The daughter of one tribal leader marries a British man for financial expediency, then learns that the “castle” he governs is a holding dungeon for slaves. Gyasi’s debut novel opens in the mid-1700s in what is now Ghana, as tribal rivalries are exploited by British and Dutch colonists and slave traders. Publisher promotion, which will be strong, may not even be necessary.Ī novel of sharply drawn character studies immersed in more than 250 hard, transformative years in the African-American diaspora. But the whole last third of the novel is compacted of obligatory scenes that hook the reader who will be drawn into this fantasy world like white fumes into a joss pipe. The story's burden is will Struan's legitimate son prove worthy of becoming Tai-Pan, or will his much brighter natural Chinese son, the leader of Hong Kong's anarchist movement? The climax is a Supreme Wind (typhoon) hitting the island.Seduced by excellent period research, Clavell solemnly believes in his claptrap characters. His great love now is May-may, whose magnificently shameless dialogue is an original mixture of Scottish-Chinesepigin English. Struan ('a giant of a man, his face weathered by a thousand storms') amasses mistresses and illegitimate children like a figure pipedreamed from uncut opium. Both men smuggle opium for cash in order to buy tea. Brock, the island's second richest operator, wants to be Tai-Pan himself, steal Noble House from Struan, and set up his own sons as supreme powers. Also in the power play are Russians, Americans and several Chinese factions. Struan's rival is aging, one-eyed Tyler Brock, an opposition which extends nepotically through their grown sons and daughters. Tai-Pan means 'supreme power' and seadog Dirk Struan's Noble House is the supreme money power on the 'godrotting' island. It describes the British occupation of Hong Kong in 1841 and an empire built upon opium smuggling. A fat, gusty, commercial historical novel that will most probably sweep the bookstore windows on the strength of its narrative, Tai-Pan is a much better book than Clavell's first, King Rat.

Tai pan james clavell review