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Paddyfield.com
More reviews by Jane Ram
Readers may purchase reviewed books from Paddyfield.com, Asia's online bookseller.North American readers may prefer to buy US editions from Powells.com.
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The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure by Adam Williams
Fact and fiction blend seamlessly in ADAM WILLIAMS's THE PALACE OF HEAVENLY PLEASURE. Whether you are looking for a substantial page-turner or a fast education in some of the more obscure areas of Chinese social history, this novel gives exceptional value for money. It is so substantial that I used my kitchen scissors to slice the 699 pages into manageable portions to be able to take advantage of every spare moment of the day to rush through to the last page.
Williams controls a cast of thousands of supporting actors while his main characters steal most of the scenes.
So many novels set in China are little more than an irritating collection of stereotypes and caricatures engaged in a succession of unlikely and anachronistic events. But there are good reasons why this one is different. Adam Williams was born in Hong Kong, and he is the fourth generation of his family to be involved in China. For the past 18 years he has been based in Beijing, working for one of the oldest China trading companies. He speaks Chinese fluently.
Consciously or not, THE PALACE OF HEAVENLY PLEASURE seems to pay homage to Ann Bridge, who wrote two novels set in and around Beijing in the 1930s. Is it a coincidence that Williams and Bridge both had red-headed heroines? Someone from a very different world and time, Jane Austen, would have been horrified by the battles, the beheadings, the rivers of blood and the sado-masochism. But she would have recognized and empathized with the Western women in Williams's novel.
By comparison with most of the Westerners, the Chinese characters -- the inscrutable Mandarin, the utterly professional Major Lin with his well-hidden secret and the brothel keeper, Madame Liu and the few "girls" to whom we are introduced -- remain disappointingly two-dimensional by comparison with the larger than life Westerners. Meet Helen Frances Delamere, the attractive and fearless newcomer to China, her plodding fiance, Tom, and the manipulative and mysterious Henry Manners, who sets out to break up the engagement and ends up surprising himself.
Do I hear the pounding of feet in the rush for film rights? Hopefully there will not be too many distractions in the way of the sequel, which is reportedly already well under way.
As a former SCMP reporter, if memory serves me right, Williams has an instinct for a story, an ear for dialogue and an eye for colourful detail. Journalism's loss is fiction's gain. Now what will he do for an encore? Watch this space.
Jane Ram
10/01/2004
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Widely-published writer and photographer Jane Ram is a long-time Hong Kong resident. In between travel assignments she is an enthusiastic cook and gardener.
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