5/22/2023 0 Comments Tai pan james clavell review![]() ![]() 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. ![]()
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