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The Empress Letters (Cormorant $22.95)
The process of writing fiction in the form of letters was crafted to escape the censor's harsh judgments in the late 17th century. As this oldest form of the novel, the "epistolary novel"; seems to be making a comeback of sorts. It has been utilized recently by the likes of Stephen King-and now Linda Rogers.
Utilizing some of her own family history for The Empress Letters, the first installment of a proposed trilogy, Rogers has revisited some of the clandestine shenanigans of the upper class on southern Vancouver Island. Many of us would not normally associate Victoria's opulent waterfront properties with opium smuggling, murder, and intrigue, but such things happened in Victoria's posh neighbourhoods.
"Victoria had a very thin skin of propriety,"; says Linda Rogers. "There were lots of tunnels during the era of opium smuggling and prohibition. The more I researched the early days, the more excited I got."; Rogers puts her research to good use in The Empress Letters, an epistolary novel that bristles with intrigue.
Poppy, Rogers's fictional heroine, is in her late twenties when she begins typing her letters to her daughter whilst on board the Empress of Asia. It's May, 1927, and the distraught young mother, en route to find her daughter, Precious, is writing to distract herself from guilty premonitions.
Her daughter, Precious, has gone missing in Peking, and it's not exactly the best of times for an exotic, privileged young foreign girl to be without her mother in China. Chiang Kai Shek and his Kuomintang are battling Mao Zedong's Communist revolutionaries, and the Japanese are wreaking havoc.
Consumed with grief at having succumbed to her daughter's entreaties to be allowed to accompany the enigmatic 'servant' Soong Chou on his family visit to Hong Kong with the bones of his niece, Boulie, Poppy has boarded the first ship available in an effort to find her. But Poppy is an unlikely rescuer.
Considerably weakened by two bouts of rheumatic fever, she may not even survive this voyage. Fortunately she's accompanied by a close friend, Tony, her husband's lover. Yes, you read that right.
Olivier, whom she married a few years previously and then left when his sexual proclivities became clear, has since left his London home to temporarily settle in Poppy's mansion, Casanora, in order to shore up the teetering household after the drug-related murder of her mother, Nora, and the subsequent loss of family income. Poppy and Olivier have continued to be the best of friends, and Poppy's affections extend to the ebullient Tony.
Poppy's story continues to unfold through letters typed over the ten days in her first class stateroom, while the ship calls at Honolulu, Yokohama, and Shanghai, where Poppy's hoped-for reunion may take place. Surrounded by the ghosts of her past, she endeavours to share all with her daughter, even though her letters may never reach their target.
The spectres of Poppy's dead father, rumored to have been shot, and of her recently murdered mother, surround her as she writes. Her first love, Alec, killed while still a teenager in W.W.1, is also not far away, and the spirits of both her beloved childhood friend, Boulie, and of her nanny, Duffie-both of whom died in the same fire from which Boulie managed to rescue Precious-continue to hover.
So much death. And so much need for rescue. Cliffhangers abound in this rakish tale. Did Nora murder her first husband, Poppy's father? What is happening in those mysterious tunnels under Casanora? Who is Soong Chou?
Will Poppy find Precious in China? And who is Precious's father? Is it Alec or the inscrutable Soong Chou? The plot of The Empress Letters has as many twists and turns as the tunnels beneath the heroine's mansion. Almost as fascinating is how much of the interesting details are non-fiction: "Casanora is an actual place on Beach Drive,"; says Rogers. "My great-grandmother, an amazing gardener, inspired Nora. Her beautiful landscaping is still evident. There is a tunnel from the house to the sea. As a child, I wondered about it.";
Rogers is now at work completing a family saga trilogy, based upon Victoria, that spans the 20th century. The second, The Third Day Book, will take place in 1960, chronicled by Precious in letters to be given to her own daughter, Lily. The third installment, The Cheddar Letter, will be Lily's story. "The third book ends with a revelation that bonds the generations,"; says Rogers. Having spent most of her life in Victoria, Rogers comes by her subject matter honestly, but it's not fact masquerading as fiction. "The details in this novel are as true as I could make them,"; she says, "but the story is fantasy. Any "real"; characters are based on family anecdote.
"Emily Carr taught painting to my aunt Elspeth (Rogers) Cherniavsky. My mother's family and the Dunsmuirs were friends. My grandmother was friends with the Prince of Wales. My mother has a decanter with his crest on it. "I know this world as an insider/outsider, having grown up at the end of it, having observed this world of privilege."; Rogers believes that good families make for a good world. "That is the goal. There is redemption in working for peace in the family, in the community and in the world. It's a sad fact, however, that 'good' characters are seldom the stuff of riveting fiction. The reader can rest assured that Rogers' characters in The Empress Letters fall far shy of goodness. In fact, they're outrageously naughty. We await the mini-series. 1896951805
-- review by Cherie Thiessen
[BCBW 2007]
Utilizing some of her own family history for The Empress Letters, the first installment of a proposed trilogy, Rogers has revisited some of the clandestine shenanigans of the upper class on southern Vancouver Island. Many of us would not normally associate Victoria's opulent waterfront properties with opium smuggling, murder, and intrigue, but such things happened in Victoria's posh neighbourhoods.
"Victoria had a very thin skin of propriety,"; says Linda Rogers. "There were lots of tunnels during the era of opium smuggling and prohibition. The more I researched the early days, the more excited I got."; Rogers puts her research to good use in The Empress Letters, an epistolary novel that bristles with intrigue.
Poppy, Rogers's fictional heroine, is in her late twenties when she begins typing her letters to her daughter whilst on board the Empress of Asia. It's May, 1927, and the distraught young mother, en route to find her daughter, Precious, is writing to distract herself from guilty premonitions.
Her daughter, Precious, has gone missing in Peking, and it's not exactly the best of times for an exotic, privileged young foreign girl to be without her mother in China. Chiang Kai Shek and his Kuomintang are battling Mao Zedong's Communist revolutionaries, and the Japanese are wreaking havoc.
Consumed with grief at having succumbed to her daughter's entreaties to be allowed to accompany the enigmatic 'servant' Soong Chou on his family visit to Hong Kong with the bones of his niece, Boulie, Poppy has boarded the first ship available in an effort to find her. But Poppy is an unlikely rescuer.
Considerably weakened by two bouts of rheumatic fever, she may not even survive this voyage. Fortunately she's accompanied by a close friend, Tony, her husband's lover. Yes, you read that right.
Olivier, whom she married a few years previously and then left when his sexual proclivities became clear, has since left his London home to temporarily settle in Poppy's mansion, Casanora, in order to shore up the teetering household after the drug-related murder of her mother, Nora, and the subsequent loss of family income. Poppy and Olivier have continued to be the best of friends, and Poppy's affections extend to the ebullient Tony.
Poppy's story continues to unfold through letters typed over the ten days in her first class stateroom, while the ship calls at Honolulu, Yokohama, and Shanghai, where Poppy's hoped-for reunion may take place. Surrounded by the ghosts of her past, she endeavours to share all with her daughter, even though her letters may never reach their target.
The spectres of Poppy's dead father, rumored to have been shot, and of her recently murdered mother, surround her as she writes. Her first love, Alec, killed while still a teenager in W.W.1, is also not far away, and the spirits of both her beloved childhood friend, Boulie, and of her nanny, Duffie-both of whom died in the same fire from which Boulie managed to rescue Precious-continue to hover.
So much death. And so much need for rescue. Cliffhangers abound in this rakish tale. Did Nora murder her first husband, Poppy's father? What is happening in those mysterious tunnels under Casanora? Who is Soong Chou?
Will Poppy find Precious in China? And who is Precious's father? Is it Alec or the inscrutable Soong Chou? The plot of The Empress Letters has as many twists and turns as the tunnels beneath the heroine's mansion. Almost as fascinating is how much of the interesting details are non-fiction: "Casanora is an actual place on Beach Drive,"; says Rogers. "My great-grandmother, an amazing gardener, inspired Nora. Her beautiful landscaping is still evident. There is a tunnel from the house to the sea. As a child, I wondered about it.";
Rogers is now at work completing a family saga trilogy, based upon Victoria, that spans the 20th century. The second, The Third Day Book, will take place in 1960, chronicled by Precious in letters to be given to her own daughter, Lily. The third installment, The Cheddar Letter, will be Lily's story. "The third book ends with a revelation that bonds the generations,"; says Rogers. Having spent most of her life in Victoria, Rogers comes by her subject matter honestly, but it's not fact masquerading as fiction. "The details in this novel are as true as I could make them,"; she says, "but the story is fantasy. Any "real"; characters are based on family anecdote.
"Emily Carr taught painting to my aunt Elspeth (Rogers) Cherniavsky. My mother's family and the Dunsmuirs were friends. My grandmother was friends with the Prince of Wales. My mother has a decanter with his crest on it. "I know this world as an insider/outsider, having grown up at the end of it, having observed this world of privilege."; Rogers believes that good families make for a good world. "That is the goal. There is redemption in working for peace in the family, in the community and in the world. It's a sad fact, however, that 'good' characters are seldom the stuff of riveting fiction. The reader can rest assured that Rogers' characters in The Empress Letters fall far shy of goodness. In fact, they're outrageously naughty. We await the mini-series. 1896951805
-- review by Cherie Thiessen
[BCBW 2007]
Submitted on June 12, 2007 in By David.
