"The Red Chamber" is an emotionally intense book, with characters who display both compassion and cruelty, who are both calculating and vulnerable. Disclaimer: I know the author and her family, so I may not be a neutral reviewer, but I couldn't put the book down once I started reading it, which speaks for itself! The web of intrigue and politics--both within the extended family at the center of the story, and with the larger society--makes for gripping reading.Pauline Chen describes the lives and thoughts of the female characters in a manner that conveys both the stifling constraints placed on women of that era in China, and the strength and ingenuity of the women in navigating the obstacles placed in their way. Her prose reads naturally, especially in the love scenes--many authors find it hard to write descriptions of intimacy without making the reader cringe, but Pauline manages to hit the right notes skillfully.There are a lot of characters, and at first I would get lost among the unfamiliar names. Thankfully, the author placed a family tree at the beginning of the book, which I had to make use of several times until I got used to the names.The novel is a great way of introducing a Western reader to a classic from another culture. In reading some of the other reviews, I can see that people who are familiar with the original Chinese classic think this book doesn't compare to the original. But I don't think that was the author's intent--if it were, she would have produced another translation of the original. Instead, it's somewhat like the relationship of, say, the movie "Cleopatra" to the work of the historian Plutarch--Pauline Chen takes one part of a very long and complex body of work and makes it accessible in her own unique style.I would highly recommend this book--and don't start reading it too late at night, unless you're ready to stay up all night to finish it!