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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wanted so much to like this more than I did (I loved Shōgun). But I had a lot of emotional problems with this book:
- Aside from May-May, none of the women are written as characters of any worth (even Tess didn't live up to what I was expecting).
- The annexation has always bothered me. The British had no business being there in the first place (they had no business being anywhere where they occupied, annexed, colonized, imperialized, etc., and neither did any of the other countries that did the same). Wreaks of white centrism, white supremacy, white saviorship.
- Because it was written with Struan as the central character, so was the worldview written from his perspective - a white, Christian, alpha male's (my least favorite kind of male). The first time he lays hands on May-May made me want to scratch out his eyes to blindness.
- Hated the broken English ascribed to all the Chinese characters. I get why Clavell chose to do it, but it was still triggering for me (as an immigrant who grew up in the US, I will always remember the racism and xenophobia my parents were particularly subjected to because of their imperfect English).
- He was a terrible father, a terrible husband, and a hypocrite to his precious Christian god, and he got through life fairly unscathed. (May-May must've been devoted to a lot of gods to make that happen for him!)
If I ignored all these emotional barriers, if I could pretend I didn't care about any of it, then yeah, the story is full of adventure and triumph. But in the end, I felt too disturbed by all this and more.
The British were the outsiders, but Struan was constantly trying to subject the people in his life to western morality, never mind that the Chinese had lived by their own codes without any issues until then. And although Struan admits Chinese are wiser (e.g., how British never showered or washed their clothes*), the distinctions between the cultures might be the only thing I liked about the book. May-May (my only favorite character) was constantly reminding Struan about how the whites were the barbarians and their civilizations were far more immature. I especially loved May-May's rants about why it's acceptable to follow and pray to both the Chinese gods and the Christian one as well as her insistence on fengshui. May-May was the only one who made me laugh. She also evoked in me sadness for her, as well as awe. She made this book worth reading, and Struan did not deserve her.
Undecided if I want to read the next book in the series...
* I think Clavell might be extra sensitive about hygiene. It had a pretty noticeable presence in Shōgun too.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic
dark
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm glad it's over.
No real challenges for protagnist -everything gets conviniently resolved through deus ex machina like plot points. Racism - chinesee women decribes as etheral exotic beauties, men as ugly and fat. Misogyny. Horrible portrayal of women. Protagonist very unlikable and painted as perfect male- all men want to be him or kill him and all the women (book specifies multiple Times that most of those women are UNDERAGE) want to be with him and think of each other as bitches due to jealousy. Multiple non resolved plot points. Bad pacing. Multiple long, boring and repetitive rants about hygiene. Multiple anegdotes that had No place in tis Novel and made me think the author didn't want his reasearch go to waste.
No real challenges for protagnist -everything gets conviniently resolved through deus ex machina like plot points. Racism - chinesee women decribes as etheral exotic beauties, men as ugly and fat. Misogyny. Horrible portrayal of women. Protagonist very unlikable and painted as perfect male- all men want to be him or kill him and all the women (book specifies multiple Times that most of those women are UNDERAGE) want to be with him and think of each other as bitches due to jealousy. Multiple non resolved plot points. Bad pacing. Multiple long, boring and repetitive rants about hygiene. Multiple anegdotes that had No place in tis Novel and made me think the author didn't want his reasearch go to waste.
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
A saga of power and trade, where self interests collide with natural and manmade external forces
Definitely struggled with this one more than I did with Shogun.
I think it's in the structure. In Shogun, we were able to learn about Japan through the naive eyes of Blackthorne. By the time the narrative begins in Tai-Pan, Dirk Struan has been running things in British China for years. While the narrative expands to include just about every white person (and a few Chinese people) on and around Hong Kong, it's Dirk who is our centerpiece. And while he's a very interesting character to follow, he's too blessed by the plot gods to ever really get behind. We are in his head for many of his challenges, but his victories are kept hidden from the reader for suspense, robbing them of some of their weight.
But still, what an expansive cast this becomes! It reminds me of the 1980 Popeye movie, how fully formed each person's "schtick" is and how they're all circling the same drain. It's fun to watch Struan move through a crowd and have brief encounters with people like Aristotle Quance, with Glessing and Longstaff, with Shevuan and Mary Sinclair and May-May. If the moment to moment experience weren't so enjoyable, I would have dropped this book around 600 pages ago.
I do also appreciate how the major events of this book had very little to do with the martial experience that took over much of Shogun. The three biggest plot events in the book are a land sale, a ball, and a shotgun marriage. This book concerns itself much more with the emotional struggle of the people trying to establish Hong Kong, and is richer for it.
My other major hang-up with this book was the phonetically spelled out pidgin English. I just really grate when authors do this kind of speech. I'd love to read a defense of it because it often just comes across as mean-spirited to me, pointing out when someone has an accent in a way that becomes impossible to separate from every single word they speak.
Rounded this one narrowly down to 3 stars, but very much enjoyed a lot of it. Gonna be a big break before my next Clavell epic, but I would be lying if I said that seeing (one of) the main characters of Gai-Jin is Tess and Culum's kid got me excited.
I think it's in the structure. In Shogun, we were able to learn about Japan through the naive eyes of Blackthorne. By the time the narrative begins in Tai-Pan, Dirk Struan has been running things in British China for years. While the narrative expands to include just about every white person (and a few Chinese people) on and around Hong Kong, it's Dirk who is our centerpiece. And while he's a very interesting character to follow, he's too blessed by the plot gods to ever really get behind. We are in his head for many of his challenges, but his victories are kept hidden from the reader for suspense, robbing them of some of their weight.
But still, what an expansive cast this becomes! It reminds me of the 1980 Popeye movie, how fully formed each person's "schtick" is and how they're all circling the same drain. It's fun to watch Struan move through a crowd and have brief encounters with people like Aristotle Quance, with Glessing and Longstaff, with Shevuan and Mary Sinclair and May-May. If the moment to moment experience weren't so enjoyable, I would have dropped this book around 600 pages ago.
I do also appreciate how the major events of this book had very little to do with the martial experience that took over much of Shogun. The three biggest plot events in the book are a land sale, a ball, and a shotgun marriage. This book concerns itself much more with the emotional struggle of the people trying to establish Hong Kong, and is richer for it.
My other major hang-up with this book was the phonetically spelled out pidgin English. I just really grate when authors do this kind of speech. I'd love to read a defense of it because it often just comes across as mean-spirited to me, pointing out when someone has an accent in a way that becomes impossible to separate from every single word they speak.
Rounded this one narrowly down to 3 stars, but very much enjoyed a lot of it. Gonna be a big break before my next Clavell epic, but I would be lying if I said that seeing (one of) the main characters of Gai-Jin is Tess and Culum's kid got me excited.
Slooooww burnnnn
It’s me, not the book.
I thought this was a continuation of Shōgun, but did not read the summary. That’s on me.
Nevertheless it was an interesting historical fiction, it’s such a slow burn though. It took me forever to finish as it didn’t keep my interest.
It’s me, not the book.
I thought this was a continuation of Shōgun, but did not read the summary. That’s on me.
Nevertheless it was an interesting historical fiction, it’s such a slow burn though. It took me forever to finish as it didn’t keep my interest.
Between breaks in listening I cannot give a fair review. But its a bout a group of sailors and their experience with Hong Kong
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No