Review
Almost like an Irish Graham Greene, says Sean McMahon
- Chinese Opera
- New Mourne Press
Crippled Tiger, Hopeless Dragon
If Ang Lee were filming this novel of Victor Price’s, his first after many years, he might well choose such a title.
Set in Hong Kong in 1961 it describes a community split morally and nationally, and warily conscious of a time in the future when its western tendency to louche behaviour would have to kowtow (literally) to the mores of the Chinese People’s Republic. It is obviously based upon personal experience, as is the chief character Liam Sharkey (known to the Chinese as ‘Sha-Ki’). The novel reads rather as if Graham Greene set out to write one of his glum novels about sin and adultery and turned it into one of his ‘entertainments’ instead. The result is a book grimly funny, filled with literally operatic characters. These include Nigel Verity (We-Li-Ti), the twitchy District Officer, old school mate of Sha-Ki, and the unbelievably desirable widow Mary Rhodes, the Irishman’s eventual salvation. This is a rich, even gamy novel and a great read.
Sean McMahon