Read This!: The Piano Teacher

by Janice Y. K. Lee

The Piano Teacher tells two stories about 10 years apart. One is set in WWII. One is set in the early 1950s. Both take place in Hong Kong. The 1950s story centers on a British woman, Claire Pendleton, who moves to Hong Kong with her husband. Bored, she takes a job as a piano teacher for a wealthy Chinese family and soon becomes involved with their driver, a fellow British ex-pat, named Will Truesdale. Will has been in Hong Kong since before the war and is now a shadow of his former self. The earlier story focuses on his relationship with a woman named Trudy Liang, a half-Chinese, half-Portuguese heiress and socialite. When war breaks out and Hong Kong is occupied by the Japanese, Will is forced into an internment camp because he is British. Trudy remains on the outside. How these two survive during the war influences not only their lives at the time, but Claire’s life, 10 years later.

I am a big fan of books set in China/ Hong Kong during the late 19th and early 20th centuries (think The Good Earth, Amy Tan novels, etc.). And starting with my first read of The Secret Garden at age 10ish, I have always found stories set in colonialist areas and times fascinating. So coming in, this book had a lot of potential for me. I found the portrayal of the westernization of the Chinese characters and the easternization (is that a word?) of the British ones to be interesting and I liked how the two stories intertwined. I have to confess that I guessed what could be construed as a big reveal very early on in the book but I didn’t mind. There was some open-endedness that I wish would have been resolved or at least more sufficiently explained but eh, it didn't really affect the overall story. I just like closure. Overall, it was worth reading so I would recommend.