January 28, 2016

The Expatriates. Janice Y. K. Lee

book cover
The Expatriates
Janice Y. K. Lee
Published: Little Brown
Date: 12th January 2016
Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Source: Thank you to Hachette NZ
Rating:
4 stars                              Add to Goodreads                                               
Set in present-day Hong Kong, The Expatriates follows the lives of three women. An unspeakable tragedy leaves twenty-something Mercy with a crippling personal inertia, and Margaret, a mother of three, numb and unable to heal. In the same small expatriate community, Hilary tries to distract herself from a marriage gone stale by providing piano lessons for a local orphan, only to find her actions openly criticized on an anonymous online forum.
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In The Expatriates, Janice Y. K. Lee takes us to the world of the American expats community in Hong Kong. In this community while surrounded by a buzzing city they gather together in their pampered world - being served by servers and generally taken care of. They make their home away from home, they stick together, living in a fish bowl of sorts, where everyones lives are fodder for gossip.

The story follows that of three women, who eventually become linked in a variety of ways. When we meet Mercy she is living in a small apartment, making a meal of lettuce leaves. She has no job and seems to be aimless and irresponsible. We eventually learn she has been involved in an incident that has put her life on hold and filled with guilt. She has no job and just gets work when she can, at odds with the top education that she has had. She seems to be a kind of self made victim.

Margaret is first and foremost a mother. She is a landscape architect but no longer really works. She is planning her husband Clarke's 50th birthday, or that would be Priscilla the party planner doing that! Margaret seems incapable of making any decisions. She seems only to find any solace in a small room she has, where she flees to escape a hugely significant moment in her life that has totally rocked her world.

Hillary is childless and thirty eight years of age. She longs for a child, yet seems unable to have one. Her marriage seems to have lost any significance and she and David have drifted apart. She is very rich in her own right, and so money is not an issue. She dreams about adopting a young boy in a home who is about seven years - Julian. 

This is a slow paced, detail rich story. It is filled with the ordinary details of daily life. Yet the mundane everydayness hides and contrasts with the deeper tragedies, loss, longings and aspirations of these three women. You cannot help but become involved with them as their lives intertwine in unusual ways.

By the time the story closes each woman has been on a journey and is ready to start a new phase in her life. How they get there, how they end up being in a room together at the close - to find out you will need to read the book! I think it finished appropriately, although as a reader you know this is where the book pauses in their story, but it is not the finish for them. They must journey on into where life will take them next.


23 comments:

  1. I love seeing personal growth in stories and it sounds like this is a great one for that! All the characters sound interesting and I'm especially intrigued by Margaret. I'll definitely have to look for this one!

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    1. Yes I love seeing characters change and grow Katherine.

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  2. Like Katherine has written, I do like seeing personal growth. We are human, not perfect and life is not set in stone. Glad this turned out to be a good book.

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    1. Yes to that about being not perfect - although I tend to expect the characters I read about to be making more change than I might do myself!!

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  3. Kathryn, what an interesting premise and great review! Thanks! I would have never thought to make a novel about expats like that

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    1. Ha, I always just call them expats. I wasn't even quite sure what Expatriates meant until I learned about the book!

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  4. My kind of read! Thanks for sharing...and I'm also especially intrigued by expatriates, since my eldest son has been one for more than two decades.

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    1. Yes, I always see them on TV on series like House in the Sun or something. I guess people do tend to cling to their own when living in another country.

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  5. This sounds like an interesting read, I love books that gradually weave together the storylines of several different characters. I'm glad you enjoyed this one!

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    1. Yes and more and more authors seem to do story lines that ultimately all come to intertwine in some way.

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  6. This sounds good! I really like the idea of American expatriates in Hong Kong!

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    1. Yes it is a fascinating idea, I never even thought of it before reading the book.

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  7. Hmm, I've seen this around and wasn't really sure what it was about except for the blurb. You gave a good review, and a telling sentence..about it being slow-paced but detail-rich. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a story that is just that, one I can linger over. Thanks!

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  8. I love a book that is set in somewhere that I am unfamiliar with, Hong Kong sounds like a great setting and the story sounds really good.

    Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Setting was fascinating and the expat angle was also a little thought provoking and eye opening.

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  9. On my tbr list already, and it sounds like I need to get to it sooner rather than later. I typically love these kinds of books.

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  10. Wonderful review Kathryn, yours is the first I've seen for it and I'm keen to read it although still unsure about this 'unspeakable tragedy' ... right now I should probably stick with upbeat :)

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    1. For sure at the moment Sheree just steer clear until you are in the right space. Choose something that will be upbeat because we want you reading and recommending!

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  11. Something about this book intrigues me, expats, diversity, Hong Kong........ but the rich detail would probably put me off. Sounds like a great book club read which I'm sure one of the ladies will choose this year.

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