Tales Of Chinatown Book

I downloaded a copy of this book for free for my kindle. It is a collection of 10 stories.

In all of the reviews that I have seen for this book, they talk about how racist it is. It is true that it is definitely not politically correct by today's standards. But I don't necessarily think it is a reflection of the author's views so much as it is a sign of the times that it was written. Values and sensitivities were different then. In fact, seeing how attitudes were different back then is one of the thing that appeals to me. It just fits so well into this type of pulp story. I feel that if the story was written today, it could be changed to dealing with the yakuza or triads and no one would blink an eye at it.

Rest of review (and rating) to follow.

Now that I have finished, I can honestly say that a lot of the appeal of these stories is getting a glimpse of a different time and the attitudes that were held at that time. Even seeing the types of stories that were popular is telling. The stories cover a range of sub-genres. There are stories that are very reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes short stories, others are police procedural (albeit with techniques from an earlier time), and others wandered into the area of horror stories. Of course they are all loosely part of the "yellow menace" pulp stories. The basic stories hold up for the most part.

So I would say these are decent stories that are entertaining and give the readers a glimpse into an earlier time. A time that was less politically correct, drugs were seen differently, and police work was a different process. Enjoy them as they were intended and don't get too hung up on the other stuff