| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
In Fragrant Harbour much of the story is told in the words of Tom Stewart, a young Englishman who sails to Hong Kong in the 1930s and ends up spending the rest of his long life there. The voice of Stewart--reserved, humane and understated--is as finely achieved as those in the earlier novels. Through his eyes we see Hong Kong's 20th-century history. The class-ridden and racially divided society of the 1930s is given the brutal awakening of the Japanese occupation. After the war, the old Hong Kong disappears and the city is transformed by economic boom and entrepreneurial energy. The approaching return of the city to mainland China brings its own problems, anxieties and upheavals.
Against this backdrop, Stewart's life, and particularly his relationship with Maria, a Chinese nun he first meets as he is travelling out from England in 1935, unfolds. Lanchester intertwines personal histories and the city's history with great skill, showing how the past lives on, even in a city as resolutely modern as Hong Kong. The narrator of the book's last section, a young businessman called Matthew Ho, may be the embodiment of the new Hong Kong but, as he knows himself, his life has been decisively marked by the old. --Nick Rennison --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
A novel told with restraint and a surprisingly consistent tone and pace.Lanchester has broken away from the pretentiousness that marred his twoprevious novels, but there remains a certain emotional detachment from thestruggles and successes of the characters he has created. Through Tom, atypically restrained yet warm and likeable, English, Lanchester shows thathe can develop a character with depth. This makes it all the morefrustrating that other characters remain flatly two dimensional, somehowoddly hollow. Dawn Stone, the London journalist with whom the novel opens,is little more than stereotypical.
There is however real quality here. It is in the exquisite prose portraitof Hong Kong itself, perhaps in reality the central character. Superblydetailed, evocative and atmospheric, Hong Kong emerges as seething port,with layers upon layers of society sitting uncomfortably on the cuspbetween Eastern and Western cultures. It is no surprise to learn thatLanchester was born and brought up in the fragrant harbour of Hong Kong,and his deep affection for the exotic, complex city is inescapable onevery page.
The plot is subtlety and steadily delivered, with just enough pace tomaintain interest, but despite using the voices of the characters torelate it, it is difficult not to be aware of the author's controllinginfluence throughout. The prose is pitch perfect and the ending satisfyingbut the restrained characterisation and overly control plot preventFragrant Harbour from being the novel that it might have been. Lancesteris capable of a masterpiece. This isn't it, quite.
There has never been a Great Hong Kong Novel (or even film) and this isn't it but John Lanchester's Fragrant Harbour begins to show you that one could be written. It's not great but it's definitely very good. Lanchester realises that there isn't one Hong Kong, there are many. Everyone has their own personal Hong Kong and they get very possessive about it (look at the other reviews). So the trick Lanchester pulls is to knit together four personal Hong Kong's, four characters, four perspectives, and create as good an impression and explanation of 20th century Hong Kong as you'll find.
The four characters - Journalist Dawn Stone, Hotelier Tom Stewart, Nun Sister Maria and businessman Matthew Ho - each have a section to tell their story. This keeps the narrative fresh and driven and the true plot is hidden from view as we enjoy the experiences of the protagonists. Then slowly, gradually the real story emerges to create the one view, the real story and the real lesson.
Lanchester writes well. He pulls you through the sections, the history, the characters with real purpose. He is a sympathetic, even loving, observer of colonial attitudes from both English and Chinese sides. The structure is idiosyncratic with Tom Stewart, admittedly the most sympathetic character, given the greater part of the book while Sister Maria, the most provocative character, is given woefully little space.
It works. You get five Hong Kong's in one book. One each from the four characters and then the whole, which is Lanchester's own view of a place he clearly loves.
Having lived in Hong Kong I found his book rivetting as it reminded me of my time there. Although a novel he brings the sights and scenes to life. Read more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
