Unabridged Chick

I started this book on my evening commute home, more out of curiosity than any desire to dig in; when I lifted my head, I was at the end of my line, and nearly one hundred pages in. I was hooked -- sort of. In my flash judge-y way, I hadn't realized this was a dual narrative; I thought it was entirely a historical novel. The story is split between two characters: Eva, a 1920s English missionary in Kashgar, China, and Frieda, a contemporary Londoner at the end of an affair. Eva and her sister Lizzie, freshly minted missionaries following the charismatic and commanding Millicent, end up in Kashgar, China, detained after Millicent assists in a birth that results in the mother's death. Millicent is enthralled with their circumstances and Lizzie keeps up with her photography, but Eva finds herself unlikely nursemaid to the orphaned infant, scared, worried, and overwhelmed. Her own project, writing a lady cyclist's guide to the East, doesn't seem to be going anywhere.In contemporary London, freelance journalist Frieda meets Tayeb, a Yemeni man on the run from authorities. One night he sleeps in the hall of her building, leaving a beautiful drawing in his wake. When Frieda discovers she's inherited something, her pursuit of who -- and who her benefactress is -- connects her with Tayeb and her family's past.In my opinion, Eva's story was marvelous. I loved her voice and her arc in the book: her doubts about Millicent, her doubts about her faith and missionary work, her concern for her increasingly dreamy-eyed sister, and her anxiety about the alarmingly foreign world she's in. I love 19th century travelogues and while this is 20th century, there's that wonderful (English) fish-out-of-water feel that I ate up. Frieda's story, however, was yawn-worthy and really should have been left out of the book -- or at least, plunked into another novel. She was having an affair with a married man, who was a total bore, and vaguely ignoring her free love parents. Her journalism work trotted her around the globe but she felt wildly pedestrian compared to Eva and her coterie. Even Tayeb and the mystery of Frieda's inheritance couldn't save her side of the story.While this book might take best title for 2012, sadly, it just didn't totally win for me. Ultimately, this became a DNF as I got so sick of Frieda that I just started skipping her sections to remain in the portions with Eva. Eventually, Frieda's story connects with the one involving Eva's, and I liked that enough -- but not enough to go back and read Frieda's bits again. I'd describe this book as slightly more chick-lit-y than hist-fic-y, but maybe that's because Frieda's sections felt fluffier than Eva's. A fun enough summer read -- might be fun for book clubs due to the differing voices -- and certainly pretty enough to carry on the train or show off at the beach!