Rating: 
Summary: A sweeping atmospheric novel of Hong Kong
Review: A writer who likes to do something different each time out, John Lanchester sets his third novel in Hong Kong (which translates as "fragrant harbor"), his boyhood home, and a character as vivid, complex and contradictory as his human protagonists. A city created by waves of refugees and fortune seekers, vulnerable to attack, it has become a place focused on the energy of the moment, seducing newcomers with dreams of money and power, absorbing them in its push to the future. The book's primary narrator, English expatriate Tom Stewart, is first glimpsed in a brief prologue as an old man contemplating the South China Sea and a tranquil, if dubious, satisfaction: "Longevity can be a form of spite." The narration then shifts to the tart, sassy, modern viewpoint of Dawn Stone, looking back on her path to success from her arrival in Hong Kong in 1995 as a young journalist, fired with ambition and wide-eyed cynicism, to her involvement with the island's most powerful man, T.K. Wo. For the longest section of the book, Stewart returns as a man of 22, embarking for Hong Kong in a spirit of adventure. The path of his life is set on that voyage when a loud-mouthed British businessman and an equally outspoken British nun make a bet that the nun's companion, a younger Chinese nun, Sister Maria, can teach Stewart Cantonese in the six weeks of their voyage. An enduring friendship and unspoken passion is formed between the determined, idealistic Maria and the pliant, adventurous Tom. His newly acquired Cantonese lands him a hotel management job where he finds his niche in the teeming city and helps out Maria by hiring a boy - Wo Ho-Yan - who has fallen into bad company in China. But already war is in the air. Civil War between communists and nationalists in China and the Japanese invasion of China have sent waves of refugees to Hong Kong and Japanese invasion of the city seems inevitable. Rumors and pronouncements fly in panic and denial. From the Hong Kong perspective, the bombing of Pearl Harbor is "the good news" as it may deflect Japanese forces. Stewart is recruited as a British spy and placed in a bank. When the Japanese invade the New Territories, where Maria has been sent, he impulsively goes to find her, and they spend two horrific weeks hiding from the Japanese and aiding refugees. Despite her pleading that Tom flee with her to China, he returns to Hong Kong and his duties to the British. Though interned in a Japanese camp, the business of the bank must go on and Stewart is well placed to accept a radio from one of the city's gang leaders - brother of the boy he had tried and failed to help for Maria. When asked why he bothers to aid the British, Wo Man-Lee replies, "Maybe you win."
His old boss' health broken by the Japanese prison camp (where the author's grandparents were interned), Stewart takes over the hotel's management after the war as Hong Kong's fortunes rise again. Wo Man-Lee's gamble has paid off too and he is rapidly amassing a dynasty, aided by Hong Kong's appetite for debauchery and its easy corruption. Maria, however, has never forgiven him for corrupting his own brother. Stewart passes the years quietly and grows into old age on the sidelines as Hong Kong reels from the Chinese Cultural Revolution and panics over the coming 1997 handover from the British to the Chinese. Stewart's Quixotic and increasingly difficult adherence to a stubborn principle is a mystery to the narrator of the novel's final section, Matthew Ho, a businessman we met briefly through Dawn Stone, who is instrumental in the novel's conclusion. In one of the books' many ironies, a place with so much history - colonization, invasion, waves of desperate immigrants, its volatile position between China and Britain - dwells only in the present, driven by the insatiable pursuit of money and commerce. Chance plays a major thematic part - if Dawn had missed any of her big breaks, if Stewart had embarked on a different ship, if Ho had missed his flight. And irony informs the structure of the novel, leading to a quiet, masterful, inevitable bombshell of an ending. Lanchester's writing is assured, traditional. The story is sweeping and tumultuous yet told in a mannered, reflective, personal voice. And Lanchester's ("The Debt to Pleasure" and "Mr. Phillips," both prize winners) Hong Kong is as vibrant, exotic and ruthless a city as ever seduced an immigrant.
Rating: 
Summary: lousy
Review: Having lived in Hong Kong for almost 10 years I looked forward reading FH. Unfortunately, the book is terrible both in terms of characterization and atmosphere. Not to mention a series of inaccuracies.
Rating:
Summary: The WORST novel about Hong Kong
Review: I don't know much about Mr. Lanchester's background, but it's clear that he DID live in Hong Kong and he CANNOT tell a story. There are weighty issues in the book that he simply refuses to face, such as, as far as the readers could tell, the main character has one single sexual experience - why? If it's because of his love for Maria, Lanchester keeps it a secret from his readers. And there is the child between Stewart and the nun would have to be a bi-racial child and he would have to suffer a certain amount of discrimination in rural China. But Lanchester didn't even bother to touch upon at all. All the major events in Hong Kong and China are glazed over. And Please Please tell me what's the point of tagging a short story about a flighty British woman in the beginning? The novel reads like a first draft - sloppy, careless and uneven.
Rating: 
Summary: Blunt edge
Review: I hate to be a party pooper, but I was disappointed with this novel. It was readable enough, but I was never fully engaged and I found the modern-day muckraking journalist subplot unconvincing and unnecessary--almost as if John Lanchester had been persuaded to include it as a way to make the book appeal to readers who might mistake a reporter named Dawn Stone for Danielle Steele. The descriptions of Hong Kong are very fine, though, and Tom Stewart is an interesting, if disaffected, character. Lanchester writes well. "Longevity can be a form of spite. I am an old man myself now, and recognize the symptoms," is a nice opening for a novel. But a superior book about Hong Kong is Martin Booth's "Hiroshima Joe." That is a book that once read, is not soon forgotten.
Rating:
Summary: Intricately crafted, totally satisfying
Review: I read John Lanchester's Fragrant Harbor both from the perspective of someone born and raised in Hong Kong of British descent, and someone extremely interested in the one-time colony's rich history. That combination uniquely qualifies me to appreciate the handful of novels that have dealt with the colony in recent years - and for the most part I have come away thoroughly disappointed. That is not the case with Fragrant Harbor, however; where most authors show a complete lack of even basic geographic knowledge for the place - let alone how it works - Lanchester obviously knows his material. What he has done with this book is something truly stunning - he has carefully and tightly interwoven the real events, places and names in Hong Kong's history with his fictional characters and a touch of artistic license to create a story that not only entertains, but educates as well. Fragrant Harbor is wholly satisfying on every level, and I can unreservedly recommend it to anyone interested in a well written story, a gripping read, or the subject matter itself - the lives and interactions of expatriates and refugees, both in Hong Kong and Asia in general.
Rating: 
Summary: A Full Circle
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I liked the sparks of humor, "What do you say to a 900 pound gorilla with a machine gun?" ("Sir.") My appreciation for it grew after I'd finished my reading and was able to look back on it. Granted, it's not until the last 50 pages of the book that you begin to understand why the first section about Dawn Stone is there. Until the reading is complete, the novel seemed disjointed; but afterward, it seemed remarkably unified. I loved how the characters of the first and last sections set in the modern time completed the story of Tom Stewart. The historical novel which is the largest middle section of the book is incredibly fascinating. The unrequited love of Tom for Sister Maria that is never quite articulated but certainly implied is the emotional glue that holds the tale. In the end, Lancaster brings us to a full circle fulfilled in time. As readers, we gain a greater perspective that supercedes the point of view of any of the individual characters which is a remarkable feat. While the criticisms that there are better Hong Kong novels or that he could have more description might be true, I think Lancaster has masterfully done something different. He weaves the reader through the storylines and then pulls us out of them to give a greater sense of wholeness. If angels live centuries in service, then the readers' perspective comes closer to that more eternal viewpoint through this novel which is breathtaking. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: Paints a believable, fascinating picture of Hong Kong....
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I liked the sparks of humor, "What do you say to a 900 pound gorilla with a machine gun?" ("Sir.") My appreciation for it grew after I'd finished my reading and was able to look back on it. Granted, it's not until the last 50 pages of the book that you begin to understand why the first section about Dawn Stone is there. Until the reading is complete, the novel seemed disjointed; but afterward, it seemed remarkably unified. I loved how the characters of the first and last sections set in the modern time completed the story of Tom Stewart. The historical novel which is the largest middle section of the book is incredibly fascinating. The unrequited love of Tom for Sister Maria that is never quite articulated but certainly implied is the emotional glue that holds the tale. In the end, Lancaster brings us to a full circle fulfilled in time. As readers, we gain a greater perspective that supercedes the point of view of any of the individual characters which is a remarkable feat. While the criticisms that there are better Hong Kong novels or that he could have more description might be true, I think Lancaster has masterfully done something different. He weaves the reader through the storylines and then pulls us out of them to give a greater sense of wholeness. If angels live centuries in service, then the readers' perspective comes closer to that more eternal viewpoint through this novel which is breathtaking. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: Hong Kong: outward resplendency and underlying ignominy
Review: John Lanchester's Fragrant Harbor adopts more complexity and formality in comparison to his two previous novels, the painfully humorous and opinionated The Debt to Pleasure and the satirical Mr. Philips. Readers who are familiar with the history of the former British colony will discern Fragrant Harbor a novel set against the historical backdrop of Hong Kong in the twentieth century (1935-1997). Tom Stewart, the younger son of an inn owner in England, was born with a visceral desire to travel and China had always caught his imagination. In 1935, at the age of 22, he bought a ticket on the Darjeeling in a six-week voyage to Hong Kong via Marseilles, the Mediteranean, Suez Canal and Bombay. As the ship rounded a wide corner onto the Thames, the England shore receded and never did Stewart expect his rash decision to leave the country would alter the course of his life forever. The arrival to the ship of two Catholic missionaries, Sister Benedicta and Sister Maria, caused an upheaval. When Sister Benedicta and a businessman Marler fell out on each other in a heated debate over the Catholic Church spreading superstition and ignorance, Stewart became a pawn of a wager. The wager stipulated that Sister Maria, a native of Fujian Province, could teach a Stewart wholly ignorant of the Chinese language and raised him to a functional standard in a matter of weeks. Little did Stewart and Sister Maria know that the wager turned into a cherished friendship and proved its veracity when the two parted to their separate ways. Sister Maria diligently pursued her mission works in Mainland China while Stewart helped Masterson run The Empire Hotel in Hong Kong. Stewart's enduring of the changes of political environments, the Japanese occupation in early 1940s, and Mao's foundation of the People's Republic in 1949 burgeoned in him a close tie to the city. In spite of Stewart's bittersweet reminiscence of his 60 years of life in the colony, he had painted an authentic picture of Hong Kong, with dashing verisimilitude, through the weathered gale of political shifts, the rampant economic shoot-up, and the augmenting corruption and crime. The magnitude with which he captured the geographical details and the vivid vignettes of Hong Kongers' lives could only be accessible to natives. Stewart expressed his complaisant affection for Hong Kong: "You get past a certain point in life and you've accumulated a history in a place and so that's where you're from. Most of my memories and all my friends are here." (223) I am a native of Hong Kong who never had the opportunity to live through the times Stewart had experienced. Growing up during the mid 1970s into the 1980s, when the fate of Hong Kong was put on the global spotlights, China prepared to take over the sovereignty in its glorious return to the embrace of motherland. Stewart had evoked the amazing fact that after the Bruits had reigned over 150 years, the English language (though taught in school and widely spoken) minimally penetrated the city. The Bruits had left behind its inveterate landmarks and traditions but only marginally affected the lives of average Hong Kongers. The first part of the book, what seems to be some outrageous digression about a British journalist Dawn Stone's arriving at the colony in 1995, is to my minimal interest of the novel. While she did not contribute to the story until the very end, Lanchester has deftly employed her character to testify the near-snobbish lifestyle of modern Hong Kong cliques (the obsession of money, the swanking of wealth and expensive clothes, and the contention for success at the expense of stepping down others). Tom Stewart reminded me the beguiling everyday, anecdotal life of Hong Kongers. He was taken by surprise by the ways in which he found the city a surprise. The exotic elements were what he expected and aggravated his desire to loosen the shackles of England. Like any foreign newcomers, he felt the need to conform and to fit in was crushing. Correspondences with Sister Maria through numerous letters had helped him adjust to the hustle-bustle. Inculcation of the Chinese language and literature gave him a lift in expanding his hotel business. If one thing with which Stewart had nailed the place to the root, it would be the language and its speakers. Stewart deemed Cantonese (my native language) as one of the best languages for swearing because it was completely in harmony with the Cantonese characters (the bluntness, directness, money-mindedness, clannishness, worldliness, materialism, and argumentativeness). It truly hit home! I unreservedly recommend this book to readers who want to explore the history and lives of Hong Kong in the twentieth century. Stewart's description of the city mirrored that to my grandfather. John Lanchester might have inadvertently mistaken Deep Water Bay for Repulse Bay, Magazine Gap Road for Old Peak Road, he truly knows the city where he spends a substantial amount of his life. He has presented his readers an unbiased view of Hong Kong: abound with its outward resplendency and underlying ignominy. After all Fragrant Harbor is a work of fiction, thoroughly and thoughtfully written. 4.2 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Elegant but Uneven
Review: John Lanchester's Fragrant Harbor is an interesting, but flawed novel. Parts of it work very well, but the parts that don't work are more than merely disappointing; they give the book a surprisingly disjointed character.
The best part of Fragrant Harbor is the tale of Tom Stewart's life. Stewart, like tens of thousands of Britons before him, determines to escape the strictures of England and travel to the far East. He takes what is intended as a six-week voyage to Hong Kong and never returns. The great bulk of the novel tells of the life that he makes there, against the backdrop of the events that shaped Hong Kong in the 20th century.
One of the pleasures of this work is Lanchester's writing; he can be droll, he can be observant and he has a lovely economy of description. When Stewart lands in Hong Kong, he is, of course, a total stranger in this culture, and Lanchester does a good job of showing the change from Stewart's initial befuddlement at how utterly alien the city appears, to his growing acceptance and final love for his adopted home. This book has the scope of a typical historical novel, and while one learns a fair measure about Hong Kong's growth and development in the 20th century, the telling of the history seems natural, and not forced. The turning point of Fragrant Harbor is the Japanese attack in World War II, Tom Stewart's internment, and the story of how Hong Kong rebounded after the war.
The weaker parts of Fragrant Harbor are its beginning and its end. The initial section, which focuses on a yuppie journalist named Dawn Steel, has a certain breathless, shallow and cynical quality as Lanchester charts her early career in London, her move to Hong Kong and her subsequent career change. While the Dawn Steel portion of Fragrant Harbor allows Lanchester to make observations about the capitalist elite in Hong Kong in the late 20th century, there's a coldness and a sneer to the writing that is absent when he writes about Tom Stewart.
And the conclusion of the novel, in which Dawn Steel plays a role with the tale of the striving Chinese businessman Matthew Ho, feels even more tacked-on. Ho is supposed to provide a contrast to Dawn Steel, i.e., how the Chinese are faring, and the challenges they face, in the post-handover years. But although there is a clear tie between Ho and Tom Stewart, the entire Ho plot line felt contrived and artificial, an unpleasant mirror-image of the initial Dawn Steel line.
In summary, I liked great swaths of this novel, but I was somewhat disappointed by its disjointedness and the fact that its intersecting story lines seemed excessively artificial.
Rating:
Summary: Flagrantly Horrid
Review: Sometimes you can be reading a comparatively short book and discover that it's so poor that you feel you've been reading it forever. I'm afraid that's exactly what happened to me with "Fragrant Harbor" - I really struggled to finish it. The book is largely based in Hong Kong, and tells the story of a collection of characters - British mostly - who settle there. The stories are varied, ranging from one which is devoted mostly to World War Two, to a modern business intrigue. But in truth I thought that "Fragrant Harbor" was nothing more than a minor potboiler of a novel. In fact, so bad was the first section, dealing with the journalist "Dawn Stone" that I nearly disposed of the book at that point. Other sections of the novel are better written, but that's faint praise. What the reader really gets is a potted history of Hong Kong, akin to those you find at the beginning of travel guides, with a few stories thrown on top. Perhaps that might have worked had the dialogue not been so wooden, the characters so one-dimensional, and had it all not appeared so rushed - the author fast-forwards ruthlessly giving the impression that he cared little for taking time to develop his characters. I found all that intensely irritating. Hong Kong is a wonderfully interesting and challenging place, and deserves better than this.
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