Book Description:

In 1994, Anchee Min made her literary debut with a memoir of growing up in China during the violent trauma of the Cultural Revolution. Red Azalea became an international bestseller and propelled her career as a successful, critically acclaimed author. Twenty years later, Min returns to the story of her own life to give us the next chapter, an immigrant story that takes her from the shocking deprivations of her homeland to the sudden bounty of the promised land of America, without language, money, or a clear path. 

It is a hard and lonely road. She teaches herself English by watching Sesame Street, keeps herself afloat working five jobs at once, lives in unheated rooms, suffers rape, collapses from exhaustion, marries poorly and divorces.But she also gives birth to her daughter, Lauryann, who will inspire her and finally root her in her new country. Min’s eventual successes-her writing career, a daughter at Stanford, a second husband she loves-are remarkable, but it is her struggle throughout toward genuine selfhood that elevates this dramatic, classic immigrant story to something powerfully universal.

My Thoughts:

I read the Red Azalea years ago and loved it so I could hardly wait to get my hands on The Cooked Seed to learn more about Anchee Min, in her adulthood.  

Boy she has been through a lot.  It almost seems like two lifetimes full.  After moving to the U.S. her struggle just to be able to stay was amazing.  Add to that her needing to find employment, learning English etc.  She tried to talk English with people as much as possible to learn it but that wasn’t always possible so she watched Sesame Street.  What a great idea, too bad they don’t have and adult ESL version.  I bet there are a lot of new immigrants out there who would watch it.

Min made some good choices and some bad in her new life.  Here first marriage was bad.  He talks her into buy a house to restore and make apartments but neither one has a clue with what they are doing and he pretty much gives up right away.  She keeps trying while he just sits.  One good thing came out of the marriage though, Lauryann.  With Lauryann,  Anchee finally takes real control over her life.  She leaves her deadbeat husband, for starters.

She met her second husband, the writer Lloyd Lofthouse through a dating service.  You know you he’s a keeper when he agrees to date her with her daughter in tow!  Actually, I have personally had the privilege of both reading his works and working with Lloyd and he is a gem! (Both he as a person and his writing).

I actually loved The Cooked Seed even more than The Red Azalea.  I highly recommend it, especially to those who love reading about the immigrant experience.  

5/5

I received the ebook version from Edlweiss for my honest opinion.
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Book Description:

For fans of The Paris Wife, Loving Frank, The Other Boleyn Girl and Shanghai Girls . . . a novel inspired by the true-life love affair between Sigmund Freud and his sister-in-law, Minna Bernays.

Minna Bernays is an overeducated woman with limited options. Fired yet again for speaking her mind, she finds herself out on the street and out of options. In 1895 Vienna, even though the city is aswirl with avant-garde artists and writers and revolutionary are still very few options for women besides marriage. And settling is not something Minna has ever done.

Out of desperation, Minna turns to her older sister, Martha, for help. But Martha has her own problems — six young children, a host of physical ailments, a household run with military precision, and an absent, overworked, disinterested husband who happens to be Sigmund Freud. Freud is a struggling professor, all but shunned by his peers and under attack for his theories, most of which center around sexual impulses, urges, and perversions. While Martha is shocked and repulsed by her husband’s “pornographic” work, Minna is fascinated.

Minna is everything Martha is not—intellectually curious, an avid reader, stunning. But while she and Freud embark on what is at first simply an intellectual courtship, something deeper is brewing beneath the surface, something Minna cannot escape.

My Thoughts:

I was really excited when I heard about this book.  I tend to gravitate towards historical fiction with famous people that I know a bit about.  Since one of my degrees is in social work, I took quite a few psychology courses and learned about Sigmund Freud and his theories.  I didn’t know he had a mistress but it didn’t surprise me.

Though it has be speculated and some evidence has come to light, the authors explain at the end that it isn’t a proven fact.  What made the speculation interesting is that it is speculated to be Freud’s sister in law, Minna.

Minna was never married and ended up moving in with the Freuds’ when she was in her late 20’s.  She was never married and lived with the Freud’s for 42 years.  Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman wrote a fiction novel based on that and what they uncovered in their research.

This book was hit and miss for me.  Sometimes it was really interesting and I couldn’t put it down and then there were times that it dragged on and I contemplated not finishing it.  However, I didn’t give up.  I loved the period detail and some of the discussions around Freuds’ theories.  The day to day details of the Freud household, I could have mostly done without. 

Towards the end, the book jumped from Vienna to England and just said that the Freuds’ received assistance in getting out of their German occupied country at the beginning of World War II.  I would have loved more detail about that.  They also just mentioned Freud’s death himself but jumped to the end of Minna’s life.  The end was strong but I found the jump a bit abrupt.  Especially, since there was less interesting detail that could have been taken out.

My favourite part of the book was the author’s note at the end.  It went into their research and what they knew to be true.  

I certainly do recommend this book for anyone who has interest in the time period and Freud.  

3/5

I received the ebook from Edelweiss for my honest opinion.

About Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman:

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