THE PIANO TEACHER
Janice Y K Lee, HarperPress, US$25.95
In The Piano Teacher, Lee tells a tale of East meets West and the essential story of two women, a man and war.
Set in 1952, Claire Pendleton is a British newlywed who’s just arrived in Hongkong with her husband, Martin. Initially shy and reserved, she is perturbed and put off by the crowd, the noise and “the oddly clingy peppery odour” that Hongkong has to offer.
She also finds herself attending lavish garden parties and dinners at the Peak held by the British expatriate community.
Tied to a marriage she never really feels a part of, she soon meets Will Truesdale with whom an erotic passionate desire blossoms. Emerging as a more confident person whenever she’s with him, she gets introduced to his past, marred by events during the Japanese invasion 10 years earlier.
Throughout the plot, Lee manages to balance a series of flashbacks into Will’s past and Claire’s present. Will’s story begins in 1941 where he meets and falls in love with Trudy Liang, a Eurasian socialite who lives the high life before the war and uses her vivacious personality as a tool for survival.
Lee also vividly captures the atrocities of the Japanese Occupation where killings were rampant, torture was far worst than death and also the reduction of high-flying British socialites to internment camps where Will is a part of.
With the Crown Collection – a series of valuable Chinese artefacts, a target of greed and desire by the Japanese, British and some Chinese collaborators – difficult choices and decisions are made, subsequently having adverse effects on Will and Trudy’s relationship, and also affecting that of Will and Claire’s a decade on.
What does Will steal from a grave in Macau? What happens to Trudy? Why is Will always a picture of depression and regret after the war?
All these questions will be answered towards the end of this captivating novel, where Lee underlines the fact that during wartime, people’s desire for survival far surpasses anything moral or immoral.
Peter Rajendran
