The Painter from Shanghai

The Painter from Shanghai – Jennifer Cody Epstein

This was our book club selection for our August Meeting – it’s not going to be my favorite book club book.  It took me forever to read.  I think part of that was that I took it with me on my 3 week RV camping/hiking trip to Washington State and spending all day hiking and exploring National Parks severely impacts my reading time! Toward the end of the trip when we were on the Olympic Peninsula I was actually thankful for the long drives to get everywhere, I had time to read.   I think being forced to read it contributed to my lack of enjoyment of the book. 

This is the story of a young lady who thanks to the generosity of a customer rose out of the a life of being a whore and went on to become a world renown painter.  Much of the book dealt with political issues that went above my head. 

I think Sara from book club said it best, parts of the book were good and I was thinking it would be a good book, other parts made me want to put the book down and not pick it up again!