aimee liu

FLASH HOUSE
When a plane carrying American journalist Aidan Shaw goes down in Kashmir in 1949, Aidan’s wife Joanna refuses to accept that he is dead. Aidan has been accused of harboring Communist sympathies, and his mission to Kashmir was supposed to clear his name of these charges. Without a body to prove his death, Joanna is convinced that his disappearance involves more than accident. In search of answers, she enlists the help of Aidan’s best friend, Lawrence Malcolm, and leaves the rescue home that she runs in New Delhi, bringing along as translator an unusual native child, Kamla, whom she has saved from an Indian brothel – or “flash house.” Together with Joanna’s young son, Simon, this unlikely band sets off for the northernmost reaches of India, the last place Aidan was seen alive.

The ensuing journey leads over some of the highest mountain passes in the world and is by turns harrowing and heartbreaking, finally landing the rescuers in western China just weeks before the Communist takeover. As one cruel revelation follows another, these four are forced to lean ever more heavily on each other for solace and for courage. But will they be strong enough to endure the ultimate betrayal?

Flash House is a tale of passion and resilience in a world where nothing is as it appears.

CLOUD MOUNTAIN
Based on the true story of Liu's grandparents, Cloud Mountain recounts the romance of a Chinese scholar-revolutionary and his American bride, from turn-of-the-century San Francisco through China's Warlord period and into WWII.

Available in paperback.

FACE
Aimee Liu's first novel deals with issues of racial prejudice and intermarriage, and the connections between memory and survival.

Maibelle Chung's red hair and green eyes marked her as an outsider throughout her years growing up in New York's Chinatown. As a young woman she tried to flee and forget those early years, but recurrent nightmares force her to face the past that haunts her.
And when a childhood friend, Tommy Wah, invites her to photograph Chinatown for a book he is writing about the old neighborhood, she does not refuse.

Maibelle's confrontation with her own past forces her to investigate her parents' past, as well, and reveals a harrowing secret that demonstrates the power of memory, the high cost of forgetting, and the ultimate triumph of hope.

"FOR WRITERS ONLY"
NOTES ON CRAFT & THE WRITING LIFE
This page contains philosophical ramblings, notes on craft, and thoughts about what can and cannot be taught to aspiring writers.

BOOK REVIEWS
Go to this page to read Aimee's recently published book reviews from the San Diego Union Tribune and other publications.

GAINING: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders
GAINING is the story of all I know now about eating disorders that I didn’t know when I wrote my first memoir of anorexia, SOLITAIRE, back in 1979. This “sequel” was inspired by a series of reunions with other former anorectics that convinced me all of us still shared core personality traits, habits, and anxieties – even though none of us had had an active eating disorder in decades. Curious to know if our personalities were also consistently different from people who have never had an eating disorder, I began to interview scientists now studying the genetics and temperaments of anorexia and bulimia. I discovered that my suspicions were accurate. The risk for an eating disorder is approximately 60% genetic, and certain key traits are common to anorexia, while others are common to bulimia. It is not true that “anyone can get” an eating disorder.

My decision to write this book was triggered by a brief relapse of my anorexia during my separation from my husband when I was 47. Fortunately, I was in therapy at the time. Instead of developing a new eating disorder I developed a renewed interest in eating disorders. I realized that these disorders are intimately connected to anxiety, depression, perfectionism, and obsessive-compulsive behavior – all of which remained in my make-up, regardless of how much I was eating. Because I had recovered without therapy or treatment, I had, over the years, shifted my obsessiveness and compulsiveness into less dangerous forms of self-punishment, but I had not gained the necessary perspective and understanding to face the underlying causes of my eating disorder.

Most of the women I knew who had eating disorders when I did also recovered without treatment, and several of them had relapsed, as well. Yet most of these women were married, had children and professional careers. By all outward appearances, they had gained success. But I knew how deceiving appearances can be; most of us had been ace students, gone to top colleges, looked good and behaved beautifully – when we stopped eating or started purging. Were we truly recovered? Is it even possible to recover from the core anxieties that shape an eating disorder?

To answer these questions I began to interview my former classmates along with other recovered anorectics and bulimics – male and female from around the world. We compared notes, swapped stories, talked about the strategies, experiences, medications, or practices that had most helped us gain control over our illness, courage in our lives, and confidence in ourselves.
The stories in GAINING are life lessons hard earned.

SOLITAIRE
A Memoir of Anorexia
Originally published when Liu was just 25, Solitaire is America's first memoir of anorexia. Liu describes her battles with food, weight, and alienation, in and out of the modeling profession, as a teenager of the sixties.

FOR KEEPS: Women Tell the Truth About Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance
"Dead Bone"
Why is it that with everything women have accomplished, we still struggle with our feelings about our bodies? Perhaps it’s because, in our society, body image has become a loaded term. Whether we’re young girls or elderly women, we are bombarded by the media’s idea of perfection: lithe young models with perfect skin and smooth bodies too often achieved through eating disorders and fad diets. And no matter what product the manufacturer is trying to sell, the substance of that message remains the same: women are imperfect and, unless we succumb to the hype, that imperfection will thwart our chances for happiness.

In For Keeps: Women Tell the Truth About Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance twenty-seven gifted authors write personal essays about how body image has colored, changed or enriched their lives...or how life’s events have changed their body image.

WHY I'M STILL MARRIED
"A Great Wall"
In the spirit of the bestselling The Bitch in the House, this anthology, due out in Feb. 2006, captures the passion, loss, joy, friendship, and humor that marks lifelong commitment through a brilliant kaleidoscope of voices, such as Julia Alvarez, Susan Cheever, Elizabeth Graver, Erica Jong, Aimee Liu, Bharati Mukherjee, ZZ Packer, and Marge Piercy.

MY CALIFORNIA
"Transients in Paradise"
MY CALIFORNIA is a great book for a great cause.
From the paper to the writing, every page of this anthology was donated to raise money for the California Arts Council after budget cuts slashed funding for the arts in California.

In her essay on Beverly Hills, Aimee considers the desires and fears that this city of dreams is really made of.

MEETING ACROSS THE RIVER
"The Other Side"
MEETING ACROSS THE RIVER is a collection of short stories inspired by the Bruce Springsteen song of the same name.
In Aimee's story Cherry, one of the characters in the song who now goes by the name Cherie, meets another of the characters many years on and is forced to confront the illusory nature of change.
The collection also includes stories by writers Pam Houston, Barbara Seranella, Gregg Hurwitz, Cara Black, Eric Garcia. Editors are Jeeica Kaye & Richard Brewer.