officialashleyo 's review for:

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

4.0

mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Beautiful prose, and really transports you to Penang and all that it entailed at the time - from small groups of rebels to privileged colonizers struggling to maintain appearances among their peers. It's an excellent character study, diving into all the motivations that lead Willie, Lesley, and others to engage in all kinds of risky behavior, only to fight their hardest to cover them up for the sake of their status in society. So much of the book is just the cast of characters telling one another stories. While I personally found myself curious to see how the stories played out, they also lacked a certain punch to them. Most of the characters, despite all the paranoia they harbored about not being caught in their various affairs, seemed at the same time to be rather passive, content with just observing and floating through the world around them. In some ways this worked - despite being part of the colonizing class themselves, the women were still restricted by the very same misogyny of Europe, so they fell in line with the standard expectations of being dutiful wives and mothers... so it's no wonder they all ultimately find themselves and/or their husbands sleeping around with someone else.

I am also completely unfamiliar with the works of Somerset Maugham (this book was gifted by a friend, and who knows if I'd have ever picked it up otherwise!), so I'm curious how much my opinion would shift after later reading his actual works.