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My Favourite Wife
by Tony Parsons
Reviewed by Peg Fong
The first paragraph Tony Parsons's latest novel, My Favourite Wife, contains a reference, undoubtedly deliberate, to The World of Suzie Wong -- the main character is named Bill Holden, the same as the actor who played the artist who falls in live with a Hong Kong bargirl.
Parsons, the best-selling UK author of Man and Boy, updates a familiar tale. Bill Holden, like so many fictional prototypes before him, arrives in China, not understanding much about how the Chinese think. He flounders until he falls in love with a Chinese woman who doesn't simply arouse his lust, but provides Bill with the insight he needs to navigate life in Shanghai.
Unlike the impoverished artist Robert Lomax in The World of Suzie Wong, however, Bill Holden already has a family, and they are the reason why he is in China in the first place.
Struggling to survive financially in London, Bill, a lawyer, is the sole breadwinner after his financial journalist wife Becca quits her job to stay at home when their daughter Holly is briefly hospitalized after an asthmatic attack. The young family grabs at the opportunity when, during a firm dinner, Becca hears that fortune and a quicker grab at a partnership is theirs if Bill spends a few years working in Shanghai.
With few options in pricey London, Becca guilts Bill into heading to China. Before they know it, the family has landed and they're on their way to their new home, a place with the subtle name of Paradise Mansions.
The apartment block, as Becca and Bill discover on their first night as they look down at the streams of leggy young women heading into waiting luxury cars, is full of "second wives".
The one that immediately catches Bill's eye, from ten storeys up, is JinJin Li, a girl with an orchid in her hair and long legs that quickly disappear into a Porsche 911.
But the next morning, Jin Jin Li is forgotten as Bill begins his new life working in the Shanghai office of Hunt, Butterfield and West where long hours are the norm and he struggles to understand how China operates.
Out for drinks in a place pointedly named Suzy Too, Bill learns to read the signals of the dancing skinny young women around him from his charismatic co-worker Shane Gale, who is in love with a promiscuous karaoke singer.
"It's prostitution with Chinese characteristics," Shane tells the confused Bill, when he recognizes some of the women as his neighbours from Paradise Mansions. Commercial sex in Shanghai is not morally reprehensible. Rather, it's a part-time job for a teacher who should be marking papers or a career option for a woman who wants a designer purse.
There are a million JinJin Lis in China, Bill is told by the catty wife of his boss, and he wouldn't want to end up with a little old Chinese lady who he can't talk to in old age. The friendship between the lonely Bill and the neglected JinJin grows, not unexpectedly, into something more. Despite the 30s screwball comedy title, My Favourite Wife is no light-hearted humorous story. Parsons, who spent months in Shanghai researching his novel, has been suitably bedazzled by the city. But like Bill Holden, he sees the glaring gaps between what is promised and the reality.
While neither husband, nor wife, nor mistress comes off behaving terribly well, the likeability of My Favourite Wife lies in the most intriguing character in the book: Shanghai is a magnificent mass of contradiction, influencing all the other characters. The city forces Bill, Becca and JinJin to pursue their dreams, chase after more than they initially desired before eventually settling for less.
--
Peg Fong is a columnist for the South China Morning Post and the western Canada bureau chief for the Toronto Star.
by Tony Parsons
Reviewed by Peg Fong
The first paragraph Tony Parsons's latest novel, My Favourite Wife, contains a reference, undoubtedly deliberate, to The World of Suzie Wong -- the main character is named Bill Holden, the same as the actor who played the artist who falls in live with a Hong Kong bargirl.
Parsons, the best-selling UK author of Man and Boy, updates a familiar tale. Bill Holden, like so many fictional prototypes before him, arrives in China, not understanding much about how the Chinese think. He flounders until he falls in love with a Chinese woman who doesn't simply arouse his lust, but provides Bill with the insight he needs to navigate life in Shanghai.
Unlike the impoverished artist Robert Lomax in The World of Suzie Wong, however, Bill Holden already has a family, and they are the reason why he is in China in the first place.
Struggling to survive financially in London, Bill, a lawyer, is the sole breadwinner after his financial journalist wife Becca quits her job to stay at home when their daughter Holly is briefly hospitalized after an asthmatic attack. The young family grabs at the opportunity when, during a firm dinner, Becca hears that fortune and a quicker grab at a partnership is theirs if Bill spends a few years working in Shanghai.
With few options in pricey London, Becca guilts Bill into heading to China. Before they know it, the family has landed and they're on their way to their new home, a place with the subtle name of Paradise Mansions.
The apartment block, as Becca and Bill discover on their first night as they look down at the streams of leggy young women heading into waiting luxury cars, is full of "second wives".
The one that immediately catches Bill's eye, from ten storeys up, is JinJin Li, a girl with an orchid in her hair and long legs that quickly disappear into a Porsche 911.
But the next morning, Jin Jin Li is forgotten as Bill begins his new life working in the Shanghai office of Hunt, Butterfield and West where long hours are the norm and he struggles to understand how China operates.
Out for drinks in a place pointedly named Suzy Too, Bill learns to read the signals of the dancing skinny young women around him from his charismatic co-worker Shane Gale, who is in love with a promiscuous karaoke singer.
"It's prostitution with Chinese characteristics," Shane tells the confused Bill, when he recognizes some of the women as his neighbours from Paradise Mansions. Commercial sex in Shanghai is not morally reprehensible. Rather, it's a part-time job for a teacher who should be marking papers or a career option for a woman who wants a designer purse.
- Shanghai is completely unregulated. It's not like other parts of Asia. Not like Bangkok. Not like Tokyo. The women in here don't work for the bar. They're punters, like you and me. They work for themselves... They're just practical, it's just too hard a place to not be practical.
There are a million JinJin Lis in China, Bill is told by the catty wife of his boss, and he wouldn't want to end up with a little old Chinese lady who he can't talk to in old age. The friendship between the lonely Bill and the neglected JinJin grows, not unexpectedly, into something more. Despite the 30s screwball comedy title, My Favourite Wife is no light-hearted humorous story. Parsons, who spent months in Shanghai researching his novel, has been suitably bedazzled by the city. But like Bill Holden, he sees the glaring gaps between what is promised and the reality.
While neither husband, nor wife, nor mistress comes off behaving terribly well, the likeability of My Favourite Wife lies in the most intriguing character in the book: Shanghai is a magnificent mass of contradiction, influencing all the other characters. The city forces Bill, Becca and JinJin to pursue their dreams, chase after more than they initially desired before eventually settling for less.
--
Peg Fong is a columnist for the South China Morning Post and the western Canada bureau chief for the Toronto Star.
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