Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2009
336 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
In the sweeping tradition of The English Patient, a gripping tale of love and betrayal set in war-torn Hong Kong
In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese as World War II overwhelms their part of the world. Will is sent to an internment camp, where he and other foreigners struggle daily for survival. Meanwhile, Trudy remains outside, forced to form dangerous alliances with the Japanese—in particular, the malevolent head of the gendarmerie, whose desperate attempts to locate a priceless collection of Chinese art lead to a chain of terrible betrayals.
Ten years later, Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter’s piano teacher. A provincial English newlywed, Claire is seduced by the heady social life of the expatriate community. At one of its elegant cocktail parties, she meets Will, to whom she is instantly attracted—but as their affair intensifies, Claire discovers that Will’s enigmatic persona hides a devastating past. As she begins to understand the true nature of the world she has entered, and long-buried secrets start to emerge, Claire learns that sometimes the price of survival is love.
BookBrowse Review
The Piano Teacher was a shoo-in for recommendation at BookBrowse - a
first novel set in an interesting place and time with excellent prepublication
reviews. Thus, on receiving one reviewer's negative response to the book,
it was reassigned to a second just to make sure. Sadly, both
reviewers are in agreement that The Piano Teacher does not live up to the hype. Both cited similar criticisms. Firstly, a general flatness to the writing
.... "it reads like a 'beach novel' - the focus is more on getting the story
told than on focusing on the particularities of how that story is being told or
on the finer nuances of character development." Secondly, that the writing has a
forced quality to it; we are told how the characters feel rather than 'seeing'
their experiences through their eyes. Thirdly, a number of factual
inaccuracies give the reader pause to wonder what other period details might be
in question; for example, in one scene set in 1953 a character refers to the country
of Myanmar - but it wasn't until 1989 that the military government of Burma changed the English version of the country's name to Myanmar.
Other Reviews
"Starred Review. Lee covers a little-known time in Chinese history without melodrama, and deconstructs without judgment the choices people make in order to live one more day under torturous circumstances." - Publishers Weekly.
"Starred Review. Her adept pacing slowly exposes the inevitability of tragedy that engulfs her characters." - Library Journal.
"... a rich and intimate look at what happens to people under extraordinary circumstances." - Booklist.
About the Author
Janice Y. K. Lee was born and raised in Hong Kong and went to boarding school in the United States before attending Harvard College. She is a former features editor at Elle and Mirabella magazines in New York. The Piano Teacher is her first book.
This information about The Piano Teacher was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
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