Fragrant Harbor

2003-03-25 - 9:38 a.m.

Okay, so in the further interest of eating nothing, I am now eating an almond croissant. Okay, so this has to stop. After the croissant.

And I have a doctor's appointment in an hour or so. I hate things like appointments messing up my day.

Kevin woke up at 4:30 to let the cat out, and then stayed up to read the New York Times. I guess the war is not going so well, now? Something about sandstorms? Hmmm.

Maybe it won't be a complete disaster -- can't really see it, though.

I finished Fragrant Harbor last night -- what an odd book. About halfway through, I started thinking, well, this is sort of interesting, but what's the point of it? You do learn a lot about Hong Kong. I sort of got the feeling that some of it may have been Lanchester's actual family history. But then you get to the end, and it all sort of turns again.

I think the idea of it may be layers -- one of the characters says that in Hong Kong there are many layers, and in this book there are lots of layers, too. The story is told, consecutively, by at least four narrators, each telling sort of overlapping, but not completely overlapping, stories. Sort of like a collage. I guess part of it is to show you how different people make it to Hong Kong in the first place -- and then bits of the main story turn up differently in different narrations.

It was good, I think. Complicated. Good.

out of print - new releases

find me! - 2008-02-12
where I've gone - 2008-02-07
Where I've gone - 2008-02-05
where I've gone - 2008-02-01
New - 2008-02-01

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