Pompous Australian journalist/explorer finally meets his match when he falls in love with a beautiful American heiress who refuses to belong to any man. Cleverly written with wit and humour. Provides an interesting window to the western world within China in the early 20th century. Story does drag a bit near the end and there really doesn't seem to be much of a conclusion at the end of it all. ( )

Linda Jaivin's latest novel explores the attitudes and lifestyle of Westerners living in South East Asia at the turn of the century. With the Russo-Japanese War as a backdrop for the story, it is clear that Jaivin knows a great deal about this turbulent period in Asian history (she has written extensively about Chinese politics and culture), and this is clearly a well researched novel.

In 1904, Australian journalist George Morrison meets Mae Perkins, the daughter of an American Millionaire. The path of their love affair is dictated by the circumstances around them – the small Western community's obsession with sex and scandal and Morrison's own jealousy and misgivings spur him to follow his career and agonise over the relationship until the pair can be reunited. Jaivin has created a thoroughly unlikeable character in Morrison. He is self absorbed, pompous and vain. Mae's character is developed through his observations and her honesty is a refreshing antithesis to his hypocrisy. This “most immoral woman” is the most intriguing character in the novel, thanks to her straightforward lack of guile.

The chapter titles are unnecessary synopses of the material to follow, and are irritating and only occasionally witty. However, Jaivin's prose is clear and easy to read and her descriptions wonderfully evoke the sights, sounds and smells of the environment: “his nose was simultaneously assaulted by the rotten-egg smell of thawing sewage and delighted by the scents of toffee and pancakes”. The drawback is that such effusions sometimes detract from the pace of the story and at the start it is really quite slow moving.

Such a flaw is only minor and in the end, the main appeal of this novel lies with Jaivin's masterful recreation of the heady days of turn of the century China.

(This review is a slightly modified version of a review that I wrote for UWA's Pelican Newspaper)