Western and more Asian. pp. 147-148
If you like travel memoirs, I’d highly recommend this one. It would most definitely go on my list of bestest travel books, if I had such a list.
It’s also a great book for the Women Unbound Reading Challenge. Two young women backpacking in China? It doesn’t get much more unbound than that! For a variety of reasons, their trip took an amazing amount of guts and fortitude. And rumor has it, one of Gilman’s other books, Poufy White Tiara, would also make an excellent book for the challenge. I see that one in my future, too.
The quotes you pulled are a big reason why I love this book. I think they show how well Gilman is able to look back at this experience and treat her 21-year-old self with a sense of humor, without losing the sense of wonder she felt. It’s a tricky voice to do, but I feel like she does it well.
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Cool! I like mental breakdowns and travel, so it sounds like a winner!
.-= Andi´s last blog ..Raven Stole the Moon, by Garth Stein =-.
I’m with you exactly! Didn’t really have any interest in this until I read Dawn’s review. I travel with girlfriends and on my own (sometimes my mother) because Mr. BFR is not that interested unless it’s inexpensive, he can fish, and we can drive there!
.-= Beth F´s last blog ..Featuring . . . The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama =-.
I really enjoyed this one too! I agree with you that some of the stuff they did seems absurd at my age, but I’m sure I would have done it way back when.
This sounds like a great read. And I am sooo jealous of your backpacking trip.
.-= Trisha´s last blog ..February Films =-.
Our ideal travel plans sound very different. I love travelling to countries that are very different to my own. I had an amazing holiday in China and love reading books set in Asia. I have heard about this book before, but think I’ll add it to my wishlist after reading your review – it sounds great.
.-= Jackie (Farm Lane Books)´s last blog ..My favourite author: David Mitchell =-.
I love travel memoirs and I’m with you, even though China isn’t necessarily on the top of my list, this sounds too good to pass up!
.-= Amused´s last blog ..Grammar =-.
I’m with you. I’d love to see the world too, and would ESPECIALLY love to go backpacking, but Europe is #1 on my list of Places to Visit. Specifically: London, Paris, Greece, Southern Italy.
I’m not big on travel memoirs, though. The only one I’ve ever read was Mark Twain’s Roughing It, which I liked well enough. Although I do enjoy reading about the American Modernists’ sojourns in Paris in the 1920s. One of the reasons I must go there!
.-= EL Fay´s last blog ..An Evening with Margaret Atwood =-.
I confess that I’m much more of an armchair traveler than an actual traveler, and there are quite a few countries I love reading about but am not sure I would want to visit other than through books. China falls into that latter category. I am glad you enjoyed this one. I’ll have to look for it.
.-= Literary Feline´s last blog ..Review: The Fairest Portion of the Globe by Frances Hunter =-.
The one place I’ve never wanted to go to is Australia. No particular reason, just not interested in it that much. I have read a few books about it, though.
.-= heidenkind´s last blog ..Novels & Gender =-.
I absolutely love those quotes you posted! Adding this to my wishlist.
.-= Nymeth´s last blog ..Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery =-.
I read and reviewed Gilman’s previous memoir, Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress, for Women Unbound a couple of weeks ago – I really enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to this one – someone has kindly offered me her slightly-used copy.
.-= Florinda´s last blog ..Week-end Review, 3/5/10: Links from across the Blogiverse =-.
This book sounds so good–I’ve been on my library’s waiting list for what feels like forever! The fact that they were exploring a China that was still really new to Westerners just strikes me as totally cool. That fourth quote is also incredibly powerful and puts into words something that I myself have often thought.
(As for where I like to travel…I’m totally of the cheap tropical Latin American voyages, cockroaches and all
.-= tarynwanderer´s last blog ..Review: Fingersmith =-.
Dawn’s review made me add it to my wish list … and now your review made me add it to my wish list AGAIN. (WEll, that really isn’t possible but it totally confirmed to me that I want to read this book!)
.-= Jenners´s last blog ..Show Me 5 Saturday: "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See =-.
I’ve seen several reviews of this book lately, so I got it out of the library yesterday. My only worry about it is that I feel like it’s maybe not very nice of her to write all about her friend’s mental breakdown in a book. Did it feel gossipy at all?
.-= Jenny´s last blog ..Best. Day. Ever. =-.
Oh, this one sounds like tons of fun. Travel and China, right up my alley. Thanks for the heads up!
.-= Melissa (Book Nut)´s last blog ..Sunday Salon: Lists, Battles and Tours: Oh My! =-.
I could not stand the author of this book-I was appalled by her behaviour and shocked that she would have the audacity to write about it-years later after she has had time to reflect. I have gone backpacking both solo and with a girlfriend. I never had to experience the nervous breakdown-although I did end up in the hospital and getting groped (I will let you guess in what country that happened in). Thankfully I met some Swedish girls who were very kind to me. Of course that happened after my girlfriend and I both went our own ways to visit our respective families.
PS -if you ever change your mind on China I will give you some tips-it was my first Asian country and given the wonderful experience has taken me back numerous times.
.-= Esme´s last blog ..IREG’s Andrew Miller featured in Domain Name Journal’s 2010 year-in-review =-.
PS not sure why it shows that review as mine. Is that a spam going on.
I really enjoyed this book too – I love to travel and generally like travel memoirs. I loved the author’s voice – her writing was very smart. I put her other two books onto my TBR immediately!
.-= Colleen (Books in the City)´s last blog ..The Book Oscars =-.
I enjoyed this one, too. The scene that comes to mind is when they go out in the boat with the men who use… I believe it was cormorants?… to catch fish, but they put some sort of snare around their necks to prevent them from swallowing the catch.
.-= charley´s last blog ..The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant =-.
I’ve had the same reaction to this book…meh. However, after reading your review it’s clear that I didn’t even have an idea on what the book was about. I love books that center around travel.
.-= Ti´s last blog ..The Sunday Salon: Eatin’ and Readin’ =-.
I am perhaps the most so-not-interested-in-China-person you can find, but since I like travelling and also have a professional interest in travelling you have me very intrigued by this review. Sounds like a great book.
.-= Louise´s last blog ..Evermore by Alyson Noël =-.
I’m so glad this book is getting love around the blogosphere. It’s an astounding story and Gilman is an insightful and entertaining writer. To Jenny above who asked if the book seemed gossipy about Claire, the traveling companion. I thought Gilman handled that aspect in a compassionate way. She’s changed identifying details about Claire, and expresses gratitude to Claire for getting her out there to see the world. Also, throughout the book, she points out times where she must have been really annoying to Claire. So she’s open about her own faults too.
I’m glad to hear this earned a spot on your (theoretical) list of bestest travel books – I’ve got the audio version of this one and I have been saving it especially for my lazy beach days this summer
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