Ivy (PBSmaven) - reviewed on 3/19/2012 + 107 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

I'm sorry to say that this is a very disappointing book.
From the title, you'd assume that the book is about a Chinese woman who was won in a poker game in the west. However, the book is actually about the old west and the role of the Chinese in it. Very little, and I mean VERY little is said about Polly, a Chinese concubine whom this book is supposed to be written about. The opening chapter gives a hint of what the book "could" have been, but that's where it ends. This is not a biography of a woman's life in the old west, it's about the old west in America during the gold rush.
I found it tedious and kept hoping that somewhere the author would tie in Polly to the story but he only mentions her in passing very rarely.
I'm very disappointed. I read more then half the book and kept waiting and hoping, but it never materialized. I finally gave up. This could have been a great book but it fell totally flat in my opinion.

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