{"id":6239,"date":"2016-12-05T09:15:23","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T14:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6239"},"modified":"2016-12-05T09:15:23","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T14:15:23","slug":"the-piano-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6239","title":{"rendered":"****The Piano Teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"piano\"

photo: Ovi Gherman, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

By Janice Y. K. Lee \u2013 Set in Hong Kong in two time periods\u20141952 and leading up to the Japanese invasion in 1941\u2014this 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.<\/p>\n

The 1952 story begins with newly arrived Claire Pendleton, wife of a water engineer who\u2019s mostly away and mostly ignores her. Claire\u2019s a bit bored and lets it be known she\u2019s offering piano lessons. She\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s world too.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 hothouse world.
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