Tai-Pan

Rating:
Summary: A True Portal Into The Past
Review: Tai-Pan made me feel I was really in the time period because the research was impeccable and the author leaves nothing out. Even the topic of 19th century hygiene is brought up. At the same time, it is a thrilling story with many things all going on at once. Two families are competing to be the predominant traders, but there are also the larger politics taking place between China and England, and the personal lives of all the characters. Clavell's characters correspond closely with real people although their names are changed and the same is true with the some of the events that take place. The author has an amazing grasp of social and political workings. Some other historical fiction writers with this skill are dry at times, but not Clavell who focuses just as much on his story as he does on living in the past. This book has it all! What more could one ask from an author?

Rating:
Summary: a page turning drab book
Review: Tai Pan was a pretty decent read. I found that it did not compare with Shogun for it's over all historical sweep. The only other Clavell work that I have read would be King Rat. It seems to me, as an impartial observer, that Clavell's work lacks an over all punch that does not manage to blow the reader away. Wilbur Smith is a contemporary writer who has only just managed to piece together a trilogy that feeds upon Clavell's legacy with his Courtney Family books. I would recommend Smith over Clavell. If you have not read either of these authors and are looking for a comparison, I would say that Raphael Sabatini and `Gone With the Wind' are precursors to the mindset that can be found here. There are many better books out there that fall into this genre. In Tai Pan every thing is there for a rousing adventure, but it is left under developed and in many ways is stiff and unpliable.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping
Review: I have probably read this book around four times through the years. Clavell hooked me with Shogun and just when I thought it could get no better he gave us Tai Pan! This is a book that makes good use of the history of the time to weave a tale totally believable about all too human characters. Whereas at times I found the characters in SHogun to be a bit one dimensional and whereas I found the characters in Gai Jin to be just plain without any redeeming qualities (aside from several of the Japanese characters) in Tai Pan Clavell blends in just the right amount of humanity (for all it's good and bad points) with some actual movement in the story and it does move fast! Dirk Struan, the main protaganist, is a man who has had to work for everything he has in life and due to a quick mind and ruthless drive he has built up a lot in the prosperous Noble House. Yet he has made enemies on his rise to prosperity and the character of Brock who bullied him in childerhood as the belligerent first mate on his earliest voyages now resents Dirk for having passed him and his own shipping company by. Two men who are but a hairsbreath of being in actuality the same now must strive against pompous British officials, crafty Chinese mandarins and ultimately each other all for the honor of being the one Tai Pan!

Rating:
Summary: HONG KONG!!!
Review: As a sailor I am blown away by this book. I've been to Hong Kong a dozen times as a port of call and Clavell has captured the flavor of China. Though fictional it is loosely based on true historic events. Absolutely the best book of the Asian Saga series. If you liked Shogun, you'll love Tai-Pan.

Rating:
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!