Kowloon Tong
A Novel of Hong Kong
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3.7 • 6 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this “moody thriller,” a family business is targeted for takeover as control of Hong Kong shifts from the British to the Chinese (The New York Times).
Ninety-nine years of colonial rule are ending as the British prepare to hand over Hong Kong to China. Betty Mullard and her son, Bunt, have lived here for years, mostly keeping apart from their foreign surroundings, except for some indulgence in the local food, or in Bunt’s case, the local girls. The handover is not a concern for them—until the mysterious Mr. Hung from the mainland offers them a large sum for their family business.
They refuse. But they fail to realize that Mr. Hung is unlike the other Chinese people they’ve known: he will accept no refusals. When a young female employee whom Bunt has been dating vanishes, he is forced to make important decisions for the first time in his life—but his good intentions are pitted against the will of Mr. Hung, and the threat of the ultimate betrayal.
“A compact, provocative gem of a novel” (The Boston Globe), from an award-winning author acclaimed for both his fiction and his travel memoirs—including Deep South, The Great Railway Bazaar, and The Mosquito Coast—Kowloon Tong was praised by Bette Bao Lord in The Washington Post Book World as “a taut, illuminating story that transcends its timely subject.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hong Kong's last British Governor described himself as "mere flotsam on the tide of history." Theroux's latest exotic novel (after My Other Life) deals with colonials coping with the imminent return of Hong Kong to China. Middle-aged Neville "Bunt" Mullard and his domineering mother, Betty, are cozy packages of Englishness despite having lived in Hong Kong most of their lives. The pair treat the city as if it were a London suburb, preferring roast beef at Fatty's Chophouse to Chinese cuisine, fretting about the scandals of the royal family and enjoying high tea the way it's served at home. Having just inherited the family business, Imperial Stitching, from the dead senior Mullard's recently deceased Cantonese business partner, the pair hope to survive the "Chinese take-away" when the colony reverts to China in July 1997. Soon, however, one Mr. Hung, an entrepreneurial member of the People's Liberation Army, makes an offer for their factory--one that he insinuates can't be refused. This menacing scenario widens to include the innocent Mei-ping, Bunt's employee and current mistress, when her roommate vanishes in Hung's company. Theroux dramatizes the double-dealing of the British-Chinese "one country, two systems" agreement, splashing on plenty of local color, including the Happy Valley race courses, the Macao casinos and Bunt's lunchtime brothels. The laughably closed-minded and casually racist Bunt and Betty won't fully satisfy readers' curiosity about the whys and ways of Britain's less than heroic role in the agreement, however. The accomplished Theroux is always a delight to read, but the plot of his new novel, like life in today's Hong Kong, feels improvised and rushed to make a deadline.
