The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee, read by Orlagh Cassidy, Publisher: Penguin Audio; Unabridged edition (January 13, 2009), ISBN-10: 0143144413
Rating: 4 of 5 STARS
Source: Random pick at public library
I started listening to The Piano Teacher the week before I left for vacation at the beach and then finished it when I came back. (I typically listen to books on my 30 minute drive to and from work.) So, I guess it was a little disjointed for me and that may be why I didn't give it a higher rating.
From The New Yorker:
"...a cinematic tale of two love affairs in mid-century Hong Kong shows colonial pretensions tainted by wartime truths. Will Truesdale, a rootless, handsome Briton, arrives in the colony in 1941, and is swept up by Trudy Liang, the blithe and glamorous daughter of a Shanghai millionaire and a Portuguese beauty. They quickly become inseparable, their days spent in a whirl of parties and champagne, but when the Japanese invade, Will is interned and Trudy resorts to increasingly Faustian methods to survive. After the war, Claire Pendleton, the naive wife of a British civil servant, arrives. She begins giving piano lessons to the daughter of a rich Chinese couple, and falls in love with their wounded and inscrutable driver: Will. Lee unfolds each story, and flits between them, with the brisk grace and discretion of the society she describes - a world in which horrors are adumbrated but seldom told."
What I enjoyed the most about this book was the historical aspect of Hong Kong, especially as it related to the World War II invasion by Japan. Also, the reader, Orlagh Cassidy, was very easy to listen to.
I felt like the storyline fell apart a little at the end as if Lee were tired of writing and just needed to wrap it all up. All in all, though, it's a pretty impressive debut novel and I would recommend giving the audio version a try if you can find it at your local library.
Rating: 4 of 5 STARS
Source: Random pick at public library
I started listening to The Piano Teacher the week before I left for vacation at the beach and then finished it when I came back. (I typically listen to books on my 30 minute drive to and from work.) So, I guess it was a little disjointed for me and that may be why I didn't give it a higher rating.
From The New Yorker:
"...a cinematic tale of two love affairs in mid-century Hong Kong shows colonial pretensions tainted by wartime truths. Will Truesdale, a rootless, handsome Briton, arrives in the colony in 1941, and is swept up by Trudy Liang, the blithe and glamorous daughter of a Shanghai millionaire and a Portuguese beauty. They quickly become inseparable, their days spent in a whirl of parties and champagne, but when the Japanese invade, Will is interned and Trudy resorts to increasingly Faustian methods to survive. After the war, Claire Pendleton, the naive wife of a British civil servant, arrives. She begins giving piano lessons to the daughter of a rich Chinese couple, and falls in love with their wounded and inscrutable driver: Will. Lee unfolds each story, and flits between them, with the brisk grace and discretion of the society she describes - a world in which horrors are adumbrated but seldom told."
What I enjoyed the most about this book was the historical aspect of Hong Kong, especially as it related to the World War II invasion by Japan. Also, the reader, Orlagh Cassidy, was very easy to listen to.
I felt like the storyline fell apart a little at the end as if Lee were tired of writing and just needed to wrap it all up. All in all, though, it's a pretty impressive debut novel and I would recommend giving the audio version a try if you can find it at your local library.
1 Buzzes...What do YOU think?:
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Barbara
http://keyboardpiano.net
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