He has affairs with the beautiful woman in the 1940’s and with the piano teacher in the 1950’s.

Then there’s the prim and proper piano teacher who came to Hong Kong in the early 1950’s straight out of a small British village.Ĭonnecting these two threads of the story is the hard-bitten stoic Brit, a caricature escaped from a detective story. Willing to do anything to preserve her lifestyle, she becomes a collaborator with the Japanese. There’s the beautiful young siren of Chinese-Portuguese ancestry who wraps men around her finger. There are three protagonists in this story and it’s hard to figure out which one is the main one. They were forced into inhumane internment camps where hunger, squalor, cold and filth contrasted with their old life. We are taken to a different place and time: the almost-forgotten Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in World War II which took place eight hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.įor the high-flying British citizens who lived a life of carefree excess in Hong Kong – drinks and parties at the British clubs and hotels every day - the war hit them like a cement wall. But a further examination leaves her with more questions than answers.Īn intricately woven tale of lives changed by historical events, Lee's debut brings this hothouse flower of a city alive with passion, and imagines characters both unforgettable and tragic. A handsome charmer with a mysterious limp, Will appears to be the perfect companion for Claire, who's often left to her own devices. Claire begins to see the appeal of the sweltering city and is soon taken in by the Chen's driver, the curiously underutilized Will Truesdale. Months after her husband is transferred to Hong Kong in 1951, she accepts a position as a piano teacher to the daughter of a wealthy couple, the Chens.

But their sheltered lives take an abrupt turn after the Japanese occupation, and though their reactions are varied - denial, resistance, submission - the toll it takes on all is soon laid bare.Įnter Claire Pendleton from London. Comfortable, clever, and even a bit dazzling, they revel in their fancy dinners and fun parties. It's a city teeming with people, sights, sounds, and smells, and it's home to a group of foreign nationals who enjoy the good life among the local moneyed set, in a tight-knit social enclave distanced from the culture at large. Exotic Hong Kong takes center stage in this sumptuous novel, set in the 1940s and '50s.

The piano teacher by janice lee review