This 313-paged novel shuttles between London and Shanghai, pitting memories of the past against the present. The story heavily draws upon the political climate of China including the opium trade and the Second Sino-Japanese War. A major part of the novel unfolds in the past, in Christopher’s hazy recollections of his childhood in the International Settlement in Shanghai, which finally push him to solve the most important mystery of his life– the mystery behind his parents’ disappearance.
Christopher Banks, emerges as a mild-mannered protagonist who doesn’t visibly show any signs of distress at being orphaned at a young age.
In the first chapter, he says rather casually,
“Actually, odd as it may sound, my lack of parents – indeed, of any close kin in England except my aunt in Shropshire – had by then long ceased to be of any great inconvenience to me. As I would often point out to my companions at boarding school like ours, we had all learned to get on without parents, and my position was not as unique as all that.”
Migrating to London following the disappearance of his parents in Shanghai, he climbs the social ladder of contemporary London society by establishing himself as a celebrated detective. And when he finally decides to solve the mystery behind his parents’ disappearance, it appears as if he does it more out of a sense of duty than out of love.
Christopher initially appears to be a rather predictable character who towards the last few chapters exhibits a divergence from his calculative nature. His spur-of-the-moment decision to run away with Sarah Hemmings leaving behind his life’s greatest mission, seems to be inconsistent with his character. His decision to adopt Jennifer, an orphaned girl, is understandable as he is perfectly aware of the emotional damage such an incident can have on a young person’s mind and perhaps it’s his way of paying forward the comforts he had in his life.
The novel initially progresses slowly, but then picks up momentum towards the end, bringing in the necessary shocking resolutions to many an enigmatic question. Christopher starts out as a character who is caught in the morass of the past but following the solving of the mystery behind his parents’ disappearance, he is finally able to reconcile with his life in the present.
He says: “Perhaps there are those who are able to go about their lives unfettered by such concerns. But for those like us, our fate is to face the world as orphans, chasing through long years the shadows of vanished parents. There is nothing for it but to try and see through our missions to the end, as best we can, for until we do so, we will be permitted no calm.”
After reading Never Let Me Go, this novel is somewhat of a disappointment as it doesn’t do justice to the expected vitality of a detective story. Moreover, Christopher did not evoke any emotion in me, despite him being a character who had an unfortunate childhood. He can be seen as a mouthpiece alone, a voice through which one gets to learn the unfortunate story of the burdensome past of an orphaned child, nothing more, nothing less. He flits through the various phases of his life, caught up in the wrong time and quickly fades into the recesses of one’s memory once you put the book down.
Human Oxymoron 