BIG TROUBLE IN CHINA
By SHERRY MIMS
STAFF WRITER
Susan Jane Gilman's "Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven" documents the author's real-life backpacking trip with a friend to 1986 Communist China. What starts out as a planned post-graduation journey derails into a potentially life-threatening misadventure that shows just how resilient the two women can be.
Recent graduates, travel enthusiasts, Lifetime Television Network fans and, well, anyone who has had a vacation go wrong will appreciate this book.
The trip takes place before Tiananmen Square, and Gilman and wealthy friend "Claire Van Houten" (most names are changed) have more than one run-in with the local authorities. But not for the reasons one might expect.
The two casual friends, who graduated from prestigious Brown University, cooked up the idea for a round-the-world journey in the wee morning hours at International House of Pancakes when they noticed the "Pancakes of Many Nations!" place mats. After that, there was no going back.
With both carrying enough supplies for a year, Gilman with an astrological love guide and Van Houten the collected works of Nietzsche, they set off. They are determined to be "travelers" not "tourists," even if that means squatting to relieve themselves while people point and stare.
Gilman is refreshingly candid about everything. Unlike Van Houten, she did not come from a wealthy background. In fact, when they start their journey and encounter challenging living conditions in Hong Kong, she begins to have severe doubts about continuing.
It's Van Houten who motivates her to continue.
That's what makes what happens next even more shocking. When strange situations keep popping up, Gilman doesn't know what to do. Van Houten's cryptic statements about intelligence organizations and her disappearing acts don't help either.
Does Van Houten know something, or is she acting out because Gilman's met a man she likes? Or is there something far more insidious going on?
Gilman's writing is superb. She's funny and makes astute observations about traveling, such as recounting backpackers trying to one-up each other. It's not uncommon to read a phrase and think, "That's happened to me."
These experiences, however, belong to Gilman, and although terrible, it makes compelling reading. The people they meet, with their supreme kindness and generosity with so little, and miraculous meetings, restore faith in humanity.
The ending may be a little too open-ended for some readers, but I found it utterly realistic. What we expect would be too convenient, but what we do find out is all the more surprising. It really does come full-circle.
"Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven," by Susan Jane Gilman, Grand Central Publishing, 306 pages, $23.99, hardcover