ljm57 's review for:

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

4.0

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Richly descriptive writing that vividly evokes the exotic setting of the British Straits Settlement of Penang in the early decades of the 1900s. The story reimagines author William Somerset Maugham’s visit to Malaya in 1921 where he was hosted by old school chum Robert Hamlyn and his wife Lesley. Events are retold by Lesley and Willie in alternating chapters. And as Lesley warms to her guest, she spends many an evening with him sharing a number of significant incidents she was connected with ten years earlier. Eng brilliantly weaves actual historic events into Lesley’s story such as an involvement with Chinese revolutionary Dr. Sun Yat Sen while he was based in Penang garnering support for his cause. Lesley also relates her friendship with, as well as the trial and sentencing of real-life convicted murderess Ethel Proudlock, a British woman and wife of local school teacher. She reveals more intimate aspects of marital problems between herself and Robert as well. Maugham subsequently uses Lesley’s outpourings as the basis for his popular collection of short stories, The Casuarina Tree. The publication of this book helped Maugham recover from a disastrous business decision that ruined him financially. So many threads cleverly intertwined in a fusion of fact and fiction, including colonialism, Chinese revolution, fidelity, homosexuality, cultural difference and societal expectations.