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A CUP OF LIGHT by Nicole Mones

A CUP OF LIGHT

by Nicole Mones

Pub Date: April 2nd, 2002
ISBN: 0-385-31937-1
Publisher: Delacorte

Mones (Lost in Translation, 1998) returns to China in a beguiling if overbusy tale of an American who finds love amid the complexities and intrigues of the foreign art world.

Thirtysomething Lia Frank works for a prestigious New York dealer in Chinese porcelains. A “mental librarian,” she has created a unique memorization system by imagining the thousands of small examination rooms that candidates for imperial China’s civil service once sat in, and mentally filing in each room a portion of her vast knowledge. She is also deaf and unmarried, sent now to China to appraise a superlative collection of antique pottery—literally hundreds of vessels—that has come on the market. Further, she’s on her own, since her fellow expert fell ill en route and had to be left in Tokyo. Being alone makes her nervous, especially once she sees the size of the collection and uncovers a few beautifully rendered but undoubted fakes. As Lia begins appraising the porcelain, Gao Yideng, the wealthy entrepreneur who hopes to sell the collection in America (he claims to have the Chinese government’s permission), plans how it will reach Hong Kong without being stopped at the border. He meets with ambitious intermediaries like Bai, who dreams of becoming rich from smuggling porcelain, and shares with him his plans for moving the pottery without being caught by customs. Lia, having researched its provenance and authenticity, concludes it was part of the great Imperial collection that was buried in farmland as the Japanese invaded in the 1930’s. She also meets Michael Doyle, an American doctor in remission from cancer and currently assigned to a local hospital. They fall in love, but Michael is wary of commitment, and Lia must ensure that the porcelain makes it safely to Hong Kong.

Intelligent and consistently interesting, with an engagingly original cast, subject, and themes—but the story itself often lags.