A review by flyingbulgarian
Fragrant Harbour by John Lanchester

3.0

I admire John Lanchester and I understand that he has lived in Hong Kong so has authority to write on the subject. And I had to keep on reminding myself that the book was published in 2003, so quite a while ago. I also learnt that the large birds I see every day from my windows are eagles not hawks as I previously thought... But I cannot forgive some things. I cannot forgive a man writing about a one dimensional female character who self-proclaims herself as “shit-hot” and has no flaws, no insecurities and is just confident, self-absorbed and obsessed with money. It‘s just one dimensional and that’s not what women are like. Or Sister Maria, whose only two qualities are her love of God and her mission, and of course, our main character... I just don’t buy this author’s attempts to write female characters.

Leaving that aside, I really liked how the story of seemingly 4 unconnected people is actually connected through the book - different decades, different people and yet they all share something in common. Unsurprisingly, the story of the white man is at the centre of the book but I see nothing wrong with that.

Learnt quite a bit more about the place I call home, particularly what war time Hong Kong during WW2 must have been like, how people lived etc.

I will read other books by the same author. But I also won’t be recommending this anytime soon. James Clavell’s books Tai Pan and Noble House remain my favourite fictional books about Hong Kong - for a good reason.