The Emperor of Shoes

“Only the wearer knows if the shoe fits.”
President Xi Jinping

One of the most marvellous things about reading is that one can be transported to another world. Here, the reader is virtually transported to two. The eponymous ‘Emperor of Shoes’ is an aging Jewish Bostonian and part-owner of a shoe factory in Guangdong, Southern China. His 26-year old son Alex, the narrator, is being groomed to follow in his formidable father’s footsteps. Unusually and without recourse to flashbacks, Spencer Wise interweaves the historical Jewish threads of his story with the current communist/capitalist dichotomy of modern China. This is handled with tremendous tenderness, subtlety and insight. But also with grit.

Alex has fallen hook, line and sinker for a Chinese woman who works in the factory. Ivy is different to most of the other workers, she’s fluent in English for one thing. She’s also committed to an underground revolutionary group fighting for fairer work practices in China. Alex - so used to pleasing his arch-capitalist father - now finds himself swayed by the influence of his socialist squeeze. With his conscience sorely tested, the Jewish guilt bubbles up nicely. But things are about to get really complicated for Alex when the corruption inherent in the Chinese system of doing business comes into play.

Turning a two-dimensional design of a shoe into a three-dimensional object to wrap around something as complex as the human foot is a complicated process requiring a great many stages of development. Likewise, turning a callow young man into a mature thinking adult requires several degrees of nuanced fine tuning on the part of the author. Spencer Wise achieves this growth of character with conviction, empathy and humour. A terrific debut and an interesting new voice. Warmly recommended.

My thanks to No Exit Press for the ARC via NetGalley.

“The Emperor of Shoes is subtle yet thought-provoking take on revolutionary ideas, with a protagonist who is yet to find his ideal niche, and is as vulnerable as any other human.”

Dream big is something we all have been advised at least once in life. But a tine idea, a small change is also capable of bringing a change in our lives as well as others. The Emperor of Shoes is one such tale. Alex, the son, and inheritor of an established shoemaking company in China is yet to find his purpose. His life takes a toll when he joins the company and discovers the ways his father has been running the company, mainly the underlying bribery and exploitation.

Alex meets a girl whose revolutionary ideologies affect Alex the most. Alex is in love with her and while she has been trying to make the lives of the workers in the factory better, she wants his support. Among all the turmoil, Alex needs to pick a side- his father’s or the workers.

The Emperor of Shoes is mainly about exploitation and the injustice factory workers face in China, while the rich get richer. Alex is the poster boy of the plot, a confused person, without direction or guidance, just expected to take the company to great heights. His mental state has been beautifully described by the author and anyone who doesn’t know what they want from life can easily empathize with him. He wants to do good, but the path is full of risks that can be deadly, literally.

While I found the writing style a bit simple as compared to other literary fictions, the story doesn’t get boring. There are mentions of great revolutionary leaders and the ways people can bring change. The characters are very different from each other, the demarcation maintained throughout. Emotions play an important part in the story as we need to feel the pain in order to know it. There are lighter moments too which makes it easier to follow the plot. The ending has been kept realistic without any over the top drama/climax.

I don't really suppose that Alex Cohen had given much thought to how the family wealth had been acquired. I don't suppose you would when you are the third generation in the family shoe business. I am not talking a little high street shop here, I am talking about the production side, the factories that make the shoes for major shoe retailers. So Alex had quite a task on his shoulders because he really wanted his father to be proud of him or at least he did until he saw the real cost of making the shoes.
This is one mighty powerful story where I had to keep turning back the pages to make sure I had got the time period right and that it was taking place in present day. Alex was to learn the family trade which was based in China. Oh my I could have wept as Alex took a tour of the start to finish shoe production line, from carcass to high-class shoe, that had made his family name and fortune in China. When Ivy caught his eye, a young Chinese girl making the shoes, his life took on a new direction.
Oh my this story really opened my eyes to world trade and how the system can be abused. This is a very powerful story with strong characters that are willing to lay down their lives to change conditions for the better. There are the odd wolves in amongst the people who are there for all the wrong reasons. Greed and exploitation comes in many disguises from people who have little regard for life to people much closer to home where they only see the bottom line.
Alex was a changed man by the end of the story. A much wiser man than the gullible one straight from college. An absolutely riveting read.

Alex Cohen is faced with a huge legacy to uphold when his father passes over the mantle to the family shoe-factory Tiger Step, in China. For decades his father has lived and breathed work, brokering deals and keeping the factory running smoothly, where even an eight minute pause is time wasted and must be rectified. Twenty-six year old Alex is daunted by the future awaiting him, intimidated by the rules and laws he will have to abide by as head of the factory. He is also excited at the possibility of designing new brands and instilling the business with his own passion and vision.

 

 

 

But when Alex begins to explore the floors of the factory, he discovers a different side to the place he thought he knew. Workers are being exploited and used. Laws broken and all evidence swept away and hidden. Faced with a choice, keep the factory going and ignore the terrible chain of events or speak out, Alex must decided which avenue to take.

 

 

 

I really felt for Alex in this book. He’s a kind soul, compassionate and a little bit naive. When he is given the reins to the factory, the weight on his shoulders is immense. Even more so when he discovers things happening without his knowledge. Ivy, a stitcher in the samples room and foot model, grows increasingly close to Alex. It’s clear to see that these two have a strong bond. But Ivy keeps secrets that have the strength to divide them and even ignite a revolution.

 

 

Spencer Wise’s writing is just stunning. I read this book within a day, utterly captivated by his evocative descriptions, poignant voice and refreshing insight. Touching on some heavy themes, this book is definitely a thought-provoking read. The author spins fantastic characters and seamlessly draws you into a web of compelling storytelling. The Emperor of Shoes is a gorgeously written book about ambition, change and discovery.

 

 

Intriguing. Thought-provoking. Brilliant.

The Emperor of Shoes is a story of exploitation – of Chinese workers by the factory’s owners. Low wages and poor work conditions so that US department stores can be supplied with ‘affordable’ own label footwear.

The Emperor of Shoes examines the business through the eyes of Alex Cohen, the 26 year old Jewish son of the factory’s overbearing owner. Alex gradually, but increasingly, takes the side of the Chinese workers. This process is obviously aided by his falling in love with Ivy, a production line worker in the factory. Ivy has history – her sister was killed in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. She is quietly determined to secure a better life for her fellow workers. She introduces Alex to Zhang, the leader of the Democratic Revolutionary Party. And together the three of them plot a day of non-violent protest at the factory. But Zhang is perhaps not all he seems.

The grim realities of Chinese politics kicks in. The local communist party boss (with ambitions way above the role he currently enjoys) cannot let a protest movement start on his patch. He has to intervene.

The Emperor of Shoes is a Jewish family saga of the battle between the father and the son. There is Yiddish humour, and much love – and much love lost – between the two. Their views of how to transform the factory, the lot of its workers, and the product range they produce, are at different ends of the spectrum. The old and traditional against the modern and enlightened. The book also makes one think, not exactly a new theme this, of the utterly down-trodden lives that some workers in far off lands live to bring us the consumer goods we ‘need’ in our shops.

Spencer Wise clearly knows what he is writing about. He is heir to a shoe-manufacturing dynasty that started five generations ago in New England – and today the family business is about producing goods in China. In 2013 he went to work in the shoe factory in Southern China that his father had contracts with – it was a real apprenticeship. He knows how to make a shoe from scratch… How much of The Emperor of Shoes is based in fact is anyone’s guess. But it is really good and thought-provoking read.

WoW.......The Emperor of Shoes by Spencer Wise was a wonderful find. This book was beautifully written from the very first page right till the end. 
Set in 2015, in Guangdong, South China 2015. Alex Cohen is a twenty-six-year-old Jewish expatriate living in southern China. Alex, is a young Jewish man who is being groomed to take over his father's Fedor's family shoe business. Alex is reluctant in taking this role, he starts to explore the plants vast floor's and its assembly line and learns more about his father's business and is shocked on what he finds.  Alex finds a grim realisation of his fathers family business, how he treated all his employee's, etc Alex is shocked.

Alex then meets Ivy who is a seamstress whom he forms a relationship with. She is secretly a political organiser and is threatening to speak out about Alex's family business is she can get all the labourers all together. 

Will Alex change the way things are run there or remain loyal to his father and his heritage? 

The Emperor of Shoes is a breath of fresh air, I found this book an eye opener.

An excellent read and look forward reading more from Spencer Wise etc

Thank you to Spencer Wise, Hanover Square Press, and Edelweiss for the ARC.

It is 25 years since the massacre at Tiananmen Square. Hong Kong has been handed over and trade between China and America is flourishing. Among those making money from the transition to a more commercial economy is shoemaker Fedor Cohen and his 26 year old son, Alex. Fedor runs the Tiger Shoe Factory in Guangdong, South China. The shoes are unbranded knock off, cheaply produced and sold to mass market shops that retail them with their own brand on them.

The system works because the kickbacks to party officials and others are in place and because the factory is ruled with a rod of iron by Chinese overseers who will penalise workers for taking too many bathroom breaks, singing while they work or even having mobile phones. These workers live in dormitories on site and without papers saying they work at the factory, held by Fedor and his managers, they would be effectively stateless.

The relationship between Alex and Fedor is not an easy one. They live in the Intercontinental Hotel. Fedor, whose marriage collapsed some time ago, has a Chinese mistress who is concierge at the hotel and Alex is just being inducted into the management side of the business as he becomes part owner of the factory under his father’s tutelage. While Alex knows rather a lot about shoes, he has no real idea of how the factory runs and what he sees once he begins to take a real interest, is quite an eye opener for him.

What Alex discovers is that mass market shoemaking is a cut-throat business with very tight margins, especially when kickbacks are in play. When he tries to discuss this with his father, he is brusquely dismissed as young and naïve (which he is) and told that he will soon learn what it takes to survive in their business.

But Alex has dreams and these are more than fuelled when he meets and falls for the enigmatic Hanjia Liu, a seamstress in the factory, who is called Ivy by the overseers. Ivy opens his eyes to the exploitative conditions that the workers have to endure and Alex himself is appalled at the corruption. Alex is also aware that the Party officials are keeping a close eye on the factory, looking for troublemakers and they try to recruit him into naming those workers that he thinks may be fomenting unrest.

Ivy’s sister died in the violence at Tiananmen Square and that has conditioned her politics ever since; she is now a closet political activist. She introduces Alex to Zhang, a revolutionary leader and they try to persuade him to take the lead in improving conditions in the sweatshop that is the Tiger Shoe factory.

There’s a brilliant juxtaposition inherent in the book between the persecution suffered by the Jewish people and the exploitation of the Chinese workers by Fedor. Alex can see it and does not understand why his father can’t.

As Alex struggles to find his way in the factory and as a man, the paths open to him all feel fraught with danger. It seems that he cannot both achieve what he wants and keep everyone on side. As Tony Blair might say, he is struggling to find a third way.

Tension mounts and the stakes are high for the future of the factory and its workers. Alex is going to have to do something bold if his dreams are to prevail.

The Emperor of Shoes is an incredibly well written book, finely crafted and well nuanced book. It carries a lot of humour and is beautifully argued and grimly authentic. Characterisation is lightly worn, but that does not detract from what is a gripping and compelling story with deep factual roots.

Verdict: A terrific debut novel and a story that needs to be told.

In 'The Emperor of Shoes' set in Guangdong, China, Spencer Wise tells us the story of Alex Cohen, a 26-year-old heir to a thriving shoe business. Of course, the shoe business thrives on the backs of underpaid Chinese workers, which Alex begins to see slowly.

Wise turns the spool unhurriedly, the various threads interleaving beautifully. There is the father-son relationship, which is about the proverbial young son trying to match up to his father's expectations, and go from being constantly controlled and dismissed to being noticed. Laced with wry humour, there is a certain tenderness about Alex's relationship with his father although it looks abrasive, and a bit heartless at times, on the outside.

There is the romance with Ivy, which also brings up the angle of foreigners in China, an American Jew to be specific here, and their perspectives of the country. 

"Forced outside, I imagined us all walking aimlessly down the street in a herd, scrutinizing signage we couldn't understand, ignoring the plosive tongue-clack of cabdrivers, a slow barnanimal procession down the highway..."

Well, Alex is not just another white man as he wants to prove to everyone and, above all, to himself. He begins to force himself to come out of his father's shadow, and out of the cocoon of his own mind. This is where things get interesting. And also a little dangerous.

This is also where Wise tells us about the inner machinations of Chinese business politics, and the all-important guanxi that can mean life or death. We already know enough about the lives of Chinese workers, thanks to media bombardment, and Wise talks appropriately to us as informed readers by bringing in aspects of the issue where needed.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I just wish the ending was a bit more toned down, and not so easily resolved or understood.

I will end this review with the "old lines of Rabbi Hillel, 'If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?'"

Thank you to NetGalley and NoExit Press for giving me this ARC for a review.