Customer Reviews (20)

Evelyn Lau-Contemporary Artistic Genius
I've read a good many non-fiction-autobiographies. This book is the mostviscerial yet cerebral, poignant, vulnerably heart-wretching; Honest, courageous mind boggling work of artistic genius, I have ever come across.

A sheer out & out mind-bender. A work of transcendent catharsis & tragic emotional metamorphosis, from a phenomenal brilliant writer.

After assimilating Ms. Lau's enthralling, somewhat beguiling stylism, one is simply left, torn asunder, as her spellbinding beautific word pictures are rendered in such astute & sultry erudition.

Evelyn Lau's comprehensive body of work is entrancingly seductive.Hauntingly beautiful & adoit; Scintillating,yet melancholy.Enigmatic & stupefying.Ultimately, I am left dumbstruck.

Her writing has an innate ability to create an obsession & infatuation in a reader,that melts away any notion of steel remnant cold calculated logic, that men may attempt to employ toward women.The games over...

On the meridian of art in written form, we find the pleatau of spirit; Immortal soul, eternal love...embodied within Evelyn Lau's art.

Once you have read her work, your life absolutely, will never be the same again...

Poor Me. I'm A Victim And It Is Everybody Else's Fault!
This is a very tiresome and tedious book about a girl named Evelyn who ran away from home at the age of 14 because her mother yelled a lot and her father was out of work most of the time. Sadly there are millions of young people in this same situation but they don't exchange an unhappy home life for the mean, homeless streets.The author devotes page after page of an endless and futilemerry-go- round of prostitution and then seeking solace through drugs. She "hooks" up with this lowlife loser named Larry who she thinks is a "nice guy" because he readily supplies her with Valium, Alcohol,Mandrax, Methadone and LSD.Evelyn tries valiantly to live up to her self created image of a tortured artist because of her scribblings in her journal but all we are left with is 276 pages of 'Poor Me" and self inflicted suffering and self pity.

Teenage ennui
Before reading this I had high expectations of it. After reading it, mostly in between classes, I'm sadly disappointed. If you're a fan of Lau's poetry you may gain some insight into them through this journal.
Honest? Yes. Brutally frank? I don't think so. Like others have said: rather than an account of struggle and hardship, all we have here is a bored teenager who did a 2-year stint as a street worker.
I also question her reason for running away. Sure, overbearing ethnic parents can be stifling and problematic when you've grown up in a western world with (somewhat) different values and idealsto those of your parents. Fair enough, they locked her in her room most of the time and forced her to study; but is that really that bad? It wasn't like they were feeding her a diet consisting of only two-minute noodles and only letting her out to have showers.

Remarkable document, less than remarkable
This is a document Evelyn kept from a remarkable phase of her life as a drug addict and prostitute on the streets of Vancouver, and a teenage and ethnic one at that. It shows some of her survival instincts which exist within her and which fight to keep her alive through it all. However, as I read on, I found myself having less and less respect for her. It went from respect for a person who fought to get out of circumstances in life she couldn't stand - not that it was horrid or anything, just not to her liking - to thinking how pathetic she was to have just wanted the change and then making herself out to be a victim of everything. I don't believe she owns up to much, or if she did, it was all "talk", cause her actions didn't back it up. By the end, she came across as a spineless jellyfish with the survival instincts of one to fight and survive whenever it happened, but her life became meaningless without the adversity that gave it a purpose to survive. She can't be happy as a "normal" person without death half staring her in the face or walking closely behind, but is a victim otherwise cause it's stalking her so closely. Interesting insight into her life, yes, but it became difficult to read without judgment, and turns monotonous of the same "routine" after a while. Better than the average book, sure, but not sure by how much. Thus the 4 stars.

The New Ann Frank
Once you start this book, Evelyn becomes you. I had to just keep reading and reading...to finish it, desperate for a happy ending.It is the TRUE diary of a young girl - dabbling in prositution, drugs, therapy and homelessness. This book offers great insight in to the mind of a adolesent, and reminds one of a not so distant past of battling the same demons.Evelyn's world view is set to critique all that crosses her path...including our correctional services, family services, and basic social acceptability.Pretty smart for a 15 year old.Many wonderful thoughts, feelings and ideas can be gained from reading this book.I would recommend this book as required reading for youths who typically DON'T read.Its a great starting point and is sure to capture their attention.But nonetheless...a great story that in the end, any reader feels privilaged to have been on the journey. ... Read more

Book Description
In this latest collection of short fiction, Evelyn Lau's elegant prose explores the complexity of human relationships. Though they long to be chosen, the women in Lau's stories are drawn to men they can't have, men whose allure fades the more available they become. The wives and lovers of those men confront each other with a discordant mix of admiration and jealousy.

In the novella, "Choose Me," Becky's attraction to Warner is equalled in intensity by her fascination with Annabelle, his aging but still glamorous wife. Zoe, the young poet of "Family," retreats from Douglas when she realizes that their involvement will never rival the "grand passion" he once shared with his wife. In "Suburbia," Belinda is increasingly disgusted by every aspect of her lover, as more and more she comes to see him through his wife's disappointed gaze.

With a precise eye and a deft touch, Lau explores the ambiguous motives that propel her characters into emotional and sexual entanglements. Lau's use of language is controlled, and her images sensuously described. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Love under the microscope
Evelyn Lau has done it once again (see also Fresh Girls, and InsideOut, though they are sometimes hard to find, esp outside Canada). Her writing is like a medical dissection of emotions and relationships. Sharp, biting, scathingly unsentimental. Beautiful concise words and images. Here are women we all know, and probably in many ways ourselves... drawn to the mentor, the older professor, the married man. In a relationship with someone twice our age, what do we do when he is ready for retirement and we are living our lives to the fullest. Dark, somewhat bleak. I recommend, if you like tight realistic prose about emotions and human interaction.

Sad and bleak fiction
This is the saddest book. Self-hating young women dating rude and obnoxious old men.
Ms. Lau seems to eroticize the geriatric, it is a pervasion that I cannot get into.
Bleak, even repulsive fiction, about even bleaker people trying to have sad and lonely sex. I can safely say that this book terrorized me.

Intensely sensual
Evelyn Lau is an incredibly intense and fascinating writer. Her words bring you closer into the character's thoughts, feelings, and actions. An amazing writer that should be cherished! From her first book "Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid" to her multiple collections of short stories, she is incredible! A must for anyone who wants to truly feel what another person is feeling. AMAZING! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

an okay book
I didn't really find this book all that interesting and appealing, although it wasn't that badly written.Basically the stories deal with prostitution and sexuality, and are influenced by the author's own experiences as a child-prostitute.Her writing was a big thing on the Canadian literature scene a while back, her being relatively young when her first works were published.If you want to sample her writing, I guess this is a good place to start; the book is relatively easy to find secondhand and is pretty short.Should only take an hour or two to read.

a new favorite.
I first became aware of Evelyn Lau after reading an excerpt of Fresh Girls on a website, and I loved it. I ordered the book immediately. All the stories in it are written with such a real quality to them. She makes things seem intensely beautiful, no matter what. She makes you see the beauty in something with her words and the way she uses them. "Mercy" is by far, my favorite story in this.

A page turner, I loved it.
this was such a great book.I first saw this book at a friends house and proceeded to pick it up.I was drawn in, and couldn't put it down.I had trouble finding it, but I odered it and It took me a few hours to read it from start to finish.I can't tell you how wonderful and exiting it was to read about someone who has a liking for s and m and related material.I found that I really related to this book, especially for someone who deals with depression every day.Lau is a great writer and I plan on buying all of her books.Highly reccommended, but as a warning, it does contain explcit material. ... Read more

Book Description
Word count: 1266. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Evelyn Lau
She is probably the greatest poet in the past 50 years. Better than anyone else for sure. Her poetry brings you close to her and her world, but not in a typical light or atmosphere. You can see her and her emotions as if they were being shared with you right there. And where her poetry goes, you go along with it. ... Read more

Book Description
Ten years after the publication of her bestselling memoir, Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid, Evelyn Lau reflects on her life, relationships and her identity as a writer.

Moving seamlessly between past and present, Lau describes how her complex, painful relationship with her parents has shaped her adult desires and thwarted her efforts to connect with both men and women. She contemplates her harrowing battles with bulimia and depression. Revisiting her life as a prostitute, she explores the extent to which it continues to distort her perception of herself and how others view her.

Above all, Lau considers herself as a writer. She reveals the supreme importance she has come to place on her writing and explains her controversial willingness to breach the boundaries between public and private in the name of art. Beautifully written, Inside Out is remarkable for its startling honesty, sensitivity and painful insight. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A masterpiece
I have got to admit that Lau has been one of authors that I have been paying a lot of attention to for the unique material she keeps on pursuing and for her'frantic'work ethics that bears enormous works.
This collection of essays offered an unusually fulfilling reading experience. The clear, candid and artful on-going report on her life distinguished herself as a rare talent once again.
Lau this time benefitted the genre and eloquently articulated a couple of issues that she had not been specific about before; her pointing out the issue of racism in Canada she ran into as a Chinese second generation since very little and how the experience formed the psyche she always succumed to; she always felt inferior and had a trouble being self-confident even before trying. Her comment adds irreplacably valuable vocabularies to Asian-American experiences. From the early and uncommon 'independance' she acquired by sacrificing her childhood, the author established her life literally on her own refusing any conpromise no matter how her life got difficult. On the surface, that could give an impression that she was a rootless hybrid of an Asian-Canadian's English literature. However, readers are to discover how much she paradoxically got fixated by her past and childhood when she was not completed by the loss of the parental affection and understanding, which caused the pain she went through being caught between a cross fire of Chinese first generation immigrant parents and the world she struggled to adjust once she stepped out of the house that she walked away one day when she decided to seek for what she could not get inside of it. Her deprived peace in youth was an outcome of selfloath the society puched into her pshyce. She had to deny and leave her root behind to survive in this society where racism was the premise. I found the gutsy statement another landmark representation of Asian women doomed to assimilate until their identity vanish since Lau's former works always understated or subtle about the issue.
Those topics in this colleciton such as depression that she could not shake off and she ultimately chose to live with to just write for she could not be happy unless she wrote, or the recognition that her impossible relationships with men who give love only if transactions of ejaculation was processed, the fear and spiritual growth a trial brought about that was filed by her former lover, were neither cheerful nor easy. Stragely enough, though, they are truly encouraging. I tried to figure out what possibly made them sound so powerful; I should name her courage as one reason. Her writing never sounds like an idletalk-essay that people could read just comfortably and forget when they are done. Lau's words comes from her real pain. As she made it clear, she never minds sacrificing herself as a fuel to ignite fire of life of her writing. Even though it would cause another enormous pain, she is the fearless writer who knows what it takes to write. What could we do about it but applaude to her?

The continuing journey
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who read Runaway and wanted to know what happened to Evelyn Lau.This book tells the reader about what has happened in the 10 years since Runaway was published.She discusses the long-term effects in her life of being a prostitute and the depression that she copes with.The language that Ms. Lau uses to describe her emotions, her perceptions and her thoughts is absolutely beautiful.In my opinion, she is one of the great writers of our time.

However, this book is not light reading.It discusses very serious issues and Ms. Lau is not afraid to explore her humanity within the essays that she writes.An excellent book!

i'm much better at reading than writing
but I really loved this book, and felt it needed a review.

It's a very quick read, and covers alot of Runaway: diary of a street kid. So some people may not like the repetativness of it.

She talks about depression, parents (and her relationship with them) her struggle with prostitution and more.

It isn't a happy read, but if like me, you do suffer from depression and like to read something you can identify with it's good.

She also talks about herself as a writer, why she writes how she almost stopped..
I'm a huge fan of evelyn lau and I wasnt' disapointed by this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Lau's poetry is excellent
Evelyn Lau is a Canadian genius and her poetry is so truthful and wrapped with pain. I love Lau's courage her courage to explore the depths of her agony and despair. She does not hate men Lau is heterosexual for the record. She is just being honest the poems were written when Lau was in her early twenties. Natually when a person is in their early twenties they think differently then when they are an adult.

in defense of evelyn's poetry...
i love the way she writes about dark subjects, which range from adultery to child abuse...she tries on many masks in her poetry and they are always breathtaking. she is gifted with imagery and many of the poems i could see as clear as paintings as i was reading them. you have a right to criticize her, but i wonder could youdo any better? i doubt it. they registered strongly with me on an emotional level. i love artists who dont let political correctness influence their work. evelyn is also a fine novelist, too...

Same same and more of the same
Most people have disturbing sexual experiences some times in thier lifes and yes, Everlyn Lau's were worse than most. Men do treat women with disrespect and being the other woman is no fun. Although, I agree with allthose premises, and agree that these topics should be explored in poetry, Icannot condone talking about it over and over and over again in the samecollection.

If everlyn condenced some of these poems with similar ideasinto longer ones, and stopped revisiting the same topics throughout thewhole book, I think she could be a good poet. For this collection, she isan immature writer, lacking in experience, and different perspective. Apartfrom the henious experience she lived through on the streets, that somehowmust have -in the Canadian Literary scene- gained her sympathy points, Icannot understand why she is hailed as such a celebrated writer. Decent:yes, great: no.

Erotic and odd
Evelyn writes about her days on the streets and as a prostitute. She hates men, judging by these poems,and judging from her "Diary of a Street Kid" she hates herself, and is self-destructive and self-absorbed atthe same time. Kind of hard to figure. But she is a good writer; brightwith obvious talent. I just wish she would fall in love, and write someless disturbing poetry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Raw and fascinating
This writer worked as a Vancouver prostitute while she shaped her career as a professional writer.A journey through the eyes of a young girl with so many dreams.Evelyn Lau's writing resembles an artist picking the perfect colors for a painting.Beautifully written, poetic and surreal and yet the subject matter is gruesome, humiliating and real. ... Read more

Book Description
Fiona, an accomplished young artist, falls in love with Raymond. An older married man.  Their haunted relationship evolves in a floating melange of restaurants and hotel rooms against the looming backdrop of their separate, anonymous cities.  Although erotically charged, the affair is never consummated - yet the love Fiona feels intensifies into an obsession that continues to possess her long after Raymond leaves her.  Along the way, at receptions and restaurant tables, at dinner parties and on trips, Fiona meets other men and women in relationships that are coming together or falling apart-friendships, marriages, love affairs - each offering their own version of love's nature.  And, throughout, Raymond's wife Helen holds a central place.  For Fiona, Helen herself is "the other woman" - mysterious, enviable and untouchable.


... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Amazing precision, horrifying accuracy
The reason I still have not changed my mind about Lau's talent even after long since she came out as a former runaway-a child hooker was her frightening greed for language, period. That is what makes her work transcend every category she could fall in and makes it more universal. It is universal, indeed.
In Other Women, I was entirely amazed by her tanacious observation and staying power to translate the almost physically brutal pang of loving somebody who is beyond her reach into the art of language. As usual, she possesses the gesture of the proud masochist, which has been her turf. I often suspected if it is the stance she had developed out of the helplessness in her childhood/teenage days with no choice. She seemed to be growing into such a complexed young woman who'd get mixed up with paternal protection and manly affection of which she did not know to seek after. That is what caused the fatal obsession Fiona had with Raymond.
The way Fiona fell and got desperate was precisely described and examined by the prose that made every trivial scene appear different and fresh, even the cliche of affair an older man who never leaves his marriage could have counting on some kind of fidelity of a young woman who is drowning in the emotion.
Even the cruelty was beautifully woven by her poetic and poised art of language. The highlight of the whole novel, however, was the shocking disclosure of the fact how lonely and unsatisfied people are, no matter who you are, men, women, married and unmarried. The discovery was solely attributed to the persepective of Lau's, who's distanced from the regular social structure, this time, marriage. Contemplating on being a mistress and taking a close look at marriage from outside the institution that regulates people's desire gave the work the enormous insight that reveals the puzzlement almost everybody seems to experience behind the content front, including the author herself.
I have got the impression that Lau might be the kind of writer who gets oneself burned to see and know what it feels like just to write it real. This is the work the guts resulted. It is the valuable documentation of the modern day theme we are doomed to face; Alienation is universal. Lau never falied to report it with grace and brutality of her art of suffering.

Crystal clear, emotional image of an "Other Woman" figure
The novel, Other Women, illustrates the pathetic situation of a single woman's unrequited love for a married man.Fiona, a young twenty-something artist meets a married man, Raymond, a powerful and socially prominent CEO who is old enough to be her father.His business deals require him to travel often, and the two of them begin a year or two of meetings in various hotels in different cities and in Fiona's apartment.

Raymond never considers their relationship as anything more than a diversion. To him she is just as a playmate.Much of the physical intimacy they have is more like that of a prostitute and john, not like lovers.Early on in the relationship he even asked her if she had found a man yet.Raymond tells her how much he loves his wife.Fiona has fallen so hard and so deep for the man that she ignores these and other many other negative signals.Later, after Raymond tells her point blank that he will never leave his wife, she still persists.

Once Fiona understands the importance of Raymond's wife to him, she becomes obsessed with her.This is because Fiona wants to be her.In her fantasies she physically destroys Raymond's wife so she can take his place.

The book has a very poetic feel.The style is slightly reminiscent of a journal, in a good way. Much of it is in the present tense. Much of what Fiona says toward or about Raymond is said in his absence, in the second person.It suggests an inner dialogue. It is as if the affair was in the past and Fiona is reliving it emotionally.In the beginning of the book, the style seems a little awkward, but the frequent images and metaphors are consistently excellent and carry the reader very well.The use of the second person in addressing Raymond works very well also. Past the mid-point of the book, I felt impelled to find out how Fiona's situation would get resolved.

At the beginning of the story, in my mind, I condemned Fiona for her lack of ethics and poor judgement.But mid-way through I began to have some sympathize for her, as it became clear she was a prisoner of her own emotions.Eventually, the almost unendurable pain forces Fiona to face the reality of the situation.Once she accepted it, her infatuation broke.What more can we expect from a person than to learn from their experiences?

Everyday life for some
My friend sent me this book a few days ago.I opened it's pages and begin to read.I began relating to this character, and seeing her as myself for a bit there.I felt like I was inside this story.Fiona, the main character or main character emphasis--is a desperate woman in love with a married man.Not totally unbelieveable...it happens everyday.The narraitve voice Evelyn Lau takes as this character is very vivid and honest.

this is a very alive, and hip piece of new age writing.It surpasses most fiction, mainly because it has a emotional fixation with the reader, you are either angry, depressed, happy or totally miffed at the aftions of each character.Raymond, Fiona's love whom is married, will not leave his wife of 15 years for Fiona and woman he has never even sexual intercourse with.

Fiona in a desperate attempt to persue Raymond and make her dream of eternal love with him ends up becoming an alcoholic...she spends most of hert time doting and thinking of him.Every man she sees reminds her of Raymond...nothing wrong with that.Is it mere obsession or real love?Who knows...I won't tell my opinion...

The lyrical aspect of each sentence keeps you engrossed the whole time, and you almost want more when you finish.i loved her wording, and her narritive voice...very powerful and different I must say!

poetic suffering as only lau can do it
i keep trying to convince myself this isn't in our universe. why would a brilliant, successful woman totally destroy herself in every way possible for the attentions of a man who cares nothing for her? yet the ride along the way is compelling, poetic, sometimes comic and terrifying. not so much a story as an enumeration of ways to suffer and feel wretched. the line about the ethereal feeling she gets from throwing up 3 times in one evening still haunts me. ... Read more

Book Description
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Distributed by ProQuest Information and Learning ... Read more