"The Interior"

The Interior (1999) is a very apt title for Lisa’s second mystery.   Not only does it refer to the interior of China but also to the need of Hulan and David to see beneath the masks of the many characters around them as well as their own.

Once again Lisa does an excellent job of depicting her characters – especially the women.  Suchee, Miaoshan, Peanut, and (of course) Hulan.  Hulan says at one point that to solve Miaoshan’s murder, she needs to understand Miaoshan.  The reader is prone to add that to truly understand the first two Red Princess novels, one has to understand Hulan, who still remains a woman of mystery, torn by many conflicting feelings and memories of her past.  Her comment to David that she has never received unconditional love says a lot about her.  And, of course, encompassing everything is the mystery of China itself.

In one sense, David is the traditional hero – intelligent, strong, principled, and loving.  His problem, however, is that as a character, he is relatively flat compared to Hulan, the most rounded character of the first two novels.  Also, he is placed at a disadvantage in that we see him mostly in China, where he doesn’t understand much about Chinese languages or China’s rituals and culture.  As he admits himself, although he is a very able attorney, he knows little about Chinese law.

In terms of plot, Lisa once again has done a great job of crafting an exciting complex narrative in which everything fits together at last. The treatment of the women working in the toy factory would have been especially meaningful to my father, who was a leading labor leader until right before his death.  Lisa treats this theme very well.

Lisa has written some of the best concluding scenes I have ever read.  The Epilogue focusing on Suchee working in the fields, unable to forget her painful past, is deeply moving.   And I have never read better Acknowledgments.  They are warm, touching, and totally in keeping with her novel.

Not only is The Interior a good read;  it also shows Lisa to be ahead of the curve in pointing out the dangers of working in Chinese factories and of purchasing poorly made Chinese products.