A review by persey
Gweilo: Memories Of A Hong Kong Childhood by Martin Booth

4.0

This was a wonderful read edging into five-star territory, evocative and compelling about a place and a time long gone, and yet. I can’t ignore two overarching issues. The first is the author’s age especially at the start of the memoir, seven going on thirty-seven it seems, as he was a tiny man-about-town where he didn’t even speak the language at first. I’m not sure how much is memory and how much is later projection, especially given that the author returned to Hong Kong in a few years for good and it seems likely later experiences overlaid his earliest memories. I’m willing to give that a pass, but more troubling is his account of his parents’ relationship, where while the author is on his mother’s side and portrays his father as a vicious buffoon, it’s entirely obvious that she actively sought to undermine his relationship with his father to the point of cozening reactions that resulted in physical punishment. His father was a Colonel Blimp, but, unintentionally on the author’s part, his mother comes off equally badly. There’s not always two sides to every story, but it seems clear there were in this case.