Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.

"The Emperor of Shoes" by Spencer Wise was a thought provoking, fast paced novel about a shoe company producing in China. Depicting strong characters, a father confident and set in his ways as he built his company up from the ground, and his son, torn with conflict between humanitarian ideals, love, and his own passion and modern take on shoe marketing and design. Interesting, evocative, and current. Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for the copy for review. All opinions are my own.

I just never got around to this one. It just sat in my pile of to be read books and never interested me. I figured it has been too long so I should go ahead and take it off my shelf. Sorry.

Despite his lack of experience, Alex Cohen's father Fedor makes him a partner in the shoe business Fedor has built in China. Alex, who is 26 in 2015, is falling in love with Ivy, a 36 year old stitcher in the shoe factory. Ivy, whose sister was killed in Tiananmen Square, is secretly part of a revolutionary group that wants to increase the rights of Chinese workers.

I'm afraid that this book was just ok for me. There were some interesting descriptions of life in China, but one of my problems with the book was that I didn't like Alex. He was too passive and easily manipulated by both his father and Ivy. He wanted to be out from under the thumb of his father, but never considered maybe getting a job someplace else rather than just being handed a business. While my favorite part of the book was the father/son conflict, I was rooting for Fedor, who had built a business only to see it threatened by Chinese politics, changing shoe trends, worker revolt and his own son. The author however is rooting for Alex. I was less interested in the story of the workers. Perhaps because it wasn't told from their point of view, and Ivy seemed more stereotype than real woman. I might read more by this author if I came across it, but I wouldn't actively seek it out.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

“It’s a bright moon outside, and from the window of my house I can see the skeletal gray of the factory, the banners draped like sashes and the deep arterial red of Mandarin characters demanding change, and I’m wondering how the fuck this Jewish kid from Boston could somehow wind up a YouTube hero in the Chinese Revolution.”

That wonderfully written and thought provoking beginning paragraph certainly drew me in and I wanted to know. It’s 2015 in South China and Alex Cohen at 26 years old ends up at a crossroads in his life when his father, the owner of a shoe factory wants to pass the responsibility of running the business over to him - or does he? The senior Mr. Cohen wants to hand over the reigns, expecting that Alex will continue with the practices he engages in paying off corrupt locals, maintaining the horrible working conditions and exploitation of the workers. A horrible event happens at the factory and it truly becomes a time of reckoning for Alex with choices to make. At the same time, he encounters Ivy, an activist implanted as a factory worker with the desire to organize in hopes of improving things for the workers. She’s brave and cares for the people of her country, carrying a burden of loss for what happened at Tiannanmen Square years before. In some way she remained an enigma to me until the end.

We get glimpses of Alex’s relationship with his father and his Jewish upbringing. Alex’s reflections on growing up Jewish and sometimes relating those beliefs or rituals to the importance of Chinese traditions and what is happening to the Chinese workers was quite poignant. “I wanted to say to him.....We’ve been persecuted and poor, and now you’ve just turned around and done it to other people. Exploiting, abusing - how do you call yourself Jewish.” I won’t tell further of the story, but will just say that this was a worthwhile, moving story and it’s clear from these recent articles that the situations described here are real.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/07/suicide-chinese-iphone-factory-reignites-concern-working-conditions/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-16/workers-at-apple-supplier-catcher-describe-harsh-conditions

https://www.theepochtimes.com/working-conditions-still-poor-for-chinas-factory-workers-says-watchdog-organization_2369727.html


I received an advanced copy of this book from Hanover Square through NetGalley and Edelweiss.

Excellent story!

Alex Cohen is the son of a shoe factory owner in China. He is in love with an older female Chinese line worker and gets caught up in her desire to improve factory conditions.

More of an intimate peek into factory production and Americans in China than a love story or even a revolution.

The story centers on Alex and his experiences. His relationship with his father is so strange but also feels very real. The writing is excellent, painting a picture of normal people trying to effect change by creating a partnership between communists and capitalists.

Title: The Emperor of Shoes
Author: Spencer Wise
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5

Alex Cohen is a 26-year-old from Boston who lives in China. His father, Fedor, runs their shoe-making business with an iron first; profit is everything and Fedor isn’t about to change a thing. Until Alex gets involved with a Chinese seamstress named Ivy—at the same time his father names him heir to the company and places him in charge—at least in name.

Now Alex finds out the truths kept hidden by his father: the obsession with productivity—workers’ times are assessed and anyone wasting even 8 minutes a week is a problem—as well as the cruel conditions the workers live in—hot water only at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., no safety measures in place to protect the workers. And Ivy is determined to start a movement for change.

Alex learns a lot from Ivy, but is the change she seeks really based on truth? The more Alex discovers, the more he wonders, until ideas meet action in a showdown at the shoe factory.

This is not a fast-paced novel. Instead, it moves at a slow, languorous pace, taking time to explore the nuances of culture as it exposes the ugliness behind business and commerce in China. Alex becomes a completely different person through the course of the book, and his relationship with his father is at the core of that. A book to sip and savor, taking in all the flavors of the culture it’s set in.

Spencer Wise was born and raised in Massachusetts but now lives in Florida. The Emperor of Shoes is his new novel.

(Galley provided by Harlequin/Hanover Square Press in exchange for an honest review.)

The tug of war between communism and capitalism in China is the backdrop for the maturation of a expatriate businessman trying to step into his father's shoes while considering the well being of factory workers.

Life always seems to be in a state of flux. As we grow, we develop relationships, some of them tenuous which have a pull and tug connection between our selves and our world in which we live.

Alex Cohen is a young Jewish man living in Southern China. He and his father own a shoe factory and have a relationship that can be considered at times contentious. Alex's dad is the boss. His word is law and though at times his words to Alex are funny, they often hurt. Alex is in a relationship with a Chinese revolutionary, a young girl who works in the factory. She and others are looking to change China. They want a more democratic form of leadership and as Alex assumes and becomes the head of the company, he sees how the workers are being exploited.

Alex loves his father and yet when he sees the climate the workers are forced to be in, and their plight, it sets him on a collision course against the father who has always been his rock. Alex runs up against the idealism of what he wants to see happening and the love of a father and the heritage he carries. He also finds himself in a dangerous situation with the powers that be.

Alex's father is ambitious, wanting success to be theirs, always striving for more, often disregarding how one does acquire that more. China is portrayed, twenty five years after Tiananmen Square, as being a place ripe for democracy yet controlled by a few who would use any means to keep their position. It is a place ripe for change and as Alex himself fells change coming, he witnesses not only a country, a people wanting to so embrace human rights and needs, but he himself grabbing onto change within the person he strives to be.

Beautifully written, this story unfolds among a world that is changing too fast for some. Can Alex find that freedom he longs for, freedom from his father, freedom from heritage, and freedom that will not shatter everything? Can he save the relationship he has had with his father and with the young Chinese revolutionary, Ivey? "Relationships are like glass. Sometimes it's better to leave them broken than try to hurt yourself putting it back together." Can China also find their way in recognizing the human in every person who lives and works within their massive country?

Thank you to Spencer Wise, Hanover Publishing, and Edelweiss for an advanced copy of this book. It was quite an interesting look into a world where freedom is not really free.

Read this for insight into the struggles of a young American who takes over his father's factory in China. Alex discovers early on in the novel that things aren't what he always thought they were and that his dad isn't the man he thought he was. Some of the best scenes involve the mechanics of making shoes (the tannery comes to mind). His relationship with Ivy, a worker who wiggles his way into his heart and head, is the linchpin. I wanted to like this more than I did but I was unable to connect with (or rather relate to) Alex. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Wise is to be commended for bringing the issue of workers in China to light and for his writing, which is quite good.

Wow! With a profound respect for two ancient heritages, and a clear fascination with modern China and Judaism, Spencer Wise has written an atmospheric and timely story of a “shoe dog” in China. Alex Cohen is a young man in an old world. He is an idealist in a deeply cynical world. I was hoping for him to find his way, even while I was wincing at his naivety.

What a wonderful book. The author conveys his life experiences in this insightful story. As the worker's in his father's shoe factory are being exploited, Alex is being forced to step into a leadership role.

This book really has it all - humor, compassion, morality, politics - all rolled in to a wonderful story with wonderful characters who all had depth and complexity and conflict. It spoke of big and small issues on a variety of levels, all thought-provoking and real. I really, really liked this book.

First let me be honest, I didn’t finish this book. I made it a little further than halfway. But I cannot go any further. It’s just not for me. I love stories about people and their passions and struggles but I could not relate to any of the characters in this one. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy for my honest review.

Alex Cohen, 26, has been told by his father that it is time to take over the family shoe business, Tiger Shoe Factory, in Guangdong, China. But Alex is not to use his own mind or judgment; rather, he is to imitate and emulate his father in everything.

Alex tries to balance his reflexive tendency to oblige his father with his attraction to Ivy, a woman worker in the factory who speaks excellent English, is well-educated, and is part of an underground revolutionary group. Ivy tries to increase Alex’s awareness of how oppressive the factory conditions are, but Alex’s father employs heavy does of guilt over all of his sacrifices to dissuade Alex from doing anything about it.

In the beginning, we are mainly exposed to the tension between Alex and his father. Then, as Alex’s eyes gradually get opened (helped by Ivy) to the injustice of the egregious working conditions of the Chinese, we see Alex wrestling with his conscious which is in conflict with his father’s wishes. The main question seems to be, will he ever grow up and become his own man?

I understand the story is partly autobiographical, which is too bad, because I couldn’t stand most of the characters, including the immature and self-absorbed Alex and his horrible father. Nor was it easy to endure reading about the awful working conditions to which the Chinese were subjected, or the complicity of greedy Chinese managers.

The book was not without interest, but overall, the story it told was just too unpleasant for me to enjoy.

I found that the plot was different and definitely interesting. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get past the colorful metaphors and sensitive situations in the book.

The Emperor of Shoes is a tale of a Jewish man in China, the son of a wealthy businessman who produces shoes. I enjoyed this book and found it memorable.

Guangdong, South China 2015. Fedor Cohen is the primary owner of The Tiger Shoe Factory. The factory consists of an administration building, two production plants and two dormitories. Fedor, a Jewish Bostonian, runs his business with precision and order, resisting change. Alex Cohen, Fedor's twenty-six year old son, is being groomed to take over the family business. A father-son conflict of ideas is on the horizon.

Upon scrutiny, Alex realizes that maintaining the bottom line and increasing productivity comes at a cost. In addition, he can compare and contrast the lifestyle he and Fedor experience living in the Intercontinental Hotel with the dormitory living of migrant workers. The workers wait in long lines to shower. Hot water is available only at 8 AM or 8 PM. Cohen, the elder, tells Alex that he has poured his life's blood into the factory for the sake of the family. A hefty dose of Jewish guilt!

Enlightenment comes slowly to Alex through his association with Ivy, a stitcher in the sample room. He learns that managers supervise their workers and assess any wasted movements during the work day. A worker could cost the shoe factory perhaps eight minutes of work in a week. Totally unacceptable! Alex has ideas. He has compassion. Should he, could he, risk expressing his ideas to his father whose profit margin is achieved through hard work, corruption and bribes? Ivy, in her own way, tries to shape Alex's path.

"The Emperor of Shoes" is a work of literary fiction which shines a spotlight on doing business and change, as a byproduct of technology and societal awareness in South China. "The Emperor of Shoes" by Spencer Wise is an excellent debut novel.

Thank you HARLEQUIN-Hanover Square Press and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Emperor of Shoes".