The Girl in the Case Book

Ambivalent. I know I gave it four stars and I stand by that; I throughly enjoyed the reading experience and I couldn't wait to find time on the train or lingering somewhere to catch up with the characters. But there's still issues. None of these people were at all likable, particularly the protagonist. But there in lies the joy as well as the ambivalence. Its all unsavory folks doing despicable things, bumping around with not much place to go. And in that context, it's all fun. If it weren't for Theroux's prose it could have been a simply horrible novel. But his type of emotional, textural reporting- a journalism not of the proceedings but of what it felt like to be there -is what make this a worthwhile read. The real Hong Kong is a beguiling, layered city and while the characters in Kowloon Tong often felt more like caricatures, there's a certain amount of truth in that kind of portrait. These people do exist in Hong Kong, I've met them all, but keep in mind that's just one strand in a huge, tangled bowl of noodles.

Still, some more sensitive readers may dismiss the whole thing as a racist, sexist and even misogynistic rant. If that's all you take away from it, then you'll totally miss the point. If you can't stand any of that kind of sentiment in your fiction then just give this book a pass. Theroux mostly exposes all of it for what it is and lets you have some amassment at the expense of the perpetrators.

So yes, 4-stars. It's not without flaws but it could be the flaws that make it so good.