04/16/2018
In Wise’s dynamic debut, the American heir to a shoe manufacturing company comes of age in southern China and has a crisis of conscience among factory workers fighting for their rights. Alex Cohen is in China to learn the ropes of his father’s shoe company. While there, he meets and falls for Ivy, a member of an activist group hoping to start a union among the workers. Alex wants to support her cause, as he knows that workers are being exploited at the factory. But his father is pressuring him to fall in line and step into his new management role. Then a government official asks Alex to bring him the names of the union organizers, Alex finds himself at a crossroads. When an opportunity comes for him to start fresh with a company that would treat its workers with dignity and generosity, but will he take it or will he bow to the pressure to maintain the status quo? Wise’s well-paced novel moves inexorably forward with functional but never brilliant prose. While Wise resists simplifying the story by contrasting the life experiences of Alex and Ivy, readers will be more interested in Ivy and wish more time had been dedicated to her version of events. Wise, who has worked in his own family’s shoe factory in southern China, skillfully depicts the interdependent yet strained relationship between Chinese factory workers and foreign capital in this revealing story. (June)
"There is a looking glass through which we'd usually rather not peer, one whose vista reveals the human, social and political costs paid overseas so that we can enjoy our low-cost lifestyle at home. When Spencer Wise, in his debut novel The Emperor of Shoes, directs our gaze, however, we see not only the dangers and exploitations of such a system, but also the hopes, dreams and delicate relationships that make it work and that must be risked if change is possible. Part love story, part father-son fable, part dark initiation, this powerful debut novel wonderfully brings into focus the ways we are all interconnected in a complex and global world."-Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Orphan Master's Son
“Spencer Wise’s The Emperor of Shoes is the most complex, nuanced, character-rich first novel I have ever read. It is utterly original in portraying a twenty-first century Jewish diaspora with an accompanying empathy for China’s grassroots aspirations. Wise comes to us fully-flighted as a master stylist and a compelling storyteller.”—Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
"Wise has written a funny, illuminating page turner of a novel about an American father and son and a shoe factory in China. The Emperor of Shoes is heartbreakingly personal, timely and political, written with plenty of Yiddish and humor. 'Made in China' the label says, but few of us have any idea what that means. Through unforgettable characters and dire circumstances, Wise shows us factory life and politics, ultimately pointing us in the direction of the possibility for a better future."-Bethany Ball, author of What to Do About the Solomons
"Fresh and innovative, Spencer Wise's The Emperor of Shoes is the latest addition to the tradition of young-man fiction that starts with Bellow and Roth...I've taught for more than forty years; this is the best first novel I've ever read."- David Kirby, National Book Award nominated author of The House on Boulevard Street
"Brimming with comedic genius, The Emperor of Shoes is a commentary on American naivete and willfully blind greed that speaks to our collective human history of oppression and inhumanity. Wise opens us up with humor then refuses to pull his punches. He remains hopeful — against diminishing odds — about love and the sacrifices we make in its name."-Julianna Baggott, author of Pure and The Seventh Book of Wonders
"What Wise brings to a story of hot-button issues is a light hand, a mix of sensitive characters, a propulsive plot, and humor."-Louisa Ermelino, Publisher's Weekly
Louisa Ermelino
"A boisterous debut, Spencer Wise's The Emperor of Shoes keenly evokes the contradictions of a rapidly evolving China: the ugliness and the beauty; the cynicism and the passion; the absurdity and the tragedy. With his energetic characterization and winning dialogue, Wise turns a sharp yet compassionate eye on the foibles of a not-so-innocent abroad. This is an accomplished, engaging novel."-Molly Patterson, author of Rebellion
"Vividly rendered...a fascinating look at China's race for economic growth."—Kirkus Reviews
"A dynamic debut... [Wise] skillfully depicts the interdependent yet strained relationship between Chinese factory workers and foreign capital in this revealing story."—Publishers Weekly
"Wise’s debut offers a fascinating look at contemporary China, but its greatest strength is the struggle between a hard-to-please father bent on preserving what he has worked so hard to build and a son who is trying to find his own way."—Booklist
“East meets West in this accomplished debut novel about globalization, capitalist exploitation of workers, and father/son relationships….recommended for readers interested in globalization, diversity, and social justice.”—Library Journal
"[Wise's] illuminating debut novel, with its dark subplot, is an eye-opener on China's poor laborers and their often perilous attempts to seek justice. "The Emperor of Shoes" is a story that will stay with you."—NJ.com
“Evocative…The Emperor of Shoes underscores the extent to which the promise of economic opportunity still moves people across great distances on our planet…Wise [has] written a novel of our times…"—New York Times Book Review
“Part Kinky Boots, part American Pastoral, it’s a provocative and entertaining read.”—Kenyon Review
2018-04-16
Since the day of his birth, Boston-born Alex Cohen has been expected to follow in his father's footsteps and run the family shoe factory in southern China.Now 26, Alex is caught between his desire to oversee a company where workers are respected and operations follow the latest energy efficiency standards and, at the same time, keep his money-worshipping father happy. It's impossible. Dad is almost a caricature, soulless, greedy, opportunistic, and crass. He's proud that his sweatshop is highly profitable and that his merchandise is sold in countless U.S. department stores. He's also pleased by his ability to ingratiate himself with the corrupt, easily bribed politicians who are happy to look the other way on health and safety standards. At first, Alex finds his father's modus operandi simply disagreeable. But after a worker kills herself because she can no longer take the constant abuse meted out by the company's hard-driving overseers, Alex realizes that things have to change, and fast. As he gets to know Ivy, a somewhat older college-educated worker who intends to organize the plant, and then becomes romantically entangled with her, he not only learns about the international struggle for human rights, but has to parse for himself the never-ending debate over whether nonviolence can succeed in creating social change. The legacy of the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square is vividly rendered, and Ivy's eyewitness account leaves Alex shaken. In concert with his employee's suicide, it also helps propel the inevitable confrontation between father and son. The showdown is tense, if predictable, and leaves both men with a clear understanding that business as usual is no longer possible. Although this is a fascinating look at China's race for economic growth, the Jewish businessman stereotype is unsettling and makes this first novel less compelling than it could be.Though this book can be nuanced and engaging, it's ultimately disappointing.
05/15/2018
East meets West in this accomplished debut novel about globalization, capitalist exploitation of workers, and father/son relationships. Wise does many things right here. The central relationship—between a blustery, old-school family patriarch who is manufacturing shoes in China and his much quieter, idealistic son, Alex, who is inheriting the Cohen family business—is handled with great warmth and humor. Father and son clash over working conditions at the factory, and Wise handles the many complexities at play in this conflict with nuance and subtlety. Alex falls in love with a young Chinese woman named Ivy who is a political activist trying to improve conditions in factories, and their skillfully drawn relationship drives much of the action in the novel. Wise explores the situation's political, economic, and moral complexities with considerable skill, alert to the many ways that entrenched power and wealth perpetuate inequality and oppression. The only weak element is the unlikely happy ending of a political situation that is deeply cynical, corrupt, and fearless in using violence to oppress workers. VERDICT An impressive debut; recommended for readers interested in globalization, diversity, and social justice.—Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT
