The Piano Teacher (2009)

The novel was set in Hong Kong just before, during and after the Japanese invasion during WWII. The novel went back and forth between these two times in order to delay our complete understanding of the main characters and their actions. The main characters are Claire, the piano teacher, Will, the main male protagonist, and Trudy, Will's love interest, and the most complex and interesting character in the book.
Good character development including minor characters, and explores an interesting period of history which is not often mentioned. ( )

http://girlsjustreading.blogspot.com/2011/11/julies-review-piano-teacher.html ( )

I think I've mentioned it before, but I'm not the biggest fan of audio books. This has nothing to do with the media and everything to do with my attention span. I'm easily distracted. I'll be listening and suddenly it's five minutes later and I have no idea what was just said. With a print book it's much easier for me to focus. However, I've been trying a new system: I'll listen to an audio book at bedtime to get my mind off the events of the day and into a story. This actually has been working quite well and if I keep it up, I just might be able to reach my goal of 50 books this year.

One of the books I recently listened to was The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee. Set in Hong Kong in the 1940s and '50s, the story centers around two main characters and how their lives intersect. It's about how our own personal history, as well as the historical events in which we live through, defines and shapes who we are and our relationships.

More specifically, it is a tale centered around Claire Pendleton, a newlywed recently transferred to Hong Kong, and the affair she begins with Will Truesdale. Both hired by the same family, they must keep their affair quiet, but secrets from Will's past keep surfacing. She begins to learn of the connection between Will and her employers, and of a mysterious woman in Will's past. WWII changed many lives, especially those in Hong Kong, but until she met Will, Claire never knew just how much had changed.

I had high hopes for this novel, but ultimately I was disappointed. Hong Kong seemed nothing more than a high-society luncheon for the rich and popular. The setting could just as easily have been London for the first part of the book. It wasn't until the war actually hit that it made sense why Lee set the novel in this town. Lee goes back and forth between the 1940s war-era and the 1950s post-war era. This was actually a great tool because I was able to learn more information about Will's past than had the novel simply been following Claire. That being said, Claire was a vapid character. She had no depth, and there seemed to be no real need of her character other than a machination to continue the real story - that of Will and Trudy, his lover during the war. The events post-war (which I won't go into so I don't spoil it) would have taken place whether or not Claire had been there. She wasn't the catalyst, and therefore I saw no real point to her character.

So, really, I half liked this book. I really liked Will's story and was interested in what happened to him and the other foreign-nationals during the war. But as for the 1950s part of the novel, I really didn't care until the end, and even then it was just so I could learn what really happened to Trudy. 3 out of 5 stars for a good concept and different look at WWII, but a boring and somewhat useless main character.

Oh, and I actually really liked Orlagh Cassidy's reading of the novel. I'm pretty picky on narrators, but she kept me interested and had a pleasant voice. So if you want to try the audio book, I'd recommend that route. ( )

The author made real the years of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the years of colonialism leading up to that time, and the aftermath. As far as a picture of the time – 1940s and early 1950s Hong Kong – I thought it well done. None of the characters were likeable, though, and the story started off in such a strange way, that I almost gave it up before getting to the historical part of this fiction. ( )

This story is set in Hong Kong in the 1940s and 1950s, which is a place and time I don't know much about. It tells the story of two affairs; one between an Englishman and a Eurasian woman on the eve of World War II, and the other between an married American woman and an Englishman. I didn't know anything about the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and actually ended up doing a bit of research online so I'd have a better understanding of the events. While I did enjoy it, I felt some of the characters were not developed as much as I would have liked. Despite that it was a fascinating look at a society I knew nothing about. ( )

This book interweaves two story-lines in WWII era and 1950s Hong Kong, touching on every sort of class, race, and gender issue you can think of. I had never considered the fate of Hong Kong during the war-- as a British colony, it was fully occupied by the Japanese, and any British, American, or other Ally citizens who didn't leave in time were kept in an internment camp (queue requisite poor living conditions, abuse, human behavior when reduced to a less-than-comfortable lifestyle). At the same time, there was an entire class of wealthy Chinese, very British in culture, suddenly stuck between a sort of removed patriotism, class loyalty, and Asian identity. It's a really interesting portrayal of how we all survive, identify ourselves, relate to same and other. Or rather, how we would if faced with unique circumstances and options. Also great character development, and strong female characters. I kept thinking about each 'I don't know if I like her, do I like her?,' because each is so interesting, very magnetic or charismatic in a way, but they are also real, flawed, screwed up. They are confident but confused, kind but mean, selfish and selfless, impressive and disappointing, glamorous but ordinary. Like me, like all of us. And, above all, malleable. They learn, they improve, they fail themselves and others, but they also rise to certain occasions. I like that. ( )

The book opens with the story of the titular piano teacher, an 1950s Englishwoman named Claire Pendleton who has recently moved to Hong Kong with her husband. She has started teaching piano to the young daughter of the Chens, a prominent Chinese couple. She’s also developed the inexplicable habit of nicking valuables from the Chens’ home. She also falls into an affair with Will Truesdale, an Englishman and the Chens’ chauffeur.

That other storyline, set 10 years earlier, focuses on Will and his life in Hong Kong during World War II. During that time, Will falls madly in love with Trudy Liang, a Eurasian woman who seems to be the toast of Hong Kong society. When the Japanese invade Hong Kong, Will must go to an interment camp. Trudy refuses to go, believing that she can wheedle her way into a better life on the outside, and perhaps even find ways to help Will.

Both of the storylines here have potential. I was intrigued with Claire’s thefts and with how encountering a different culture might shape her. But the affair ended up being kind of boring and predictable and seemed like little more than a way into the more dramatic war story that eventually became the emotional core of the book. The war story offers a lot more potential for excitement, but even that story was short on surprises.

I think the larger problem than the predictability was the artificial feeling of the book. The characters just never came alive. The narration has a strange sort of distant quality that keeps reader and characters apart. The other problem had to do with the dual-narrative structure. In the last half of the book, Claire seems only to exist to listen to people talk about Trudy. There are a couple of big developments in her life, but they’re brushed over. But she’s the title character! It seems almost like Lee was trying to write two stories of equal emotional weight and then the Trudy and Will story took over. The problem is that it didn’t occur to anyone to just make that the main story, with Claire either gone or existing as nothing but an observer and listener from the get-go. As it is, the end result feels sort of cock-eyed, which is the danger of the dual-storyline novel.

I don’t want to give the impression that this is a terrible book. It wasn’t! The audiobook, read by Orlagh Cassidy, was well-done, and the book’s descriptions created a strong sense of place—I really enjoyed the descriptions of the city and of the camp and of Hong Kong life during the war. It’s just that the good stuff was mostly sort of ordinary, never particularly exciting and never good enough to get me to overlook the book’s flaws.

See my complete review at Shelf Love. ( )

Interesting story regarding the occupation of Hong Kong during the Second World War. The story flucuates between 1952 and back to the occupation of the 40's. The historical situations were interesting enough but I never could get enthralled about the main characters. Some of the secondary characters were actually of more interest. O.K. read but not my favorite. ( )

Very disappointing. It sounded potentially interesting, but it really fell flat. I disliked all of the characters, especially some of the main ones, which made it difficult to keep reading. The author doesn't really give you a reason to care for the people or what happened to them. It just happened and here it is, and not in a very well-developed way. ( )

This book transitions back and forth in Hong Kong between the events of war in 1941 and some of the same people in 1952. ( )

The Piano Teacher is a fictional novel appropiately suitable to my taste. I love to learn of foreign cultures and international history through a fictional story line and fictional characters and that is exactly what this book accomplished. I found it a little difficult to follow at times through the irrelevant digressions but with progression, I became accostumed to Lee's writing style. I enjoyed the time period changes from post WWII to flashbacks of Hong Kong's history. The novel is laced with intrigue as Lee introduces the history of ancient missing artifacts while soothing the mood with the romantic relationship of two lovers.

Didn't care much about the main character. Sort of snore of a book club book in my mind. ( )

Hong Kong in WW2/early 1950's. Love story with Will, Trudy and Claire ( )

The story begins in 1952. Claire Pendleton is newly married. She arrives in Hong Kong with her husband, Martin. Claire admits that she doesn't love Martin but, at age 27, she wanted to get away from home and a complaining mother.

Bored and in need of additional income, Claire accepts a job as a piano teacher for the wealthy Victor Chen and his wife, Melody. After one lesson, a trinket of the Chens falls into Claire's purse. When it's not noticed, she begins a period of petty thievery from the Chens. This results in the Chens eventual firing of a servant for the thefts.

The story flashes back to 1941, the period before the war. It centers on Trudy Liang, a Eurasian, and Will Truesdale, an Englishman, new to Hong Kong. They begin an affair and Will moves through the island's society as the war approaches.

Back in 1952, Will and Claire meet at her twenty-eighth birthday. Will is now age forty-three. They begin seeing more of each other and begin an affair.

One day, Claire is at the beach with Martin. She's wearing a scarf that she stole from Melody Chen. Unexpectedly, they run into the Chens and Melody comments that she has a scarf just like the one Claire is wearing. After making some excuse, Claire wonders if Melody figured out that she stole the scarf.

Events move slowly. The Japanese take over Hong Kong. People do what they must to survive the war. Some people do things that they would be ashamed of and want to hide when the war ends.

Claire and Will continue their affair and then she learns something about Will's actions during the war. She must decide what to do and how this changes their relationship.

The novel was an interesting look back at two times in history but the characters were uninteresting and had little redeeming features. Nevertheless, the author is talented and the story was a nice diversion. ( )

The book sweeps you along with its story, descriptions and characters. This author expects the reader to discern and read between the lines. While I appreciate the nod of confidence, I got lost a couple of times, luckily not in details vital to the story. ( )

I don't think I was supposed to think this book was great, but as a slightly elevated beach or travel read, it was superb. Sultry Hong Kong, the benighted English, the idyll before WWII, the shock after it; betrayals, abused servants, open-air markets, sweating, affairs--what fantastic intrigue! Of course, some of the characters are banal (Claire...oh, Claire...ye heroine/protagonist/sort of...you are so boring), some are implausibly edgy (aherm, Trudy, I'm talking about you here), but golly, what a barnstormer. Had a few late nights at the beach house (or whatever) with this one; proverbially couldn't put it down. ( )

This book is a fictional telling of story of the expatriate community in Hong Kong during WWII and the social tensions following the war caused by resentment of those suspected of various degrees of collaboration. Racial prejudice between those of Chinese and European ancestry is also described. The Piano Teacher referred to by the title is a hapless new comer to the post war community who stumbles into this maze of past histories. It turns out that war was hell for civilians too. We learn that the scarcity of food and oppressive administration of the occupying Japanese army brought out the best and worst in people. There's a mystery solved in the story, but the reader doesn't learn that there's a mystery needing to be solved until late in the story.

This particular piano teacher gives the profession a bad name. Her bad behavior allows the story to move forward, but it has little to do with teaching piano. The reader doesn't learn much about teaching piano from this book. ( )

This book takes place in Hong Kong in the 1950's. Claire is a young bride from Britain who is already becoming dissatisfied with her marriage. While in Hong Kong Claire teaches piano to Locket Chen, a young Chinese girl, who is quite indifferent to her lessons. Claire quickly becomes involved in an affair with the family chauffeur, Will Truesdale. Also paradoxically Claire begins "accidentally" stealing items from the Chen household.

The title is somewhat misleading because the book is more about the Will Truesdale's life in Hong Kong and his earlier affair with Trudy, a wealthy eurasian woman.

This was a difficult review to write and upon reflecting on that, I realized that the reason I found it hard to write this review was because, although I found the book to be well written, I could not connect with the character's, especially Claire. Claire seemed to me to be a particularly insipid character and I especially found it difficult to relate to her "stealing problem" ( )

Another book in my Far East series. This one takes place in Hong Kong during the Second World War and then in the early 50s. It’s quite good. A parallel plot, love, war, betrayal, and a mystery and a sizeable bit of World War Two history. ( )

The Piano Teacher turned out to be a good book group selection. Lots of discussion about motives and actions in extreme situations. During internment in Hong Kong, one character observes that some people show their true colors in extreme situations. The group questioned the truth of that statement – as well as other issues related to survival in war. ( )

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K Lee

This is a dual narrative set in Hong Kong, around the time of the Japanese invasion, and also around ten years later. The piano teacher of the title is a young woman, Claire, newly married and already dissatisfied with her older husband. She begins to give piano lessons to a young Chinese girl, and meets their chauffeur, Will Truesdale. The book is called "The Piano Teacher", but the story really is Will's. The story of Will and Claire's affair is told along with flashbacks to Hong Kong's rapid fall to the invading Japanese, and Will's involvement with a Eurasian woman, Trudy, at around that time.
Janice Lee writes well, this is her first novel, but I did find the opening sections very slow moving, and felt that the pace through out the book was rather sluggish, but she sets out the class society, the underlying racism, and the terrible privation sufferred by the Chinese and ex-pat communities in Hong Kong.
An interesting, but slow moving book.

I was really interested in POW camps and internment camps part of the story. It is interesting to read what they were like and how people were treated. That part was fascinating. However, I just could not bring myself to care for Trudy, Will, Claire, or really anyone else in the novel. Maybe they just didn't have enough redeeming characteristics, maybe they weren't written well enough. I just didn't care. I should have read a nonfiction book about the internment camps instead. ( )

This book actually has two plotss. The one tells the story of Claire, a rather naive young wife who moves from England to HongKong with her husband Martin, a civil engineer in the early 1950s. He is very busy with his work and she takes a part-time job as a piano teacher to to the daughter of a wealthy, influential Chinese family.This position involves her by association to the earlier story from the years during World War II when Japan invaded and ruled Hong Kong.

She becomes involved with a man whose previous affair had been well-known and scandalous during the occupation. The back-story come to the front when a commission begins to investigate the actions of persons suspected of collaborating with the invaders. ( )

Took a while to catch on to the two frames but once I did I really enjoyed the interaction and could not put the book down, loved the information about Hong Kong during World War II ( )