Janice Y. K. LeeRezensionen

This gave me an insight into Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation …. The story told alternates between two periods that are separated by 12 years.

La maestra de piano
Janice Y. K. Lee
Publicado: 2009 | 292 páginas
Novela Realista

Casada con un funcionario destinado en Hong Kong, Claire Pendleton llega a la colonia británica con el entusiasmo y la ingenuidad propios de una joven dispuesta a descubrir un mundo diferente. Al poco tiempo, cuando una prominente y acaudalada familia china la contrata como maestra de piano de su pequeña hija, Claire se ve inmersa en la embriagadora vida social del lugar y, fascinada por un ambiente tan ajeno a sus orígenes, no tarda en relacionarse con Will Truesdale, un hombre enigmático cuyo carácter reservado oculta una historia que se remonta diez años atrás, durante la traumática invasión japonesa de la isla. Así pues, el pasado resurge en torno a figuras como Reggie Arbogast, un empresario inglés empeñado en cumplir una misión inconfesable, y, sobre todo, Trudy Liang, una belleza eurasiática cuya personalidad arrolladora e impulsiva centraba la atención del más selecto y hermético círculo social de la colonia. Pero cuando las fiestas en las mansiones de las colinas y los clubes junto al mar acaban de forma abrupta a causa de la ocupación nipona, la frivolidad y la displicencia dejan paso a una sorda y feroz lucha por la supervivencia.
Situada en dos momentos claves de la historia de Hong Kong, en vísperas de la invasión japonesa y durante el renacimiento de la ciudad posterior a la guerra, esta primera novela de Janice Y.K. Lee se desarrolla en dos planos superpuestos. Bajo el aparente esplendor de la vida de la colonia extranjera en la ciudad, evocada con extraordinaria riqueza de matices, las complejas relaciones entre los personajes conforman un carrusel de intereses y pasiones propios de personas sometidas a las tensiones de una crisis histórica.

As the Elizabeth Glibert quote on the back cover says, it "...transports you out of time, out of place..." into the world of Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation in WWII and then again in the years following the war. The story begins in 1952 with an English piano teacher and her Chinese student. There is love and romance, secrets and betrayals, society parties, war and survival and memories of the past....lots of things going on. I was curious about the characters and wanted to understand the secrets behind each of their behaviors. Everything eventually unfolds at the end although it wasn't quite the ending I hoped for but curiosity kept me flipping the pages pretty quickly.

I quite liked the setting and the history. The story is very fine for the type, but that's not at all what I enjoy. My aunt gave me this book and I fully appreciate that she enjoyed it, I'm glad to have a little more insight into what to get for her.

Casada con un funcionario destinado en Hong Kong, Claire Pendleton llega a la colonia británica con el entusiasmo y la ingenuidad propios de una joven dispuesta a descubrir un mundo diferente. Al poco tiempo, cuando una prominente y acaudalada familia china la contrata como maestra de piano de su pequeña hija, Claire se ve inmersa en la embriagadora vida social del lugar y, fascinada por un ambiente tan ajeno a sus orígenes, no tarda en relacionarse con Will Truesdale, un hombre enigmático cuyo carácter reservado oculta una historia que se remonta diez años atrás, durante la traumática invasión japonesa de la isla. Así pues, el pasado resurge en torno a figuras como Reggie Arbogast, un empresario inglés empeñado en cumplir una misión inconfesable, y, sobre todo, Trudy Liang, una belleza
eurasiática cuya personalidad arrolladora e impulsiva centraba la atención del más selecto y hermético círculo social de la colonia. Pero cuando las fiestas en las mansiones de las colinas y los clubes junto al mar acaban de forma abrupta a causa de la ocupación nipona, la frivolidad y la displicencia dejan paso a una sorda y feroz lucha por la supervivencia.

This book was in my library at home. I’m not sure where I got it from. I made it through part 1 but stopped at part 2. It simply wasn’t interesting enough. It may have had a good story down the line but it took too long to get there. It’s also historical and those kinds of books never interest me to begin with.

A story of foreigners in a foreign land, tragedy, guilt, redemption, growing up, growing older, and motherhood. Overall I liked it. I had to take a break from the audio at work because I felt the tears coming.

Historical Fiction set in Hong Kong during WWII, then 10 years later. Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. When the Japanese invade, British will is sent to an internment camp, while Trudy remains "outside". Ten years later, Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter’s piano teacher. A provincial English newlywed, Claire is seduced by the heady social life of the expatriate community. She meets Will and begins a secret affair...that isn't so secret after all in the end. And the social community has quite a few secrets buried in the war and post war years.

Rec on a list of books ‘by writers of the Asian diaspora’.

I listened to a little more than half of this on audio. I think it was neglected when we did a central Oregon road trip, and then when I got back to it, the loan was expired.

My thoughts from the audio half - I was thinking a lot about whether I liked any of these characters. Claire seemed shallow and uninformed. She marries Martin for her own convenience - a place in society - and takes on the role of the non working spouse. Her views toward the Chinese and as a Brit are vaguely imperialist (vaguely because she seems uninterested in anything besides the supremacy of the British empire). And stealing from the Chens for no reason - she seems to think they will never notice the items are gone until the Chinese servant (Ping?) is blamed and fired and carried out of the house.

I am intrigued by Trudy but I didn’t understand her. I liked Will best of all. He is smitten by Trudy but he’s honest. He is honorable. Well until he takes up with Claire. I’m curious why he chooses Claire after having loved Trudy.

I finished reading the paper copy. The ending was a disappointment. Trudy, her cousin Dominick, Victor Chen - they are trying to survive by appeasing the Japanese. Trudy and Dominick lose favor and don’t survive. Trudy’s child is raised by Victor and Melody Chen. Somehow Edwina Storch knows all this - more than Will - and she tells Claire for no apparent reason. Will despises himself, he feels like he has been a coward through all of this. Claire is finally found out as cheating on her husband and both the affair and the marriage end. She stays in HK - in a little apt, working as a secretary, reading lots of books. Not clear why this is satisfying. Huh. That’s it.

The Piano Teacher was a surprise. I am taking part on a Book Challenge and the task was to read a book by an author born in Hong Kong. It felt right to do so when Hong Kong is in the middle of much political turmoil.

The author does a great job at conveying the city under a foreign invasion and the personal tragedies that it inflicts, as well the personal ethical dilemmas, love and loyalties that survival under such horrible conditions puts to a test.

I also liked the second narrative that runs parallel to the historical fiction. The story of Claire, a young and naïve housewife that arrives in Hong Kong in the early 1950’s and becomes entangled in the unraveling of the personal dramas - and crimes – that happened during the Japanese occupation. Many of the other reviewers seem to find the story of Claire less compelling, but I liked it very much. Maybe I am attracted to the stories of women that escaped the norms that were dictated to them by gender, or simply of people that recognize the limitations of their own prejudices and allow themselves to grow bigger.

This book gets extra points for its strong sense of setting and the authors ability to convey the social atmosphere during and after the war. Overall I like it very much.

4.5. I really enjoyed this book and the lives of Mercy, Hilary and Margaret. I love how she wove them together with Hong Kong in the background and I loved the ending of this book.

2.5 stars

Started out slowly and gracelessly--I kept reading only because it was the selection for my book club--but it got exciting toward the end. One of those books I can't remember two week after I finished it. I did care about Trudy. She was an interesting character.

This book could have been SO good. Just look at the beautiful cover art! I had such high expectations for this story, fueled mainly by the partial review by Elle magazine featured on the cover: "Riveting... This season's Atonement." EXCUSE ME. How DARE that dumb magazine compare this beach read to one of Ian McEwan's masterpieces? The ending just fizzled out. In fact, the entire last third of the book was fizzling. No me gusta.

As many readers have noted, this book starts out as a pleasant story, alternating between high society in 1940's Hong Kong, and 1950's Hong Kong. Not very interesting, but then everything changes as war starts in 1941, and when it has ended in the 50's. Lee's story puts us right in the action, you read about a very different wartime experience, and this is a tale that weaves and unwinds credibly!

Cute, quick little 20 minute read.

I quite enjoyed this look at three expatriate American women in Hong Kong. Margaret, a trailing wife (so called because she's trailed behind Clarke, her husband who is working there) with their three children. Hilary, an independently wealthy trailing wife of David, a corporate attorney. Mercy is the third woman, a single twenty-something Columbia grad who has been aimless and continues to be hapless on the periphery of this group. Their lives were intertwined well and while I often was frustrated with them, I still found them all interesting to read about. I won't give spoilers here because they're worth reading but I do have to say that one character's lack of an actual name did niggle at me and threw me out of the story each time I came across it. There was never any explanation given for this circumstance so I didn't know if the character really had that as a name as no one else did or if the author had done it for a specific reason or if there was some sort of cultural hint I was missing that the reference was done as a nod too.

It was a lot more sad than I'd expected and I have to say that I wholly disagree with a blurb I'd read that mentioned it was funny. The epilogue was totally saccharine but but I really didn't need that for a satisfying end, in fact, it diminished the story a bit for me. Sometimes you need just to skip epilogues. I definitely recommend reading this one.

The Expatriates follows three American women, Mercy, Margaret, and Hilary, who live in an insulated social circle in Hong Kong. Mercy is a young Korean-American woman who has been trying to make a
new start in Hong Kong for three years. She is having trouble finding a steady job and knows that she's always been “unlucky.” Margaret is a rich housewife whose life revolves around her kids, her husband, and a small number of friends. When we meet Mercy and Margaret we know they are connected by something tragic, but we don't know what it is. In Part Two we meet Hilary. Hilary and her husband, David, have been in Hong Kong for eight years, and she has been trying to become pregnant ever since their arrival. Her relationship with David is mostly indifferent, but she's hoping an adopted child will help.

Their individual and connecting stories are told by all three women in alternating chapters. Even though they are all on different paths and dealing with different crises, they suffer a similar hopelessness and loneliness. One of the best parts of the book is watching the lives of Mercy, Margaret and Hilary converge and change. I thought the characters were imperfect in a realistic way. I didn't like everything about the women but I felt their stories were interesting and the resolution was satisfying. I've never read the author's debut novel, the Piano Teacher, but I've now added it to my TBR.

Yes, well, I’ve been reading some rather heavy books lately, so it was time for a bit of light fiction…

The Expatriates, however, turned out to be not-quite-light, delivering me into a different world and another outlook on life. The child of Korean parents who migrated to Hong Kong, Janice Y.K. Lee was born and brought up there, but finished her education in America. She now lives in New York where her first novel The Piano Teacher reached the bestseller lists. Bestseller status is usually enough to warn me off, but The Expatriates appealed because, yes, it’s about American expats in Hong Kong, and it offers sharp observations about this affluent community living in a bubble within one of the most dynamic cities in the world.

SPOILER ALERT

The plot revolves around three women, all of whom are marooned by the tragedy of loss as well as by their lifestyle in a place where wives are almost superfluous. Mercy Cho, a Columbia graduate without the family background that leads to the job network, is working as a nanny for Margaret Reade when the family is on holiday in Korea and the youngest child disappears into the crowd. Mercy is paralysed by guilt, and Margaret is overwhelmed by her loss. Hilary Starr, stuck in a bad marriage and struggling with infertility in an expat society where the only thing for women to do is to have children, doesn’t know what to do with herself in a place where the wives can’t work and don’t even have the running of a household to do because that’s all done by cheap household staff. All three of them find their former identities subsumed by inertia, drifting in an empty social life where their privilege is an unspoken embarrassment.

Margaret looked around. Everyone was white, and they may have all been American, and even all from the left side of the country. She had thought that Hong Kong would be international and cosmopolitan, but she felt as if she were at a dinner party in any suburb in northern California. (p.30)

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/07/20/the-expatriates-by-janice-y-k-lee/

Hong Kong — Englis, Jap, Chinese, Eurasian — devastating results
good — sense of this time
WWII — Pearl Harbor — control

Exotic Hong Kong takes center stage in this sumptuous novel, set in the 1940s and '50s. 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. Comfortable, clever, and even a bit dazzling, they revel in their fancy dinners and fun parties. 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.

I didn't enjoy this novel as I thought I would. The story line continually went from present day to the past, and from character to character, making it difficult to follow. The characters' personalities didn't appeal to me so they didn't draw me into the storyline.

This novel traces the intertwining stories of three American women living in Hong Kong. Their circumstances differ, but each face struggles of motherhood and purpose. I didn't enjoy this book much - Lee's writing just doesn't do much for me - but I can see how it would likely appeal to those who have lived abroad or who have an interest in China.

Hong Kong is not a common setting in my book reading world, so on hearing about this book I really wanted to read it. The bonus was hearing that it was by Janice Y. K. Lee, who wrote the hauntingly beautiful The Piano Teacher. I was expecting a book of substance, which I definitely got. Lee takes the expatriate experience, in itself lonely, and applies it to three women, who also have reasons not to be happy.

Margaret was a willing expat life, willing to take on life in Hong Kong – the lunches, charities and the Target.com hauls. All that changed when her child, G (we never learn the rest of his name) disappeared off the streets of Seoul. Now she is a shell of her former self, not willing to move on and not willing to forgive her baby sitter. That person happens to be Mercy, also an expatriate Columbia graduate. Mercy knows she’s not one to have good luck and she feels just as bad about the disappearance of G as Margaret. Now she drifts aimlessly in Hong Kong until one night she meets an expatriate at a bar… That man happens to be the husband of Hilary, who sits on the fringes of the American expatriate society. She doesn’t have a child, but wants one desperately. She’s determined to the adopt orphan Julian, no matter what the gossipers say.

For the most part, the women are alone in their experiences and it’s only gradually that the reader sees the links between the women in this small, awkward community in a foreign city. The narrative moves from character to character as they sit on the fringes. All are afraid to move on with their lives, to accept the past. Except for Hilary – she’s got a shock coming to her as her life becomes entangled with Mercy’s. The pain and lonesomeness is tangible for each character, but it’s to Lee’s credit that the reader never gets sick of it. Things move slowly as each character moves on, but again it’s not boring but feels very natural. Lee has a talent for writing that is raw, yet beautiful, no matter the subject matter. The melancholy seeps through the novel but the ending gives a glimmer of hope for each of the characters. Slowly but surely, they are accepting their fates and moving in the direction to make the most of it.

This is a book that hints, rather than reveals to the reader but without being frustratingly obtuse. Enough of the loose ends are tied up to be satisfying, but there is plenty to reflect on once the book is finished. It’s not just about the fish out of water that can be the expatriate experience, it’s an insight into motherhood and how the past shapes the future.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com

In December I read Lee’s debut novel, The Piano Teacher, only to realize her second book was the January selection of my book club. I now feel quite immersed in the fascinating multicultural community of Hong Kong. This book, which takes place in the current era, is told from the point of view of three American women in Hong Kong for indefinite periods.
Mercy is a young, single Korean-American graduate of Columbia University who can’t seem to get started in a career or a relationship. This would be no surprise to the Korean fortune-tellers back in Flushing who threw a pall over her future when they said her life would be muddled and full of bad luck. Margaret is a happily married mother of three on whom terrible tragedy falls. And Hilary, who has a husband and gobs of family money but lacks the one thing she thinks would make her happiest—a child of her own. In the hothouse, insulated community of Hong Kong that Lee describes, the three women’s stories inevitably intertwine.
“The new expatriates arrive practically on the hour, every day of the week. They get off Cathay Pacific flights from New York, BA from London, Garuda from Jakarta, ANA from Tokyo, carrying briefcases, carrying Louis Vuitton handbags, carrying babies and bottles, carrying exhaustion and excitement and frustration. . . . They are Chinese, Irish, French, Korean, American—a veritable UN of fortune-seekers, willing sheep, life-changers, come to find their future selves.”
For the women, Hong Kong is a revelation. Everyone has help—the near-invisible Chinese maids and cooks and nannies and drivers. The married ones have come for their husband’s job and left their own careers, if they had them, mostly behind. Freedom from whole categories of daily routine enables a different, more demanding social life. Luncheons, the club. And a fixation on motherhood. Lee is a beautiful writer and an expert observer of people, creating many moments that are funny as well as painful.
Each of the women finds herself in key situations that probably never would have existed stateside. And how that will eventually play out is in her own hands. While I never did understand Mercy’s inability or unwillingness to get hold of her future—she’s like the smooth side of velcro—and while New York Times reviewer Maggie Pouncey complains that too much of Margaret’s suffering occurs off-stage, the book was nevertheless an absorbing read. Perhaps we’re observing the characters more with a weak pair of binoculars than a magnifying glass, but we see a lot of the landscape that shapes their actions.

Set in Hong Kong in two time periods—1952 and leading up to the Japanese invasion in 1941—this lovely debut novel is part romance, part mystery, and part sociological study of the behavior of an expat community in good times and very very bad ones.
The 1952 story begins with newly arrived Claire Pendleton, wife of a water engineer who’s mostly away and mostly ignores her. Claire’s a bit bored and lets it be known she’s offering piano lessons. She’s hired by a prominent Chinese family, Melody and Victor Chen to teach their ten-year-old daughter Locket. With the Chens, she comes to know temptation.
On the street and at practically every social event she attends, she runs into a long-time Hong Kong resident, the emotionally elusive Englishman Will Truesdale. He has an odd limp and an confident manner, and he pursues Claire with determination. Over time, she learns his history and the preoccupations that haunt him.
In 1941, Truesdale was the Hong Kong newcomer. Almost immediately he meets and falls for Eurasian beauty Trudy Liang, a fixture in the social scene and cousin of Melody Chen. Will and Trudy’s love affair changes them both. Then the Japanese overwhelm the colony, bringing their detention camps, their bombs, their random, brutal murders, and deep, starvation-level privation. Choices were made, and those long-ago choices shape Claire’s world too.
Having shown the glitter of Hong Kong, Lee now exposes the grime. She reveals the aspects of character that allow individuals to survive changed circumstances, or not. The ones who come out the other side, like Claire, who needed to believe there was more to life, learn who they truly are.
The plot is strong and the prose elegant. Lee carries you along so easily that before you know it, you are plunged into difficulty all around. Her vivid description of the city of Hong Kong and the life there is like a prolonged, unforgettable visit to an exotic, insular world.