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Summary: I'm 17, and have read this book 3 times. Wow it's so great!!
Review: This was my second novel I read over 400 pages, and I have read 20 or so since. Every easter I get this feeling that I need to read about greed, and absolute power, and every year but one, I have read Tai Pan. The odd year out, I read the sequel Noble House, which was above average, but Tai Pan just kicks butt!!
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Summary: Jon says it's an 8+!!!!
Review: I give this book and 8. The reason it isn't higher is because I felt that there was too much racyness for my taste. The story line and plot were intreaguing, and i was compelled my his historical rendation of the eventing surrounding Englands aquisition of Hong Kong. I really enjoyed the book.
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Summary: It just gets you.
Review: I read this on the pretext that it was next in line from Shogun. and I was expecting Shogun stuff. But there is not much (except for stuff about ships). This may sound dissapointing for a Shogun fan. But to my pleasant suprise that is not the case, this book has a magic of its own. Plus the book is mostly character driven (except for a typhoon who likes to make his presence known) and I liked it. Good love story too
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Summary: Over before you know it
Review: Look up any of Clavell's books and you will find a well deserved string of "10" ratings (I'm just stingy). If you have any interest at all in Asia and its history (admittedly sensationalized), you will love all of the "Asian Saga" books. Do yourself a favor and read ALL of the books, in chronological order
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Summary: Over-rated as historical fiction
Review: This book is highly over-rated and very hard to get through. The author over-loads us with trivial details of complicated espionage. There is not much "historical" detail as I would have liked, as in the Michener books. Also, Dirk Struan is such an unlikeable character I couldn't wait for the book to be over so I wouldn't have to read about him anymore
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Summary: Wonderfully captures the founding of Hong Kong
Review: This thoroughly enjoyable historical novel captures the atmosphere of China and Hong Kong in the mid 1800's. Dirk Struan, hero of this adventures, is a strongly written character who you can't help admiring and cheering on. I loved the way Clavell weaved together a compelling story with such descriptive details and historical facts that advance our understanding of characters and events. Because of this book, I read Jonathan Spence's history "God's Chinese Son", which I also recommend. I can't recommend the novel strongly enough for fans of historical fiction
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Summary: Magnificent Kick-Off to Clavell's Asian Saga
Review: James Clavell began his Asian Saga with "Tai-Pan," and in doing so brought the Far East to life in an unparalleled fashion. "Tai-Pan" tells the story of Dirk Struan, Tai-Pan ("Supreme Leader") of Struan's, more popularly known as the Noble House. First in everything (money, influence, panache, daring, etc.), the Noble House has tied its future to the rise of Hong Kong, which is "founded" in the book's first chapter. Struan, who has founded the Noble House with the vast fortune he built as an opium smuggler along the Chinese coast (many of the trading houses in "Tai Pan" owe their fortunes to opium smuggling, although they euphemistically refer to themselves as "China Traders"), has used his influence in Britain and with certain Chinese figures to take Hong Kong for the British crown as a toehold in China. Guided by his near-mystical vision of the importance of China to the world's future (at this point, China is considered by many Europeans to be a profitless wasteland populated by "heathens"), Struan will fight and kill to defend Hong Kong. Newly widowed, Struan is comforted by his Chinese lover, May-May, who is also one of Clavell's most wonderful characters. Teetering on the verge of a stereotypical "dragon lady," May-May is a woman of courage, cunning, refinement, humor, and great beauty. Clavell lets May-May speak in both English (hilarious malaprops abound) and in Chinese so the reader gets a true picture of May-May's intelligence. Prejudices being what they were, Struan is forced to keep May-May under wraps, as it were, although the legend of the Tai Pan's Chinese mistress abound. In addition to the loss of his family, Struan must contend with Tyler Brock, his one-eyed nemesis and leader of the second most powerful trading house, Brock and Sons. Brock and Struan have a deep-seeded hatred that is doomed to head for a reckoning. Brock, constantly maneuvering to best the Noble House, has quite a few tricks up his sleeve, and he forces Struan to make a dangerous gamble with the future of the Noble House. In the novel's most intriguing sub-plot, Struan can ensure his financial status only if he accepts four half-coins from his Chinese mentor, Jin-Qua. Anyone who presents the other half-coin to the tai pan can have one favor granted -- no matter what it is. A chilling bargain, and one that flows through Clavell's future novels (Noble House). Through it all, Clavell goes to great lengths to capture the clash of cultures on Hong Kong -- from the British, American, Chinese, and Eurasian perspectives. The sheer scope of man's prejudice is staggering! As pervasive as the racial conflicts may be, ulterior motives also abound. Virtually every character in the novel has a wide range of goals, ambitions, and plots they are trying to weave, and Clavell handles this vast plot with great skill. Struan, clearly the dominant character of the novel, does not quite reach superhero status, which shows proper restraint by Clavell. Struan is forced to cope with Culum, his resentful, conflicted, naive son, as well as his brother, Robb, and of course May-May. Struan struggles mightily, but he demonstrates that even the Tai-Pan is all too human. All in all, a wonderful tale of the founding of one of the world's great cities, Hong Kong, and an expert treatment of the clash of cultures between East and West. A must read!
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Summary: Historical fiction at its best
Review: Tai-Pan is simply brilliant. It has everything, and James Clavell presents the story in a fascinating, well-written manner. The gritty history of the Victorian era is incredibly accurate and artfully portrayed. Clavell takes us masterfully in to the world of 1840s Asia, and we lose ourselves in the bustling streets, the shouts of merchants, the roar of ships' cannon, and the bittersweet romance of the age.
The story itself, and the characters, are wonderful. The reader instantly falls in love with the magnanimous, charismatic Dirk Struan. We are taken along on his incredible, tragic life story, experiencing every one of his triumphs and failures in a grand journey of discovery and wonder. His friends, his enemies, and his lovers populate the already colorful world with a seemingly infinite cast of vibrant, lively characters, each of who we cherish and care for deeply.
Struan's story, although it may sound trite, will keep you on the edge of your seat and riddle you with a whirlwind of emotions. This is a story about humanity, pure and simple, and the things that we hold dear, even when we are lost in a strange, foreign land.
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Summary: The past: More interesting than you thought
Review: Next to Shogun, the best book I've ever read. The research done by Clavell is incredible and he includes all the facts. You may think it boring, almost a history lesson, however, the way that Clavell develops his characters and the plot are impeccable. This is the second time that Clavell has stunned me with his writing and again, I find myself reading this novel over and over. One of the best.
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Summary: Heroic Individualism at its Best
Review: In our age of cultural decadence, political correctness, contempt for Western Civilization and the general destruction of the "hero" as an ideal - there stand a few voices that recall a time when Men still understood what honor and virtue meant, and acted upon it.
James Clavell's Tai Pan is a book to read for all those starving for a vision of life possibilities and for the hero within us. Dirk Struan is a man who should be every boy's Father once in their lives, and for those of us not fortunate enough to know a man like this, Tai Pan fills the void perfectly.
While not living by an expressed written philosophy, Tai Pan Dirk Struan is a man who stands for reason, individualism, science, objective ethics and free trade. In essense, Dirk is a Classical Liberal or Humanist in the true sense of the word.
The story itself is a brilliant one and I find myself reading the book again every few years to remind myself of what a man Clavell was and what a wonderful world he created for us to live in.
P.S.
For those who believe that Clavell was a racist because he accurately transcribed what "Pidgin" (chinese-english lingo) sounded like, you are not reading the same book.
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