Gweilo: Memories Of A Hong Kong Childhood
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Review
Admirably evocative...one longs to learn what happened next; but, alas, we never will.', Sunday Times .'It has such pace and power...his memoir is, above all, a celebration...the portrait of his parents...is particularly fine.', Sunday Telegraph .'A classic memoir...the voice of the youthful narrator carries the reader on in a wonderfully honest tone...Booth has delivered a pre-coming-of-age book that ranks with the best of the breed. The writing is superb...it is a more than worth legacy to his prolific literary life, but also stands as one of the most original and engaging memoirs of recent years, all the more telling because it is so personal, witty and true.', The Times .'Highly evocative...as a sharp-eyed, sensitive child of a vanished Hong Kong, Booth earns his nostalgia...his family are not the only ones who will enjoy the book.', Daily Telegraph .'Booth must rank as a giant of modern English letters...Gweilo is alive with delight in the new...this sunny, luminous account of a very special time and place will have to serve as an epitaph...ensuring that he will remain forever young.', Time Magazine .'His finest work. Full of local colour and packed with incident.', Evening Standard 'Pick of the Year' .'Full of colour and anecdote, wit and originality, his tale of the young 'gweilo' (pale fellow) loose in an exotic motley of rickshaw coolies, street magicians, Triads, drunken expats and others is crafted with deftness and aplomb. My type of leisure reading - off-beat and polished.', Good Book Guide
Sunday Telegraph
'Wonderful memoir ... it has such pace and power ... There are some great comic moments too.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I read this book with great interest. I also lived in Hong Kong as a child (and shared the same birthday as the author),and saw many similar scenes there myself. He seems to mention every special scene himself, from the Peak tram to the Star ferry,even Kowloon local areas. It is accurate,precise and local to the area.
If you want a read about this part of the world in some detail, you can do no better.
If you want a read about this part of the world in some detail, you can do no better.
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Hong Kong has been thoroughly written about over the decades, but I have known of no recent autobiographies, even if there have been, non is in print. This makes "Gweilo" stand out as one of its kind, it is a most engaging and loving memoir, socially rich in details as it relates the intercourse of different walks of life in Hong Kong, a far-fetched colony which Booth considers already ahead of the still-under-ration Britain in many ways. His description of the relationships between foreigners and the local people, as epitomised by his parents, his father's superiors, Amercian sailors, long-term lodgers in the hotels and their employees, shopkeepers, servants and ordinary locals, is acute, with observations worthy of a sociologist's.
Few expatriates have such a critical eye, even fewer expats' children are curious and courageous enough to learn the Cantonese dialect with some its excruciatingly rude foul words, to go to dai pai dongs (street restaurants) on his own, and to wander into places, like the Kowloon Walled City, where locals, and even armed policemen would not venture into and to witness the social ills among opium addicts, pimps and triad members. Many scenes described in the book belong to the not-too-distant past, yet many others remain the same to this day.
This book covers only three years of Booth's first bout in Hong Kong, from 1952 (when he was 7) to 1955. Instinctively, I feel the need for more, but Booth's untimely death in 2004 has deprived us of a sequel, when his family returned to Hong Kong for good four years after their initial departure. This is a magnificent book to read for anyone who cares for Hong Kong, Chinese and expatriates alike.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I grew up in Hong Kong, and he brought it all back, I could see it all so clearly. A fascinating read even if you haven't been there. Beautifully written, just wish there was more.
NB this is the same book as 'golden boy', so don't buy them both (as I did!)
NB this is the same book as 'golden boy', so don't buy them both (as I did!)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A 'must read' for those who know Hong Kong .... and for those who...
I was introduced to this book by my son who lives in HK. As a regular visitor to this ex-colony I found it 'un-put-downable' - and I recommend it to anyone who has ever visited... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Rosemary Hammond
Memories of a bygone era
Although having lived in Hong Kong in the 1970s - sometime after Martin Booth's time, I could relate of much of what he wrote about and for anyone with the remotest interest in... Read more
Published 16 months ago by susie
Wonderfully narrated
I read this while getting ready for Christmas in Hong Kong. Knowing the place a fair amount, I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it's a colourful account of the place in the 1950s,... Read more
Published 17 months ago by James Cridland
Gweilo: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood
A good inside of the 50's in Hong Kong from a wee Gweilo point of view. As I am a Hong Kong chinese from a later generation,I find this book is fascinating. Read more
Published on 29 April 2010 by Constance
Gweilo, good book!
Wonderful book to read if your childhood was in Hong kong and extremely interesting if you grew up anywhere else in the world. Amamzon's delivery was on time, as usual!
Published on 23 Mar 2010 by Macha Micaela Gabbai
Revived memories of a Gweilo
Having spent 3 years in Hong Kong in the early 80's it brought back so many memories granted lots had changed but so much had not. Read more
Published on 21 Nov 2009 by J. Legge
Wonderful mémoire of a Hong Kong childhood
I need not add much to the very positive reviews already given to this book. Gweilo was one of Booth's last works before he sadly died of cancer. Read more
Published on 16 Nov 2009 by Matthew Culley
delightful, a joy to read
this book details life for the author and his parents during difficult times, amusing in places, a lot of Hong Kong history worth remembering, although some is best forgotten,... Read more
Published on 14 April 2008 by Fantong
A beautiful portrait of a boy, his mother and the place they both...
This delightful memoir is doubtless mainly of interest to people who know Hong Kong and want to know about, or remember, the very different Hong Kong that existed in the early... Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2008 by Petrolhead
not his best
I have always enjoyed Booth's writing, and the period he writes about here is fascinating, and as always he picks out detail that seem to hold the imagination and evoke the... Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2007 by catholic reader
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