Kathy Harrison is not the kind of person who can just sit back and watch others suffer. She isn't the kind of person who feels like making a charitable contribution is doing her part to make the world a better place. Kathy Harrison is one of a special breed of people: someone who is willing to make sacrifices in order to make others happy. For Kathy, those sacrifices mean opening up her home --- and her heart --- to the neediest children in the world. Kathy Harrison is a foster parent but, more importantly, she is a hero to over one hundred children that she has helped through their toughest times.

In ANOTHER PLACE AT THE TABLE, Harrison makes no attempts to glamorize her role as a foster parent. She doesn't make herself out to be a saint. She simply tells it like it is, complete with the disheartening stories of children who have been neglected, abused and abandoned. But throughout the struggles she recounts in her book, there is always a glimmer of light: the children she has helped rehabilitate, the foster children who have found wonderful permanent homes, and the children who Harrison and her husband have adopted themselves. Despite her battles with the social services system, Kathy Harrison has made a difference.

ANOTHER PLACE AT THE TABLE is emotionally draining and fulfilling at the same time. While the subject matter is not lighthearted, the writing is excellent and the reading is fast-paced. Harrison has presented an open, honest view of her life --- faults included. Perhaps that is what makes the book exceptional.

Reflecting on the stories in this book, the phrase "Truth is stranger than fiction" comes to mind. In a world where so many of us live such comfortable lives with caring families, it is hard to believe that the events in this book really happened. And no invented character could rival the personalities of those living in the Harrison household. ANOTHER PLACE AT THE TABLE tells not only the story of Kathy Harrison and her foster children but also the story of foster families across the nation. It will bring you to tears and will make you angry. It won't make you laugh and it doesn't have a happy ending. But it will make you think about the foster care system, and maybe it will encourage you to make a difference.

--- Reviewed by Melissa Brown

Another Place at the Table is the story of a family who progress from adopting two children in need to becoming full time/overtime/all the time foster parents of handfuls of children with major 'issues.' But more than that, it's a story of the social services quagmire, the birth mothers of these kids, and the kids themselves.
Of interest to all who like the truth in human interest stories.
And besides that, it's well written. Read it, and pass it on to a friend. Or better yet, buy two copies and GIVE one to a friend.

Kathy's Harrison's memoir of her life as a foster parent to over one hundred children is at times funny, sad, and heart-wrenching, but always completely honest. She is honest about her own failures and weaknesses, about the difficulty in fostering troubled children, about the many shortcomings of the foster care system, and about the tremendous need each child in that system has for a loving, attentive family. She sugarcoats nothing, yet manages to show the reader each sweet, loving, unique child she took in under the labels of "abused," "troubled" and "mentally ill."

I began this book as someone who never imagined that I would want to be a foster parent, and finished it with the inspiration to pursue it as soon as possible. Harrison is not a superhero, as I previously imagined foster parents to be; she is an ordinary person who has given an extrodinary piece of herself to those members of our society who need it most. Her story, and that of the children she loves, deserves to be read.

There is no doubt that Kathryn Harrison can hold a readers attention in the palm of her hand like no other author out there. Her previous work, "The Seal Wife", "The Binding Chair", "Poison", "Exposure" and my personal favorite "The Kiss" are some of the most powerful, complex and impossible to put down.

Ms. Harrison's newest book, "Seeking Rapture - Scenes From A Woman's Life" are selected stories from a life of many levels. From the abandonment of a mother, betrayal of a father, motherhood and lighter mood stories of cheating on her driver's test, Ms. Harrison's work is never boring and always effective.

"Seeking Rapture" is a wonderful collection of prose from an exceptionally talented writer who never seems to shy away from the taboo or shocking and, I really admire her for that.

While Kathryn Harrison is in a New Delhi hotel lobby she hears the following spoken on Indian TV by an ascetic: "Human Destiny is a field that is sown with misfortune." And this pretty much sums up this collection of intelligent, insightful, funny, sad recollections or "Scenes from a Woman's Life" by Harrison.
In "Seeking Rapture," Harrison lays bare her soul, opens up her veins and in the process reveals a tortured relationship with her family and specifically her mother: "Mysteriously, unexpectedly, this stranger (a Christian Scientist practitioner) had ushered me into an experience I cannot help but call rapture. I felt myself separated from my flesh and from all earthly things...I had no words for what happened---I have few now, almost forty years later...I learned at aged six, that transcendence was possible: that spirit could conquer matter, and that therefore I could overcome whatever obstacles prevented my mother's loving me. I could overcome myself."
But like many who have tortured relationships with a parent, Harrison cannot help but be the dutiful daughter and when her mother becomes ill, she attends to her: "In trying to explain why she (Harrison's mother) had been so remote, my mother told me that inside herself she had discovered a fortress, assembled brick by brick by psychic brick to defend herself against my grandmother. 'The problem is,' she said, starting to cry, 'I don't know the way out. I'm stuck inside myself."
So much of this book is so honest and probing that you will have a hard time reading through some sections without wincing at the truthful, heartfelt prose. But what you also take with you after the last page is read is the feeling that for Harrison these recollections equal catharsis. As she writes in "Mother's Day Card" when she talks to her dead mother at the side of her children's beds: "Each night, by their beds, knees mortified by Lego, elbows planted among stuffed animals, I'm being rehabilitated."

Kathryn Harrison's The Seal Wife is quite an intense read. It is the story of Bigelow Greene, a young man who moves to Alaska in 1915 to establish a weather station. He becomes obsessed with a silent Aleut woman he becomes sexually involved with and when she mysteriously disappears, his world, and perhaps his sanity begin to crumble. He becomes involved with another silent woman and his simple life grows more and more complex. The brutal Alaskan landscape serves as an excellent backdrop for this novel and its language. The Seal Wife is certainly not for the faint of heart--Bigelow is obsessed with sex and Harrison is not afraid to delve deeply into that obsession. If you can take that, try this intense read. It's hard to put down.

Kathryn Harrison, author of "The Kiss" and "The Binding Chair," underscores her reputation as a writer of compelling fiction with this tale of passion and obsession on the desolate Alaskan frontier. Fred Stella provides a superior reading.

It is 1915 when Bigelow, a young scientist, is dispatched to build a weather observatory in Anchorage. He is optimistic and enthusiastic, little realizing what life will be like in an arctic railroad town peopled by men and precious few women. The nights are endless and lonely.

Before long he is held sway by a seemingly unknowable woman, Aleut. She is not his only obsession - he designs a kite intended to fly higher than any kite has ever flown.

Harrison's recreation of an icy landscape in all its beauty and danger is spectacular. Stella's reading illuminates that world and her words.

- Gail Cooke

Kathryn Harrison's THE SEAL WIFE is far and away her finest work, and one of the finest works of fiction published this year. Written in a very spare style, Harrison doesn't waste a word, a paragraph or a chapter in telling this story of a US government scientist sent to the wilds of Alaska in 1915. Bigelow's assignment is to map the weather patterns of the area, where railroads and infrastructure are to be built, extracting the riches of gold, furs and other precious commodities. Bigelow embarks upon an ambitious quest to construct the biggest kite known, which will aid him in understanding the changeable nature of the region's weather. The kite itself becomes a metaphor for a man's quest for unattainable love, his desire to conquer nature, and the consequences of reaching too far outside one's known experiences in life.

Bigelow has three relationships through the course of the story: one with the kite, which consumes not only his intellect and emotions, but great periods of his time every day; a physical and strangely emotionally distant relationship with an Aleut woman whose name and background he never knows fully. Thirdly, he has another physical and highly emotional liaison with a young woman who communicates only through song.

Harrison's descriptions of the Alaskan frontier with all its vastness, great white blankets of snow and ice, and the long stretches of light and darkness bring the reader into Bigelow's setting like no other novel I can remember.

THE SEAL WIFE is the finest example of the novelist's craft! I would really, really like to see her write into a screenplay. This is a story of great drama veiled by the whiteness of Alaska, and the loneliness of a man's soul. Beautifully done, Kathryn Harrison!!

Kathryn Harrison is one of my favorite writers, but of all her five books this is the worst. In substance it is nearly identical to "The Kiss", which is a superior piece of work.

Kathryn Harrison weaves the reader inside her detailed writing in "Thicker than Water" with extreme craft and precision. Her subject matter is real and disturbing, but at the same time her writing is beautiful and multi-layered. Unlike "The Kiss" and "Exposure," she strays from the mainstream to experiment in this poetic-prose masterpiece.

Kathryn Harrison's debut novel is a masterpiece of darkness. In the same lyrically beautiful words that read more like a poem than prose, Harrison magically weaves a tale of a daughter who is both forgotten and clung to. Although melodrama abounds in this book, Harrison has it all well under control and the characterizations and pacing are just perfect. This is a book that will haunt you, years after you finish the last word.

When I first began to read Lady Chatterley's Lover I thought it was going to be quite a chore. I'm used to flowery language and all that, but I just wasn't in the mood for what I anticipated to be a sex-charged love story. Much to my surprise I got MUCH more from this wonderful classic.

D.H. Lawrence makes some striking observations about the state of the social classes in post WWI England, as well as providing some good insights into tough individual decisions we make in regard to relationships. I had limited knowledge of the post-war subject beforehand, but I felt that I learned a great deal in the process of reading. At times the book seemed repetitive, as if Lawrence were beating me over the head with his message, sacrificing character and plot in the process, but after all was said and done I couldn't say that it was a bad book. It's a very insightful, multi-layered work and I'm very glad I read it. The fact that the book was widely banned from publication in its early days is just another tempting reason to read it although, by today's standards, what was so risqué then borders on the ridiculous for us now. As long as you remind yourself of the time period in which it was written you'll be just fine...the laughs and raised eyebrows in conjunction with more serious themes are a pleasant mix.

As with any good novel there are several levels on which this book may be read. Taken factually, here a woman forsakes her incapacitated husband and takes the gamekeeper of their estate as her lover. Pretty ugly scenario! How can such a cruel action be justified? Lawrence is not afraid to take on this formidable challenge.

To some people there is absolutely no issue here. When you marry, you commit yourself exclusively to your mate. Period! Case closed! But in real life, the matter is not so simple, unless you choose to make it so.

On a deeper level a marriage inherently has hidden strings attached. It requires an honest effort by both partners to commit to the marriage, to sense their partner's needs, and to respond to them honestly and with sensitivity. If one mate is not perceptive, not doing their part, not "truly interested" in the marriage, then the marriage is in reality already dissolved, albeit not legally. This was the case with Lady Chatterly and her husband. It was also the case with the gamekeeper and his wife. Lawrence had to courage to recognize and to address this marriage problem, which probably is more common today than we would care to admit.

The level at which I most liked this novel was in the descriptions of the actual physical encounters between the Lady and her lover. I have not counted them but there are perhaps four or five, all under different circumstances, all resulting in different degrees of satisfaction. Which suggests to me tht the sex act, in itself, is an almost neutral event. What gives it meaning are the attitudes and sensitivities that its participants bring to the occasion.

At its deepest level sex is a reverent act, a sacrament. It is an uncompromising, fully trustful yielding of one's body to the care and love of another person. The result can be the most glorious feeling a human can experience. It can also be the most degrading feeling in the world. In this novel Lawrence follows the Lady and her lover through their progressing relationship. The novel can serve the reader as an inspiring view of the great beauty and joy that a loving relationship may eventually engender.

Should teenagers read this book? In my opinion, no. Nevertheless, they will. But, like Shakespeare, they will not be able to absorb its wealth. I encourage them to save its reading for their later years when they are trying to bring new riches to their lives. Sort of like saving the icing on the cake, and eating it last. I think Lawrence would like that.

Many people dismiss this book as nothing but pervertedness and filthiness. They fail to see the beauty of this tale. This book deserves literary merit, for it's a brave masterpiece. Not, as one prosecutor put it, "dirt for dirt's sake."

This book should not be seen as a piece of work advertising pornography, but rather as a mere attack against industrialization. Perhaps Lawrence, through the tale of Lady Chatterley and her lover, was trying to bring a message across about industry (Clifford Chatterley's coal mine) and the working class (significantly the gamekeeper, Mellors). But, of course, we can't overlook the endless romance between Lady Chatterley and her lover, for it is what this story is about.

The fact that it contains that little four-lettered Anglo-Saxon word that begins with an "F" is more reason why this book deserves literary merit, for it is one of the first and foremost important works of literature to contain it. Now, of course, it is hard to find a book, a movie, or a song without that famous word.

If D. H. Lawrence should be remembered a thousand years from now, it should be for writing this story. He was a very courageous, very daring person to have written it. This taboo of a story is one that will stay in the reader's mind forever.

(Note: If you are to read this book, I'd recommend the unexpurgated version.)

I think that the book is pretty good so far, but it does have a few things that I can't quite relate to or understand. Most people in today's society don't get pointed out for commiting adultery. It's like an everyday thing now. People just don't do that anymore. I do think that is was great to see how the people back then viewed certain quailties and how they carried out their religious beliefs. To me, this was a story about a woman named Hester Prynne who was caught up in a bad love triangle. She was married to a scholar who had sent her ahead to Boston. She got caught up and fell in love with the minster Dimmesdale. She got pregnant and had a daughter who she named Pearl because she was the most precious and expensive thing in her life. All of her earnings went towards her. They made Hester and baby Pearl sit out on a scaffold allday to let the people come by and look at them and ridicule them. Hester had to wear a scarlet A on her bosom from hence forth. She made the most of it, though. Pearl had an intuition and she could recognize how was good and who was bad. She knew the Chillingworth, Hester's husband, was a bad man. She felt a connection with Dimmesdale. One day when Pearl was about seven years old, she asked her mother what did the scarlet letter mean and why did Dimmesdale always cover up his heart. Hester had still not revealed who the father of her child was because she loved him that much. As far as I have read the guilt is eating Dimmesdale up and he wants to tell the people but he doesn't know how. In the end you should try your best not to keep hurtful secrets inside because in the end it will be the thing that destroy's you the most!

Yes, I enjoyed this book. The STORY was good...I am sure you have an idea about it so I won't waste time with a summary. The SETTING was great...Hawthorne brought 17th Century frontier Boston alive with his stunning descriptions. The CHARACTERS were ok...yes, only ok, because I never found myself loving or hating any of them, which to me is evidence that the author was successful with his creation. But...The SYMBOLISM is what makes this book, what makes it a classic!...This book is a brilliant essay on how important it is to abide by a conscience. One mishap can lead you down a path towards destruction. BUT aiding in that destruction were Christians who were more unforgiving then the heathen around them...The christian who reads this book should learn that forgiveness was the #1 thing Christ taught and expects from us! (i.e. He who is merciful shall obtain mercy). BUT what I learned most from this book was how important it is to understand Gods grace! God is not some powerful ogre waiting to punish but a friend waiting to forgive. If this frontier town only could have known this how different their experience would have been!

However, I think this book was cheated because I read it right after the stunning 'Grapes of Wrath' and it simply could not compare, overall, and therefore can not receive the elite five star status! Still a must read if you have never...!

If stories of sacrifice, strength, commitment and love perk your interests, then this may be gratifying reading material for you. Hawthorne's text, The Scarlet Letter, requires concentration and thought to comprehend some of the wording. This book has a copious amount of run-on sentences which makes it seem way too drawn out. I also found it challenging to follow the plot and theme because of the ample amount of detail provided about each character and the various situations. I can see why The Scarlet Letter is considered a classic, but I would not recommend it to anyone.

Memoirs are supposed to be reserved for great people who do great things. In order to be worthy of a memoir, the logic goes, one should have accomplished something of public note. But what about private accomplishment that takes place behind the dark walls of family life? That's not memoir, it's "confessional" and it's what sick people (usually women) do to get some pathetic scrap of attention.

Or so the conventional wisdom goes. And I have never seen an author as villified as Kathryn Harrison has been for defying that idea. She's been accused of telling her story for a sick sort of fame; nevermind that she was already a fairly successful author with a seemingly idyllic life, and that it's pretty implausible to imagine a woman of her intelligence failing to understand how this book change that life forever. She has both been accused of eroticizing her experience, and not being explicit enough. She's been lumped in the same category as morons who appear on trash talk shows. Because she never obeys the rules of the confessional genre by saying "I sinned," or "I was victimized," she is regarded as a whore who entered into a relationship with her fantastically cruel father consensually. Because she doesn't beg her audience for forgiveness, she receives none. She's been called, bizarrely, "passive-aggressive" and "nuerotic" by armchair psychologists who'd rather diagnose juicy pathologies than trouble to themselves to read her text.

From where I stand, the publication of this book is an act of consummate courage. Every sentence is hammered onto the page so slowly and carefully it seems like she wrote perhaps a few a day, like haiku, yet the cummulative effect isn't ponderous at all -- the whole flows and flows relentlessly, terribly -- I read it compulsively in a night and cannot remember when a book affected me so physically, made my heart hammer, covered my hands with sweat.

After the truly harrowing experience of reading this book, I am o! utraged at the idiocy of the bulk of Harrison's professional reviewers: anyone who finds anything remotely titillating or "pornographic" in this book should worry about their own mental health before anyone else's. What they have failed to recognize is that this book is a gift. Harrison has lived through an experience that should have destroyed her, and has done something heroic. Instead of confessing and offering her readers a penance, she tells her story lyrically, in the classically tragic manner: even though it is the most deeply personal story, it reads like a terrible myth. Nearly done in by her jealous mother and mysterious father, she finds her way out of Hell, beginning with a line older than once-upon-a-time: I alone survived to tell thee. For her bravery, for the restraint and clarity with which she relates her tale, for her generosity in sharing it with a wide audience, she deserves so much better than the shabby treatment she has received.

This is the story that Harrison had been longing to tell. There are traces of the same story in her first novel "Thicker than Water." There are traces of the same story in her second novel "Exposure". And then she wrote "The Kiss", which is an unadorned, unapologetic first-hand account of a very disturbing, violating relationship with her own father.

The telling of Harrison's story is amazingly well done. No self-pity, no over-analysis. Just the plain and simple albeit disturbing facts. This short book, though at times hard to read, is even harder to put down, and impossible to forget.

Writing this memoir took guts of steel. And no, she's not "cashing in on the incest trend" like some of her critics accuse. Those who are uncomfortable hearing about incest need to realize that keeping victims silent helps allow it to happen.

However, this book is not motivated by money or awareness causes. It appears motivated by the author's own need to free herself from the paralyzing memories of the horrible situation she was thrust into, to explain it to herself as much as to the reader. To "get it off her chest" so she could move on.

Harrison fans like myself will also notice that she *has* moved on. Her novels since this memoir ("Poison" and "The Binding Chair") show that Harrison's mind is now free to imagine other stories worth telling, which are painstakingly researched and beautifully written.

I highly recommend this book. It is this gifted author's best work, and it is one you will never forget.

Even though the subject matter in this book is disgusting, it is very hard to put the book down. I picked up the book and thought "Well, I won't get very far into this because of the subject matter." Was I ever wrong. Ms. Harrison very eloquently tells her story about her incestuous relationship with her father. In telling her story, she simply tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth. She isn't looking for pity nor is she wallowing in self-pity. She has pulled herself out of a horrible situation and writes about it frankly and matter-of-factly. Ms. Harrison is a very brave person and a great writer.

Kathryn Harrison's lush and dark prose chronicles the dual tale of a doomed queen and a poor peasant girl, both victims of the Spanish Inquisition. THe book's descriptions of life in SPain during the INquisition seems well researched and the writing is compelling enough to keep you reading. THe many bodily fluids emitted by the characters, sperm, blood, milk, sweat, vomit, etc. would seem to be a metaphor for the cultural and spiritual "poison" of the times. However, most readers are likely to latch on to one character or the other as being more interesting.Both lives, those of the queen, Maria Luisa, and that of the peasant girl, FRancesca, are told by Francesca, but her obvious distance from the Queen's life does not allow her to carry it off. We know little of her thoughts and desires, she is thus denied any real dignity or persona. Harrison might have done better to let each tell their own story and then have them merge in some significant way, but each story never does intersect. Harrison is a master prose stylist, but the story is not quite able to carry the book. It actually could have been longer and given us more detail about the INquisition itself, which remains everpresent i nthe story, but always behind the scenes and hidden from view. Balancing life in the castle with life in the fields proves too difficult a task in this short a book (310 pages). Furthermore, the dual structure of rich and poor is further confused by the author's seeming desire to write both a darkly atmospheric setpiece of the era and a tribute to the power of love, Harlequin style. THe prose is rich enough, but the lines of the story are so obvious that the book, in the end, offers few surprises; we are not at all shocked by the sad ending to the story. A book for admirers of style over substance, or for historians of the era, but not recommended for the casual reader.

In "Poison," Kathryn Harrison impressed me with her masterful command of the English language. Thank to her crafty prose, I was immediately and completely plunged into the brutal times of the Spanish inquisition, from the dungeons of its torturers to the deadly intrigues of the royal palace. Swiftly changing between her two main female characters - a silk grower's daughter and the Queen of Spain, she narrates their life stories and compares and contrasts their fates without effort. The two women, so different in their station, are so similar in their doomed destiny that the book leaves you a little sad and helpless. Still a wonderful read.

This 1996 novel by Kathryn Harrison is a work of pure artistry. The reader is plunged into 17th century Spain and hurled into the contrasting lives of Francisca, the daughter of a poor Spanish silk grower, and Marie Louise de Bourbon, the young and tragic Queen of Spain.

The words are pure poetry and filled with fascinating historical details: silk worms and exotic poisons, court life and the dungeons of the Inquisition, wet-nurses and dwarfs, religion and politics. It's all there.

The world she describes made me squirm. Pulled me into the story, and kept me turning the pages.

Against this background, and with exquisite detail, the reader is thrust into the lives of these two women. Our hearts race with forbidden passion and we shudder with fear of the Inquisition carts. We visit the royal bedchamber as well as the torturer's rack.

There's love in this book, and lots of sadness. There are lessons to learn and metaphors for life. People to care about. Sin, deception, betrayal. And, when the book is over, there is the feeling of having lived for a short while through the terror and turmoil that defined 17th century Spain.

This book is not for the squeamish. Or for those who are looking for a light pleasant read. But for those who are willing to experience the harshness of the world it describes, this is a really fine book.

Kathryn Harrison is a lovely, compelling writer but someone should have helped her with this one. Plot points intriguingly dropped are never addressed again (a mysterious self-imolating nineteen year old girl is dangled in front of us, then abandoned; the protagonist's father has an affair with a highly unlikely woman for whom there is never an explanation). In addition, the self destructive 'heroine' herself is a frustration. Watching her downward spiral is wearing, she never comes to the slightest bit of self-knowledge and we are left with no hope for her or her marriage to her faithful, eminently more sympathetic husband. Yes, it's interesting to note that our culture is hyper-obsessed with voyeurism, that lives are sacrificed in the process and no one seems to care. But by the end, I was close to not caring myself, which I'm sure was not Ms. Harrison's intention. She's a very talented writer, and I read the first half with alacrity, sure there would be some break in the endless self-destruction that would make slogging through it worthwhile. For some, perhaps watching a train wreck is fascination enough in itself. As for myself, I wanted more.

You almost feel like you're driving down the road and are passing a car wreck. You know you shouldn't slow down and look, but you just can't resist. "Exposure" by Kathryn Harrison is just like that. You feel so guilty watching, but just can't tear yourself away. This alluring but, lurid book about a women's mental unraveling is brilliant and powerful. Ann Rogers grew up as the muse for her father's revealing photographs and when the museum plans on a show of his work, it opens up a whole world of issues she never knew would happen. It causes a tremendous amount of anguish and provocative reactions. This psychological thriller is simply fascinating and very worth of your time.

It's not an easy read. And, it contains very mature subject matter, but very powerful.

This was the first book by Kathryn Harrison that I read. It blew me away. She does things with words that most people can only do with paints. Reading her books is like being pulled into someone else's dream. I love the way she writes. I found the novel a little shaky toward the end, but it's definitely something I would recommend.

I love reading novels about Asian culture and I have read all of Amy Tan's books as well as such masterpieces as "Memoirs of a Geisha". This book,while seemingly well-written and promising at its onset, left me flat (and slightly confused and depressed) at the end. I found that while the general ideas of family relationships and Chinese cultures explored in this tale were somewhat akin to those topics explored by Amy Tan (one of my favorite authors), the characterization and story line lacked Amy Tan's depth.

May was the protagonist whose life seemed to begin with the cruel yet traditional binding of her feet when she was 5-years-old in China. If anything, Ms. Harrison brings to light the cruelty of this practice as well as Western ignorance of Asian culture. The foot binding was the only time I really felt sympathy toward May. ...And I didn't find Alice or any of the other characters terribly likable either.

If you are craving literature dealing with Eastern Culture of the past and present, better to stick with books like "The Bonesetter's Daughter", "The Kitchen God's Wife", or "Memoirs of a Geisha".

Kathryn Harrison is one of those writers who make her readers squirm. And this novel, set in turn-of-the century Shanghai, London and Nice where colonial and Chinese culture come together. is no exception. The central character is May-li, who suffered the anguish of having her feet bound as a child. Married at 15 to a brutal sadist, she runs away and become a prostitute in Shanghai. She later marries Arthur Cohen, a gentle philanthropist who brings her into the opulent household of his sister, her wealthy husband and their two young daughters. Her niece Alice becomes especially important to her and their relationship is one of the themes of the book.

The story is sad, erotic and macabre. There is cruelty and passion, and a cast of fully developed characters who each have some sort of mental or physical disfigurement. Everyone suffers in this book and it's hard to read, but also hard to put down.

One weak point is the many the dream sequences which tend to stop the narrative. Another is the rather unsettling way it jumps back and forth in time. Also, the author has chosen to make the family Jewish, but yet the only thing Jewish about them seem to be their name.

Ms. Harrison is a writer with a fine talent and who is not afraid to probe deeply into the hidden abscesses of human behavior by using startling details to depict her twisted characters. It comes across as both disturbing and enlightening. I applaud her willingness to deal with the forbidden.

I recently enjoyed her 1995 novel, Poison, which was better paced and richer in texture. The Binding Chair, however, was perhaps written too quickly. This happens sometimes with popular writers who are on a deadline. Therefore, although I enjoyed reading it, I cannot give it an across-the-board recommendation although I do intend to read whatever she writes next.

I was completely hooked by "The Binding Chair." Kathryn Harrison has written a completely enthralling literary . . . I'm not sure what to call it. It's a mystery, it's a series of character studies, it is a study of the social mores of the late 19th/early 20th century, and it is ever so slightly rotten, which makes everyone and everything in it just that much more interesting.

May-li is a Chinese woman with bound feet who has married into a British Jewish family living in Shanghai. Her story leads "The Binding Chair," and the others swirl around it in vivid detail. There's her sweet Australian husband with his love of social do-gooding, a lisping genius of a governess, May's niece, who takes her aunt's encouragement too much to heart, and a heartbroken Russian on the Siberian Express. I didn't care for the ending, but understand it. I would much rather have had the book go on.