Confessions of Madame Psyche
This novel, presented as a memoir, covers the life of Mei-Li Murrow. Born in San Francisco in 1895, she is the daughter of a ne'er-do-well castoff from East Coast society and a Chinese prostitute.  Mei-Li gains notoriety as a professional medium  in the first half of the twentieth century.  For Mei-Li and her sister Erika, being a medium is simply a way to earn money in a world with limited career options for women.  Mei-Li has no belief in talking to the dead or predicting the future.  Erika is a high-class prostitute until Mei-Li inadvertently predicts the San Francisco earthquake and brings in money conducting seances.  Only after giving up the seances does Mei-Li have a spiritual awakening that leads her to break away from her sister's control and lead her own life.  She travels to Italy with an Opera Singer, bearing him a child.  She is the founder of one of the early communes in the Santa Cruz mountains and joins the fight against the exploitation of California farm workers.  In the end, Mei-Li inherits money from an old friend.  Erika catches up with her and has her unjustifiably committed to an insane asylum in order to claim the money.  The narrative is sensitive and vivid if a bit slow moving.  The gradual development of Mei-Li into an independent woman is well handled, as is the degeneration of Erika from a shrewd businesswoman into a vindictive schemer. --FromIndependent Publisher