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The Teahouse Fire
 
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The Teahouse Fire (Hardcover)

by Ellis Avery (Author)
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (28 Dec 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1594489300
  • ISBN-13: 978-1594489303
  • Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.7 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,212,681 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Financial Times, January 5th 2008

The tea ceremony becomes a tiny stage on which grand passions are enacted... Avery captures all this with the emotional poise befitting her characters, and great sensual pleasure. Her novel is a rather beautiful thing: all the more so for emulating the values of another world --This text refers to the Paperback edition.


Observer, January 6th, 2008

A rich story, to be savoured for its detail rather than its plot --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A feast of the senses, 22 Mar 2008
By M. Demian (Canterbury, Kent, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Teahouse Fire (Paperback)
Well, either I've read a different book from poor 'old decaf' above, or it just goes to show that you don't buy a book for its cover! Presumably the previous reviewer was hoping for an Orientalist potboiler á là Memoirs of a Geisha. Thankfully, The Teahouse Fire is so much more. Avery evokes a place and time in which history is kinship and the aesthetic is political, such that the fortunes of an entire family stand or fall by the presentation of the wrong tea bowl. The experience of her protagonist, Aurelia/Urako, is as much a coming-of-age story as it is one of her emergence into knowledge of a world to which she came in utter ignorance. Because of this, her acquisition of language, of social rituals, and of chado (the way of tea) are all simultaneously her growing awareness of the perils of loyalty and the impossibility of desire. It is a story as exquisitely composed as the ancient tea house in which Aurelia's tale truly begins. Definitely stay away if you are uninterested in minutely observed relationships, the folding of historical events into a character's gesture or choice of garment, or the joy of hard-won love. This book is for the rest of us.
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2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars What a load of old deccaf, 13 Feb 2008
By J. Lockwood (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Teahouse Fire (Paperback)
Boring, dull, unclear, lacking passion, dissapointing, no plot. Our book club loved the cover, and were so unimpressed with the story.
It is as if the author has been studying the tea ceremony and just wants to tell you everything she knows about it, except we could not follow any of it.
Too long and like a text book. We would never recommend it to anyone.
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4.0 out of 5 stars the teahouse fire, 14 Sep 2009
By Charlotte A. Thomson "CharlyThomson" (Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Teahouse Fire (Paperback)
Beautifully written with an unexpected ending.. the prose was gripping and a great insight into past Japanese culture. Only criticism is that it seemed a little rushed at the end but recommended
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars not recommended
It started off rather slow and uninteresting, but I persevered expecting it to get better. Really quite boring to read, the only time it got interesting was in the last few pages... Read more
Published 6 months ago by bam

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulously intricate story
Feast of the senses has definitely got this book spot on. I loved it for the detailed and gently paced view into another era. One of my favourite books of the year.
Published 13 months ago by Felicity

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