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Thousand Pieces of Gold

ruthanne lum mccunn

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Lalu Nathoy's father called his thirteen-year-old daughter his treasure, his "thousand pieces of gold," yet when famine strikes northern China in 1871, he is forced to sell her. Polly, as Lalu is later called, is sold to a brothel, sold again to a slave merchant bound for America, auctioned to a saloonkeeper, and offered as a prize in a poker game. This biographical novel is the extraordinary story of one woman's fight for independence and dignity in the American West.

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1981

This edition

Format
352 pages, Paperback
Published
August 25, 2004 by Beacon Press
ISBN
9780807083819
ASIN
080708381X
Language
English

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About the author

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ruthanne lum mccunn

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
36(36%)
4 stars
31(31%)
3 stars
33(33%)
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0(0%)
1 stars
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100 reviews All reviews
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DavideTiz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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One of the best books I've read this year. I understand that chances are that it's not entirely historically accurate, however it was still illuminating, and I would recommend to anyone who likes historical fiction or generally historical reads.
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iced_lemon_tea
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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The story of Lalu, a young Chinese girl, sold by her father for two bags of seed is roughly based on the real character, Polly Bemis. Lalu is eventually brought to America and sold to a brothel and then to an innkeeper in the West during the Gold Rush. There she struggles to survive with the help of a friend Charlie Bemis. Their lives in the American West offer a western unlike many others I've read.
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ashraf_khan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Lu pour le travail, je voulais m'assurer qu'il s'agissait d'un livre jeunesse, vu que le sujet et le livre en lui-même pouvaient faire croire que ce n'était pas le cas.
Et je sais toujours pas. Peut-être est-ce la traduction, mais le style est confus, on ne comprend pas toujours la géographie des choses ou les actions, et une photo de Polly le jour de son mariage indique 1914 dans la partie de sa vie allant jusqu'à... 1894. Ce genre d'erreur ajoutant donc au gros sentiment de confusion.
Mais à ce style assez basique et rapide qui s'adaptera it à un public plus jeune s'ajoute des descriptions parfois assez dures qui font s'interroger sur le type de public vise.
La vie de Lalu Nathoy/Polly Bemis est bien trop survolée pour qu'on puisse de plonger dans l'histoire : on s'attarde sur un événement, avant de sauter des années entre deux paragraphes, voire 30 ans entre la fin d'une partie et le début de la suivante !
Bref, contente d'avoir découvert ce personnage de pionnière chinoise, mais vraiment, la page Wikipedia est plus intéressante.
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Derenor
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Three stars because the writing is not very well done. But it may still be worth reading, because the era (gold rush) and main character (Chinese woman, raised in poverty, brought to the United States during a time when Chinese people - especially women - had no rights, were slaves at a time when other slaves had been freed. The author has clearly done her research, and stitched together a novelized version of the tiny evidence of an actual woman who won over odds. To her benefit, the life story isn't embroidered with (overmuch) romanticism and happy endings - it reads real and difficult, as it must have been. But the frustration, for me, is that the results of her research are underexamined, and the novelized aspects are too thin and sparse. The narrative skips ahead and leaves readers imagining - normally a good thing! - but ultimately, inadequate.
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Lpopo4lyfe
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A small-ish book. Vaguely graphic in a couple of spots. And past the first part of her being sold and taken to Idaho, the 2nd half of the story is basically just summarizing the rest of her life. Interesting, but this could have been told in a couple of pages.
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