The Expatriates

The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee (2016)

This second novel from the author of The Piano Teacher takes us back to Hong Kong and into the lives of three American women living in the expat community. Mercy, a young woman adrift after an incident that has left her paralyzed with guilt; Margaret, a wife and mother whose family has suffered a terrible loss; and Hilary, who longs to be a mother even as her marriage stagnates. The third-person narration moves between characters, and we see them being pulled toward one another as the story develops. Unlike many novels, this one thankfully does not move back and forth in time, but instead contains flashbacks to earlier times, most notably to what is referred to as "the incident."

Watching these three women change and grow throughout the novel was incredibly satisfying. Each held an emptiness within herself and couldn't manage to fix it or move past it. Each was imperfect in some way, denying realities, making bad choices, or unable to make any choices at all. But by the end they all evolved into people who could clearly see what they needed to do, and who could put aside their differences and be there for others who needed them. It was breathtaking.

Lee's writing is lovely and atmospheric and I savored every bit of it. It wasn't especially heavy on description, but somehow transported me with its simple quiet perfection. One of my favorite parts was the description of the apartment Margaret rented just to have a place of her own, where she would go and take long luxurious baths. Having visited Hong Kong, it was also fun to recognize the touristy town of Stanley, breakfast spot The Flying Pan, and the post-SARS obsession with disinfecting everything. The expat community appeared in quite an unflattering light, which made me wildly curious about the reality even while I was entertained and horrified by these shallow, materialistic people in their insular community.

I loved Lee's first book, The Piano Teacher, and recommend it to library patrons all the time. Janice Y.K. Lee is an author who deserves to be more well-known than she is. I have been so excited for The Expatriates since I heard about it a few months ago and I'm so glad that it is just as good as her first novel. I look forward to recommending it often!

The Painted Veil

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham (1925)

The Painted Veil opens on a post-coital scene in which Kitty Fane and Charles Townsend are discovered by Kitty's husband. He then whisks her out of Hong Kong to a village in the midst of a cholera epidemic, where he will be ministering to patients at great risk to his own health. Kitty quickly becomes bored with staying home and volunteers to help out at the convent, where she gains a new perspective on her husband and reassesses her past mistakes.

Kitty had married Walter out of desperation. She enjoyed her youth a great deal, passing up proposal after proposal until suddenly she was 25 and unmarried and her younger sister was engaged to a baron. Kitty's next proposal was from Walter, who was about to leave for Hong Kong, and she took it to marry quickly and escape her sister's wedding.

This isn't a recipe for a happy marriage, and Kitty spends much of the next few years in turmoil. First, is the affair with Charles, who she naively believes will divorce his wife and marry her. Then, her life in a cholera-stricken village as she gains new respect for husband, but that comes too late. What is most appealing about Kitty is that she is so genuine and her predicament so understandable. Maybe she's not the most strong and admirable woman, but who among us is?

Kitty really underestimated Walter. She made some serious decisions lightly, with unpleasant consequences. Throughout the course of the book she had to deal with many uncomfortable truths, but I think she became a better person for it. Poor Kitty just wanted to be happy, but her happiness was rare and fleeting. I felt hopeful at the end, even though she had lost so much by then, and I like to think she made a satisfying life for herself later. Here is a character I'd definitely like to check in on a decade or so down the road, just to see how she's doing.

I don't think I read any reviews of this book before reading it, but I know that what made me interested was that it is set in Hong Kong. Indeed, it reminded me a bit of The Piano Teacher, which was also about British people in Hong Kong having affairs.

There is a certain simplicity to the writing, but it is nonetheless beautiful. The style reminds me a lot of other books from the 1920s and I savored it the same way, enjoying the language as much as the story.

The Painted Veil was first published as a serial in Cosmopolitan, which just goes to show you how far that publication has fallen since the 1920s. I read a copy from my library, and almost didn't take it - it's the 1935 edition and has many interesting stains on it, but man, the pages are like resume paper. So satisfying. I don't think this is a classic that you hear about much, but I liked everything about it.

The Walled City

The Walled City by Ryan Graudin (2014)

There used to be a huge walled city in Hong Kong - an enormous mass of interconnected high rises where drugs and crime were rampant. (A photographer named Greg Girard has some great photos of it here if you want to see what it looked like.) Ryan Graudin used the real city as inspiration for the setting in her young adult novel, The Walled City.

The city of Hak Nam is rough and gritty and dangerous. The only rule of law is maintained by an organization called the Brotherhood of the Dragon, which is presided over by a man called Longwai. Longwai is also a drug trafficker and runs a brothel and it is through these avenues that he is connected to the main characters of the novel.

The story centers on three desperate teenagers who have all been trapped in the city for a couple of years. Jin Ling lives on the streets disguised as a boy so she won't be sold into prostitution like the sister she came to the city to search for. Mei Yee is confined to a brothel with seemingly no escape. She is well fed and cared for, but at a very high price. Finally, Dai is haunted by a mysterious past and has an opportunity to get out of the city, but time is running short and he needs help. All three have become streetwise and untrusting and have taught themselves how to survive in this unfriendly place.

This book just came out in November and I heard very little about it, but ever since my vacation to Hong Kong it's hard to resist any book set there. I found the story and characters compelling from the very beginning, the story fast-paced and exciting. Also it made me want to go to Chinatown and eat all the things. Even though the characters were often starving, when they had food I could almost smell it and it made me very hungry! The food was just part of the local atmosphere, which I thought was very well evoked, and the setting was definitely a huge part of the story. I kept rooting for Jin, Mei Yee, and Dai from the time I met them until the final, satisfying conclusion. If you're looking for a change from YA books featuring white kids in boarding school (as much as I love those stories!) I highly recommend this unusual, refreshing novel.

Golden Boy

Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood by Martin Booth (2005)

In 1952, when Martin Booth was 7 years old, his family moved from Britain to Hong Kong where his father was to be posted for 3 years. Martin quickly took to Hong Kong and its people, learning basic Cantonese and eating whatever was offered to him, no matter how off-putting. His willingness to immerse himself in Chinese culture earned him favor with the locals and gained him entry to places like Kowloon Walled City, a potentially dangerous area not generally open to outsiders. Some of his more colorful experiences recounted include visiting opium dens, eating beetles and preserved eggs, and digging up the bones of a Japanese soldier. His home life was also far from boring, his angry, gin-swilling father accusing Martin of "going native" (apparently a bad thing), his mother fun and pleasant, and just as taken with local culture as Martin. 

Booth's descriptions of his experiences - the sights, smells, and tastes of Hong Kong - are the heart of his book. Anyone who enjoys books that provide a strong and detailed sense of place will appreciate Golden Boy. The other main appealing part of the book is Martin's relationship with his mother. She loved Hong Kong and, like Martin, didn't ever want to leave. She was always up for adventure and included Martin in as many of her activities as possible, and seemed to really enjoy hanging out with him. Her husband certainly didn't appreciate the local flavor, so Martin was always her companion of choice. I found their relationship very sweet. 

I'm trying to decide if I would have liked this book as much had I not recently traveled to Hong Kong myself. It's clear that Hong Kong was very different in the 50s than earlier this year when I visited, so though many of the place names were familiar, that is where a lot of the similarities ended. (Though some of the food from the book is recognizable, as is the practice of locals hanging their laundry outside their windows.) Less a story than a slice of life, I think there is a lot in Booth's book that would appeal to anyone interested in travel and other cultures. 

Martin Booth left Hong Kong with hopes to return, and his family did return later for several years but unfortunately we won't hear any more about it as he died shortly after finishing the manuscript for this memoir. 

Have you read any good books with detailed descriptions of living in a particular place? Leave your recommendations in the comments!

Hong Kong Vacation

I had a great time on my trip to Hong Kong!

It's a very interesting place, with a mix of old and new, ramshackle little villages in close proximity to (and sometimes within) cities.

I visited some temples

where there was lots of fragrant incense burning.

The temple of A-Ma in Macau had particularly unusual incense.

I also visited a Buddhist monastery

 

on a foggy day.

There were many street markets

(one of which had a yarn stand)

and some nice scenery

lots of interesting trees

I even saw a couple of rats

(They were part of the leftover Chinese New Year decorations)

and a sheep-themed tea set at the Museum of Teaware.

Speaking of which, I drank lots of tea

and of course ate a lot of tasty food

(That's sweet and sour tofu, not very authentic but completely delicious.)

It was also wonderfully warm most of the time, and I even got a bit of a sunburn. 

I didn't knit a stitch but I did read, so reviews are forthcoming.

Vacation

I'm heading on a much-needed vacation to Hong Kong, so expect some blog silence for the next couple of weeks. I'll certainly be reading but I can't promise to post anything until I return. When I do, expect a flurry of book reviews and vacation photos!

The Piano Teacher

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee (2008)

 In anticipation of my upcoming trip to Hong Kong, I've been seeking out books that take place there. I recently read The Train to Lo Wu, and now I've just finished a very different book, The Piano Teacher. Will Truesdale, a newly arrived Englishman in Hong Kong begins a relationship with a notorious socialite named Trudy Liang just as World War II reaches their shores. During the Japanese occupation, Will is sent to an internment camp while Trudy remains outside and must forge alliances with the enemy in hopes of surviving. Ten years later, Claire Pendleton arrives in Hong Kong with her new husband Martin, and is hired by the Chen family as their daughter's piano teacher. She soon meets their chauffeur, the very same Will Truesdale, and begins an affair with him. Long-buried secrets begin to bubble to the surface and Claire finds herself in the midst of a crisis that has been brewing for the last ten years.

I'll admit I began this novel with a bit of trepidation. The description I read of it began with "In the tradition of The English Patient...." a novel which I failed more than once to make it through. While the Piano Teacher is also quiet and slow-paced, it is certainly not boring. Hong Kong is itself a character in the novel, the descriptions are so vivid. It was also fascinating to read about the occupation of HK by the Japanese, a dark period about which I knew almost nothing.

Life in the internment camps, as well as outside of them, was quite horrific. Loyalties were tested and life-changing betrayals occurred. The relationship between the English and the Chinese - and their commitment to remaining in HK and making it home - was a compelling part of the story as was the class structure. The Chens were very rich, both educated in the West, and quite influential. Trudy, the most enigmatic character, was part Chinese and part Portuguese, claiming not to be accepted by anyone, but confident enough to at least appear not to care. Though she, Will, and Claire were all deeply flawed, I found that I liked them all a great deal.

The most surprising part of this novel was my success with the audio version (downloaded to my phone!) I'm wondering if I'm getting better at listening to audiobooks, because this is a huge departure from my usual audio fare of young adult or chick lit. Or maybe it was just the quality of the recording. The narrator was very good, her British accent and soothing tones a pleasure to hear.

However you choose to experience it, I hope you like it as much as I did.

The Train to Lo Wu

The Train to Lo Wu: Stories by Jess Row (2005)

I came across this little gem while looking for books for a patron. I don't remember now where she was going, but I consulted Nancy Pearl's Book Lust To Go for suggestions of books that take place in a particular country. After the patron left, I looked up Hong Kong - my next destination - and found this suggestion. Jess Row spent a couple of years teaching English in Hong Kong just after it was handed back to China, and this unique time and perspective were captured beautifully in these seven stories.

Most of the stories were about people who were newcomers to Hong Kong, or there temporarily. I think my favorite of the collection is "The American Girl," in which an American graduate student visits a blind man regularly and reads to him. She is doing research on how people adapt to change after surviving trauma, and eventually gets the man to open up long-buried memories. The opening passage of the story was a striking description of his impressions of being on a moving train as a young boy.

The other stories were very good as well. In "Heaven Lake" a widower raising two daughters remembers his time at Columbia University when he worked part-time for a Chinese delivery service and was accidentally drawn into a violent crime. "For You" was about an American couple whose temporary move to Hong Kong began to seem more permanent, leaving the husband feeling as though his life is permanently on hold. In the title story, two people from opposite sides of the border - China and Hong Kong - try to navigate what appears to be a doomed relationship.

I don't frequently read short stories. Their compactness somehow implies that they are more significant and I can't help feeling that I'm missing what is important about them. I may be missing some importance in these stories, but I very much enjoyed reading them. The writing is simple and clean, giving the stories a quiet feel despite the turmoil experienced by many of the characters. Some of the imagery was quite powerful, and I suspect I'll think back on these stories a month from now when I am myself in Hong Kong.