A review by aydotjaydot
The Chinaman by Stephen Leather

3.0

I read this because it's the book that the recent Jackie Chan film "The Foreigner" was based on. It was a good, solid reminder of how different eras of literature/writing have very specific styles and cultural short-hand included within them. It's also a good reminder of how much point of view has changed since the early 1990's in terms of cultural consideration. It also unintentionally made a good point about how war and political intrigue is ultimately useless, pointless, and hopeless in the face of humanity's desire to destroy.

It's a book that does a whole lot of work to establish character only to kill everyone (or intimate they are not long for the world) who has a POV. It works as a literary convention, it just also reminded me that espionage/revenge stories aren't ones I'm super interested in.

Basically, I liked the movie better, but that was also due to the update into modern tropes and pov. Also, Jackie Chan is awesome.