The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee

[Photo Credit: Barnes and Noble]

World War II is once again the setting for another excellent book - this time Hong Kong is the war ravaged city, but like Leningrad, in City of Thieves (earlier blog post), this story is really more about the people than the place. As one reviewer of the book noted, "In desperate times, when survival is the only goal, an individual's true character is revealed."

The author, Janice Y. K. Lee, the daughter of Korean parents, was born in Hong Kong and lived there until she was 15 years old. She is too young to have been impacted by the actual war herself, but she clearly can relate to the East/West themes in the book. At 15, she left Hong Kong to attend a prep school in New Hampshire and then went on to Harvard for college. Writing a book has been a dream of Lee's since elementary school. The Piano Teacher is her debut novel.

This book is first and foremost a love story and an historical fiction account of World War II, and the clashing of cultures in World War II, told in two time periods - beginning post war 1952-53 and alternating chapters with years during the war 1941 - 43 - set, not in Europe, but in Asia - Hong Kong to be exact. The war version details how the idyllic, gilded, Hong Kong changes dramatically the day the Japanese invaded.

The book is filled with a rich cast of characters: Will Truesdale, the handsome Brit who arrived in Hong Kong in 1941 - lover of Trudy and Claire; Trudy Liang, a Portugese/Chinese beauty, daughter of a Shanghai millionaire - strong, fearless and provocative; Claire Pendleton, the "piano teacher" and naive wife of a British civil servant arriving in Hong Kong post war; and Victor, Melody and Locket Chen, the wealthy family both Claire and Will end up working for, who have a host of hidden secrets and past lives of their own. There are lots of other characters in the book as well; some the author introduces and then drops or never really ties up the loose ends on, but this doesn't really help or hurt the story. [Note: My book club determined these loose ends might be attributed to the fact that it took Lee 6 years to write the book and finally when she is pregnant with twins - her 3rd and 4th children - she becomes determined to finish the book before they are born. ] Overall, the key characters are well developed and make for a most interesting read (and book club discussion).

The Piano Teacher is a mystery, an epic tale of war and a twisted, complicated love(s) story. The author does an excellent job of describing the people, place and times - she picks you up and drops you right into the lives and events of the two different time periods. The novel illuminates a time and place, during and after World War II, not normally depicted. The different characters' reactions to the invasion, and the survival techniques they resort to as they live with the effects of their time and place, are ripe for discussion.