Undress Me In The Temple of Heaven

Backpacking the world, finding ones self, after years of confined classroom instruction it is the dream of many college graduates to venture out into the “real world”, discover diversity first hand, and authenticate their life through exotic experiences. Susan Jane Gilman and her college friend believe their adventurous sojourn into the mysterious unknown of southeast Asia will allow them the opportunity to conquer the world, to collect experiences which will provide them with worldliness and fonder for conversation for a lifetime!

“But this is our one big chance. We do this, and for the rest of our lives, we’re going to know certain things that almost nobody else does. I mean, do you really think the world needs just a couple more Ivy League assholes--two more people like us who go on to become corporate weenies or lawyers, sleepwalking through life?” (Gilman 2010: 22)

Oprah called Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven “unputdownable”, I call it intensely palpable! An epic journey of discovery Quickly Gilman and her friend plummet into the dangerous depths of the secretive and cloistered communist People’s Republic of China of the 1980s. Inexperienced travellers, youthful and naïve, yet self-satisfied with their self-confidence and intelligence suddenly find themselves “undressed” by their foray into an unknown and foreign culture. Their strength of character is laid bare and their physical and mental well-being tested to the ultimate limits.

This book was a departure from the ordinary and is the most captivating memoir I have had the pleasure of reading. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven is a testament to the adventurous spirit of impetuous youth and its immense impact on ones personality, character and life development. It is when Gilman encounters personal crisis merged with the xenophobic forces of 1980s China that this memoir becomes the story of inner strength discovery.

I have often dreamed of journeying the world, experiencing first hand the nuances of the many cultures I have only read about…and I still have plans to do so. This memoir may scare off some, it may entice others to test their strength, regardless it will be a riveting story too quirky and strange to be anything but true!
{Oh and there is a Canadian connection…but you’ll have to read the book to discover what this may be.}

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