The Colonel and the Eunuch by Mai Jia

Expected Publication Date: 9 May 2024

‘The Colonel and the Eunuch were different names for the same person.’

Twentieth century rural China provides the setting for this novel. Our protagonist, a boy, has grown up in a small village listening to stories about the Colonel, whom some call the Eunuch. As the story gradually unfolds, we learn why some consider the Colonel a hero and others consider him a traitor. The boy wonders: is the Colonel a Eunuch? Who can answer this question?

The boy grows to manhood at a time when China in undergoing rapid change. But he never forgets the Colonel and, as he himself grows into middle age, he learns the truth.

‘I didn’t know shame could weigh so much that it could break someone.’

I found this an absorbing read. Yes, it is slow paced. Yes, almost every character has at least one nickname and at times I really had to concentrate – much as I imagine the boy had to as the story began. While I think the novel is easier to understand if you have some knowledge of twentieth century Chinese history (especially of the war between China and Japan), such knowledge is not essential. Mai Jia takes the reader deep into Chinese rural life, through rumour and superstition into the life of a man who has been elevated within the village to a near mythic status.
Mai Jia shows more intimate view of twentieth century life in China, one in which the Colonel retains his mystery until near the end. Was he a hero? Was he a villain? Who can be trusted?
I intend to reread this novel. The setting is an important part of the story, but in my first read I was more focused on trying to learn the ‘truth’ about the Colonel.

‘A person has two sides, like a coin. There’s a good side and a bad side.’

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop

‘We’d not done anything like this before, never been so extravagant. In fact, we’d hardly celebrated the date in any way.’

JB Blackwood and Patrick Heller have been married for 14 years. She is a novelist; he is a renowned filmmaker. They met when she was a university student, and he was a visiting professor. He is twenty or so years older than she is, and as she makes arrangements for a cruise to celebrate their wedding anniversary, they seem to be drifting apart. Patrick is reluctant to travel, but JB is determined. And, while she’s making the arrangements, she learns that she is to win a literary prize for her latest novel. JB is sworn to secrecy, unable to tell Patrick. She goes along with this: although the timing is tight, she’ll have time to make the award ceremony in New York.

‘How is it that we find ourselves so easily persuaded by this idea of our own greatness, the vision of our invincibility, when really what we know we need is an acknowledgment of our real, if only passing feeling of weakness and incapacity?’

While on the cruise, Patrick goes overboard during a storm. He was drunk and they had argued: he is lost at sea. JB is in shock, and seemingly unable to remember what happened. JB is interviewed by the police. Patrick’s body is recovered. JB travels to New York for the award ceremony, and then to Australia for a book tour.

‘It’s easy now to see the events of that night from a distance. To recognise a trajectory of inevitability that was closed to me at the time.’

I was about one hundred pages in before this novel tightened its grip on me. JB releases information in drips: we don’t even learn her given name until well into the story: is she an unreliable narrator, or is she (simply) being miserly with the details? At its heart, this is the story of a complicated marriage, one in which the roles of the partners are changing. And, after Patrick’s death, JB is measured (or continues to be measured) against his achievements and existence.  JB is haunted. In part there’s the rejection she felt when her mother left when she was young, and the changing relationship she has with Patrick who seemed to resent her achievements.

‘I have come to understand, too late perhaps, that my life has been defined by the very relationship I’d sought to escape.’

While it was easy for me to dislike Patrick, I didn’t much care for JB either. And yet … I could appreciate the struggles JB faced to establish herself, to try to step out of her husband’s shadow. Would Patrick have been judged the same way if their situations had been reversed? I wonder.

This is a complex, multi-layered novel. It’s the situation I will remember rather than the characters. I am left wondering whether Patrick fell overboard …

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Death Row at Truro: The shocking true story of Australia’s deadliest sex killers by Geoff Plunkett

‘This is a work of non-fiction. The quoted conversations are taken verbatim from those involved, newspaper articles and other archival material. This book is fully referenced and verifiable.’

Yes, I confess. I read a lot of true crime, but I almost did not read this book. Why? Well, ‘shocking true story’ in the title reminded me of the sensationalist ‘reporting’ that so often passes for journalism these days. In this case, I would have been wrong.  Here’s an extract from the blurb:

‘Shortlisted for Australia’s best True Crime book of the year, 2023 (Ned Kelly Award – Australian Crime Writers Association).

Seven murders … seven weeks … the true story of Australia’s worst serial sexual homicides.

Christopher Worrell and James Miller killed as many people as the notorious serial killer Ivan Milat. They are Australia’s most prolific serial sexual homicide offenders, yet they are little known outside their home state of South Australia. This is an injustice.’

I remember vaguely these murders and that James Miller (the only survivor after Christopher Worrell died in a car accident that also took the life of Deborah Skuse) claimed that while he and Worrell picked up the young women involved, Worrell acted alone when killing them.

The women were:

Veronica Knight (23 December 1976; aged 18)

Tania Kenny (2 January 1977; aged 15)

Juliet Mykyta (21 January 1977; aged 16)

Sylvia Michelle Pittmann (6 February 1977; aged 16)

Vickie Howell (7 February 1977; aged 26)

Connie Iordanides (also known as Connie Jordan; 9 February 1977; aged 16)

Deborah Lamb (12 February 1977; aged 20)

Deborah Skuse (19 February 1977; killed in the motor accident that claimed Worrell’s life)

Miller died in prison in 2008.

Worrell and Miller met when they were in prison together. Miller was serving a sentence for breaking and entering, while Worrell was serving time for rape and breaching a two-year suspended sentence for armed robbery. After their release Worrell and Miller lived and worked together. Worrell has been characterised as a charismatic psychopath, and Miller as an awkward loner.

I have nothing more to say about Worrell and Miller: Mr Plunkett covers them and their motivations in this well researched book. I was saddened to realise that while I remembered the names of the perpetrators, I had forgotten most of the names of the victims. It is easy, sometimes, to become caught up in the horror of murder, to focus on the perpetrator and his/her motivation and forget those whose lives were cut short. There were people behind the names listed above, people with aspirations and dreams, people who are missed.

And, writing this review just two days after the tragic events at Bondi Junction, after the murders of six young people, we must remember them as people, not only as victims.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Book 11 in my 2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge. I’ve entered as a ‘Nonfiction Grazer’ and this book should be included under the heading of ‘True Crime’.

Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann, translated by John E. Woods

‘I feel as if something is slipping away, as if I no longer hold it as firmly in my grasp as before.’

Two German born friends have recommended ‘Buddenbrooks’ to me, and I bought a copy way back in 2015. But when a third German friend mentioned he was reading (or rereading) Thomas Mann, I finally started reading. I also have a copy of ‘The Magic Mountain’ lurking around somewhere.

The novel opens in 1835, at a formal Buddenbrook family dinner. Patriarch Johann Buddenbrook is joined by his family and friends, including the town’s doctor, a German poet, a senator as well as several business associates. The setting is opulent:  a well-furnished home with an abundance of food served on fine china with sliver, vintage liquor, and imported cigars. The family is well off and business is thriving.

Mr Mann took some time to set the scene, to introduce the characters — especially Johann Buddenbrook’s granddaughter Antonie, known as Tony— who is eight years old as the story opens, and grandson Tom. The story concludes in 1877. During this period Germany has struggled through an industrial revolution, and several wars, an economic crisis, and political turmoil. The Buddenbrook family has experienced its own life events and struggles: births, deaths, marriages, and divorce. Tom takes control of the family fortunes at a time of change when the lure of modernity competes with tradition … and wins. Calculated risks become risky, and family fortune declines. Each generation experiences its own setbacks.

There are eleven parts to this novel, taking the story through four generations of the Buddenbrook family. What made this novel a terrific read for me was the combination of a realistic plot, well-developed characters and storytelling which held my attention from beginning to end. Sometimes, the realism is uncomfortable (in particular, the antisemitism). But the authenticity of the story requires such accuracy, and it serves as a harbinger of what follows.

The major characters are Tony Buddenbrook, her brother Tom, and Tom’s son Johann (known as Hanno). Yes, there are other characters, but for me they were secondary. I finished the novel wondering whether the decline of the Buddenbrook family was inevitable. They were wealthy, through trade, which the family fortune and social standing depended upon.

Highly recommended, with thanks to the friends who recommended it.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

I may well be the last person in my world to read this novel, but I knew these words:

‘My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.’

 Just in case you have not read the novel, here’s the blurb:

‘A tale of true love and high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts – The Princess Bride is a modern storytelling classic.

As Florin and Guilder teeter on the verge of war, the reluctant Princess Buttercup is devastated by the loss of her true love, kidnapped by a mercenary and his henchmen, rescued by a pirate, forced to marry Prince Humperdinck, and rescued once again by the very crew who absconded with her in the first place. In the course of this dazzling adventure, she’ll meet Vizzini – the criminal philosopher who’ll do anything for a bag of gold; Fezzik – the gentle giant; Inigo – the Spaniard whose steel thirsts for revenge; and Count Rugen – the evil mastermind behind it all. Foiling all their plans and jumping into their stories is Westley, Princess Buttercup’s one true love and a very good friend of a very dangerous pirate.’

 Looking for something lighter to read a few weeks ago, I chose this book. And no, I have never seen the movie. So, with limited expectations and less knowledge I leapt into an engaging world of adventure. I did get side-tracked by Mr Goldman writing about the original version of this story (yes, I was fooled for a while) but mostly enjoyed his clever insertion of self into the story.

And this is a very clever story. At its heart it is about the impact of stories on those of us who read and think about them. Mr Goldman’s experience of this story (the story within the story) reminded me of the lessons learned from stories, that fiction we encounter as children can often become important life lessons. Yes, life can be unfair … which is a good reason to write (and read) stories.

My two favourite characters in this story are Fezzik, the gentle giant, and Inigo, the Spaniard seeking revenge. My least favourite characters are the various villains, and Buttercup.

It’s full of action. It’s funny and sad, tragic, and uplifting, and I am glad I read it.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Lowbridge by Lucy Campbell

‘Where everybody knows everyone, how can somebody just disappear?’

Lowbridge, New South Wales. In 1987, Tess Dawes disappears. She was seventeen years old.

In 2018, Katherine and James Ashworth move to Lowbridge. James grew up in the town, and the couple have moved there after the death of their daughter. James commutes to Sydney for work, while Katherine tries to hide her grief and pain in a haze of alcohol and pills. Desperate to regain her life (especially after James delivers an ultimatum), Katherine discovers the local historical society. After learning about Tess’s unsolved disappearance, Katherine is driven to try to find answers.

The novel shifts between 1986/87 and 2018, between Tess and Katherine. Trying to find out what happened to Tess gives Katherine the focus she needs to come to terms with her daughter’s death. Tess’s mother Julianne welcomes Katherine’s endeavours: she has never given up hope of finding out what happened to Tess. And what happened to Jacklyn Martin? Jac, who had a difficult home life, disappeared just before Tess. Everyone seemed to accept that she’d left her father to live with her mother interstate, but what was accepted in 1987 doesn’t appear to make sense in 2018.

Small town politics, the division between those who are accepted and those who are not, teenagers learning about boundaries and limitations: these are some of the ingredients. Add domestic violence, and other topical issues, to the mix and you have a page-turning mystery. Ms Campbell has peopled her novel with a range of believable characters.

This debut novel held my attention from beginning to end. I worked out aspects of the mystery, but not the conclusion.

Recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translated by Adrien Kijek

‘Beeta says that Mum attained enlightenment at exactly 2:35 p.m. on August 18, 1988, atop the grove’s tallest greengage plum tree on a hill overlooking all fifty-three village houses, to the sound of the scrubbing of pots and pans which pulled the grove out of its lethargy every afternoon.’

This book has been patiently waiting for me to read it for some years. That’s not uncommon: unless I live to be 120 or thereabouts, I suspect I’ll shuffle off this mortal coil with a reading list that would require a further century to complete. Yes, unlikely magical thinking. But once I picked up this novel, I was transported into a world where magical realism and harsh reality are brought together and conveyed to the reader in a form of classical Persian storytelling.

This novel is set in Iran in the period after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Roza, the mother of Sohrab, Beeta and Bahar, receives enlightenment in the greengage tree at the exact time that her son Sohrab is hanged under the instructions of Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini. The family fled Tehran in 1979, but they are not safe from the unrest even in the small village of Razan. Our narrator, Bahar, is a ghost. She was killed in Tehran in 1979.

How does it work, this blend of reality and magic? In my reading, the magic leavens the reality without discounting the brutality of it. In addition to the impacts on Iran, the disappearances of people and the hangings, the rules about head coverings and the ubiquitous uteloads of men with firearms, each member of Bahar’s family has their own reaction to the events that have overwhelmed their country. Roza leaves her family after climbing down from the greengage tree. Her husband, Hushang withdraws, immersing himself in books before returning to Tehran. Beeta becomes a mermaid, while Bahar moves restlessly, and observes.

Of course, there is more to the story. There are other characters, there are djinns, there are elements of the natural world as well. And somehow, Ms Azar draws these (seemingly) disparate elements together to deliver a rich story which reflects an ancient storytelling tradition which I chose to see as hope for a different future.  

Highly recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

Fact:

‘On August 1, 1953, the United States Congress announced House Concurrent Resolution 108, a bill to abrogate nation-to-nation treaties, which had been made with American Indian Nations for “as long as the grass grows and the rivers flow”. The announcement called for the eventual termination of all tribes, and the immediate termination of five tribes, including the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.’

I picked up this novel and became immersed in the different characters and their stories. The central characters are Thomas Wazhashk and his niece Patrice (don’t call me Pixie!) Paranteau. Thomas, based on the author’s grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, works as a night watchman at the jewel bearing factory near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. His niece, Patrice, works at the factory making jewel bearings. The work is demanding but poorly paid. Patrice is supporting her mother and brother, while her alcoholic father returns home frequently enough to terrorise his family and bully them for money. Patrice and her mother Zhaanat are worried about Patrice’s sister Vera, who moved to Minneapolis. They’ve not heard from Vera for months.

Thomas Wazhashk is worried. A senator in Washington has introduced a bill that would terminate the Chippewa tribe and the support they receive from the government. Thomas knows that if the bill is passed it will destroy the tribe. The tribe is poor and if support is taken away, they will need to sell the land they still have. Tribe members will disperse to cities and their culture and traditions will be destroyed.

‘You cannot feel time grind against you. Time is nothing but everything, not the seconds, minutes, hours, days years. Yet this substanceless substance, this bending and shaping, this warping, this is the way we understand our world.’

Patrice travels to Minneapolis in search of Vera, and temporarily falls prey to exploitation.  Patrice doesn’t find Vera, but she does find her baby son and brings him home with the help of the young Chippewa boxer, Wood Mountain. Thomas focusses on trying to save the Turtle Mountain homeland. And around them both, other lives continue. Thomas remembers this advice he was given when he went to boarding school:

 “Study hard because we need to know the enemy.”

 This is a complex story, filled with well-realised memorable characters. Through these characters, Ms Erdrich shows us the best and worst of human nature and taught me about a period of American history about which I knew nothing.

I picked up this novel purely by chance at one of my libraries and am still thinking about aspects of the story and some of the characters.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

‘History has failed us, but no matter.

At the turn of the century, an aging fisherman and his wife decided to take in lodgers for extra money.’

This multi-generational saga begins in the early 20^th century, in a small village on the Korean coastline shortly after Korea was annexed by Japan. The son of the fisherman, Hoonie, was born with a cleft palate and a club foot. He and his wife Yangjin had four children, only one of whom survived. Their daughter Sunja falls for a well-dressed man, a fluent speaker of both Korean and Japanese. When Sunja becomes pregnant, she discovers that her lover has a wife in Japan and rejects him. One of the lodgers in her home, Baek Isak, was on his way to Japan as a minister of religion when he falls ill. He offers to marry Sunja, thus rescuing her from a life of shame as an unmarried mother.

They marry and move to Japan, where they live with Baek Isak’s brother and wife, and quickly become accustomed to the difficulties of life in Japan for Koreans. Sunja’s son Noa is born. Sunja and her husband have a second son, Mozasu. Life in Japan becomes more even challenging once World War II begins.

The novel follows Sunja and her family, especially her sons, Noa and Mozasu.  Each of the main characters is forced, by their position as second-class citizens, to make painful sacrifices. Sunja never really comes to terms with falling pregnant to a married man, nor can she overcome her emotional and material debt to Isak, the man who saves her.  And while Noa sacrifices his Korean identity to try to become Japanese, he feels outcast. Noa knows that he will lose his position and his family if he is revealed as Korean and is terrified of rejection.

Min Jin Lee drew me into the world of the large ethnic Korean community in Japan: the zainichi, whose perpetual status as outsiders obliges them, like Noa’s nephew Solomo in the novel, to renew their alien registration card every three years. This novel takes me into a period of history with which I am unfamiliar, into a world where people are torn between past and present, unable (in most cases) to return to Korea, and unwelcome (often) in Japan.

The novel covers Sunja’s life from girlhood to old age, introduced me to the ‘game’ of pachinko (described as a cross-between pinball and poker machines, requiring both skill and luck to win) and made me aware of the challenges faced by Koreans resident in Japan.

There’s much more to the story than this: it is a story of ambition and love, of loyalty and sacrifice, filled with complex characters surviving and trying to thrive.

A challenging read.

‘The penalties incurred for the mistakes you made had to be paid out in full to the members of your family. But she didn’t believe that she could ever discharge these sums.’

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Betrayals by Bridget Collins

‘The outside world is a distraction, at best. At worst, it can destroy you.’

I’ll open my comments with a warning. If you only enjoy novels with clear endings and messages, with all the mystery solved, then you are unlikely to enjoy ‘The Betrayals’. This is the type of novel you can immerse yourself in, where your conclusions may depend on the interpretations you make.

Here’s the blurb:

‘If everything in your life was based on a lie would you risk it all to tell the truth?

At Montverre, an exclusive academy tucked away in the mountains, the best and brightest are trained for excellence in the grand jeu: an arcane and mysterious contest. Léo Martin was once a student there, but lost his passion for the grand jeu following a violent tragedy. Now he returns in disgrace, exiled to his old place of learning with his political career in tatters.

Montverre has changed since he studied there, even allowing a woman, Claire Dryden, to serve in the grand jeu’s highest office of Magister Ludi. When Léo first sees Claire he senses an odd connection with her, though he’s sure they have never met before.

Both Léo and Claire have built their lives on lies. And as the legendary Midsummer Game, the climax of the year, draws closer, secrets are whispering in the walls…’

The story is brought to us through four different viewpoints. The first character we meet is the Rat. She is important, mysterious and (when she appears) offers the reader a different perspective of Montverre and its people. The second character we meet is present day Léo Martin. We meet Léo as he is about to become a disgraced politician, exiled to Montverre, the school he left ten years earlier.  The third character is Claire Dryden, first ever female Magister Ludi to hold office at Montverre. And finally, we have the viewpoint of young Léo Martin, desperate to fit in and excel at Montverre.

No, we do not know where Montverre is. Nor do we have details about the grand jeu. Ms Collins was in part inspired by Hermann Hesse’s novel ‘The Glass Bead Game’ and I recognise echoes of this in how I visualise the grand jeu with its unclear rules, with its combination of maths, music, and ideas. And the outside world is changing, becoming more authoritarian and less tolerant.

So, what else can I tell you without spoilers? Nothing. If you read it, approach it with an open mind, be curious about the people you meet, question your conclusions, enjoy the prose. Did I enjoy it? Yes, once I realised how elusive it was.

I am about to read Ms Collins’s next novel ‘The Silence Factory’, and I am looking forward to it.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith