Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, Susan Jane Gilman
Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, Susan Jane Gilman
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven

Author: Susan Jane Gilman

Narrator: Susan Jane Gilman

Abridged: 7 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/24/2009


Synopsis

Bestselling author Susan Jane Gilman's memoir is a hilarious and harrowing journey—a modern heart of darkness filled with Communist operatives, backpackers, and pancakes. 

They were young, brilliant, and bold. They set out to conquer the world. But the world had other plans for them.

Bestselling author Susan Jane Gilman's new memoir is a hilarious and harrowing journey, a modern heart of darkness filled with Communist operatives, backpackers, and pancakes.

In 1986, fresh out of college, Gilman and her friend Claire yearned to do something daring and original that did not involve getting a job. Inspired by a place mat at the International House of Pancakes, they decided to embark on an ambitious trip around the globe, starting in the People's Republic of China. At that point, China had been open to independent travelers for roughly ten minutes.

Armed only with the collected works of Nietzsche, an astrological love guide, and an arsenal of bravado, the two friends plunged into the dusty streets of Shanghai. Unsurprisingly, they quickly found themselves in over their heads. As they ventured off the map deep into Chinese territory, they were stripped of everything familiar and forced to confront their limitations amid culture shock and government surveillance. What began as a journey full of humor, eroticism, and enlightenment grew increasingly sinister-becoming a real-life international thriller that transformed them forever.

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven is a flat-out page-turner, an astonishing true story of hubris and redemption told with Gilman's trademark compassion, lyricism, and wit.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jessaka on January 20, 2023

I almost did not read this book due to it's chick lit title. Yet, the title is beautiful.I imagined these two young Women traveling around the world and ending up in bed with various men. I was not far off. Well, I thought, what would you have done at that age? Who knows? Times have changed.So I lef......more

Goodreads review by K on July 24, 2013

I'm not sure -- maybe it's me, but I found this book surprisingly fascinating and powerful. This memoir describes Susan's adventures with her college friend Claire in the mid-1980s, as the two impulsively decide to backpack around the world. Naive and woefully unprepared, they start out in the People......more

Goodreads review by Chris on January 12, 2022

I am exhausted after reading this memoir of the author's grand adventure after college. A couple of blurbs states that it is "riveting" and a "page-turner", but I didn't feel any of that until the last 100 pages. This was a 2.5 star read that I rounded up for the interesting parts. Some of it is pre......more

Goodreads review by Shantiwallah on September 18, 2009

Not judging the book by its title, which might lead you to believe it is quite a sexy book (it’s not), I really just expected this to be another backpacker’s account of her jaunt through Asia. As someone who, like many others, has “done the jaunt” herself, I found a lot to relate to so, excuse me as......more

Goodreads review by Moonkiszt on January 02, 2021

In my experience, spontaneous is rarely the best modus operandi to ensure travel satisfaction. . . .especially not if you don't specifically prepare for the specific destination in which you want to be spontaneous. And double-especially when the place to which one is traveling is a place that is mor......more


Quotes

"Gilman proves an able and entertaining storyteller. Though there is more about China in the unabridged print version, the abridgement does keep her account flowing quickly. There is also an informative Q&A with the author at the end."—The Boston Globe