The House of Doors: Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023

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The House Of Doors is the 2nd novel I’ve read by Tan Twan Eng in less than a year. It proved to be a disadvantage vis a vis my reaction toward this book since it followed the wonderful The Garden of Evening Mists. As a result, I only gave this novel 4 stars although it might have received more if I had not read his better novel first. Funder reveals how O’Shaughnessy Blair self-effacingly supported Orwell intellectually, emotionally, medically and financially ... why didn’t Orwell do the same for his wife in her equally serious time of need?’ This novel is beautifully engrossing — filled with fascinating heartfelt and heart-wrenching gripping history The House of Doors is a masterful novel, based on real events, exploring love, betrayal, public morality and private truth under the shadow of Empire," the synopsis reads. "It is 1921 and at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Robert Hamlyn is a well-to-do lawyer and his steely wife Lesley a society hostess. Their lives are invigorated when Willie, an old friend of Robert’s, comes to stay. A week after we had settled into our new home we were invited to the farmhouse for dinner. The sun was just burrowing into the mountains when we walked the half-mile there from our bungalow. We had to stop a few times along the way for Robert to catch his breath. Bernard Presgrave was thirty-eight, twelve years Robert’s junior. Robust and ruddy-faced, he reminded me of Robert when I first married him. His farm was called Doornfontein, the Fountain of Thorns, the kind of inauspicious name that would have set my old amah Ah Peng muttering darkly, ‘Asking for trouble only.’ But Bernard and his wife Helena, a placid and dull girl from the Cape, appeared to be prospering.

The House of Doors alternates between Lesley’s and Willie’s perspectives as Lesley unburdens herself to Willie, disclosing her fears of her husband’s infidelity and her involvement in Sun’s movement. Willie draws inspiration for his stories from Lesley and other locals, while hoping to dig himself out of a financial hole and worrying that Gerald will leave him now that money is flowing less freely. It’s based on true events. It’s a work of fiction; yet it features characters and events drawn from history…a murder in 1911 which Eng set in 1910 to coincide with Sun Yat-Sen’s extended stay in Penang. With three-dimensional memorable characters ….Eng’s depiction of their relationships— particularly between Lesley and Willie is masterly. As Willie prepares to leave and face his demons, Lesley throws caution to the wind, and confides how she came to know the charismatic Dr Sun Yat Sen, a revolutionary fighting to overthrow the imperial dynasty of China. And more scandalous still, she reveals her connection to the case of an Englishwoman charged with murder in the Kuala Lumpur courts – a tragedy drawn from fact, and worthy of fiction." Set in two main time lines, in tropical Penang and KL a woman reveals a story of her past to William Somerset Maugham. Based around some real characters and events, it's a story within a story.An amazingly transporting novel about love, desire, and duty, The House of Doors does what the very best stories do -- it draws us into many fascinating worlds at once: The British Empire's incursions into South-East Asia; the secret life of one of England's finest writers; a forgotten murder trial . . . Weaving all this together with great skill and power, bringing the reader a surfeit of pleasure, Tan Twan Eng also teaches us a crucial lesson: never trust a writer.” ―Jonathan Lee, author of THE GREAT MISTAKE and HIGH DIVE

Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? As a novel, however, it was less successful for me. The writing is functional and pared down, with occasional bursts of poetry. These tend to arrive at the end of chapters where the author has the strange habit of pausing scenes to have characters stare impassively at a patch of nature, contemplating eternity. For example:I liked some of his stories,’ said Helena. ‘But “Rain”’ – she made a face – ‘I’ll never forget that one.’

The House of Doors is a fascinating, beautiful book . . . One doesn't have to know anything about Somerset Maugham to appreciate it, but the echoes make the work even richer. My third novel by the Author, highly anticipated after years of silence, centres around historic figures, the main one being W. Somerset Maughan, whose visit to Penang in early 1920s is one of the plots. Breathing new life into dead authors has become a popular fictional activity. Resurrecting Somerset Maugham at the height of his fame and exotic travels, The House of Doors is an outstanding instance of this trend.Well, one of these days, then,’ said Robert. ‘The old girl’s quite the expert on our island’s history, Willie. Knows everything about the place. Used to give our friends from abroad tours of the town. We showed that German writer around when he was in Penang – what was his name, dear? Hesse, wasn’t it? Yes. Hermann Hesse.’ One could argue that these nods are intentional – the writing leaning on Somerset Maugham’s, the romantic subplot leaning on the traditions of Victorian fiction – but unfortunately these factors hampered my immersion in the story.

They currently have none other than famous novelist and old friend of Robert’s, W. Somerset Maugham (whom they affectionately call Willie) staying with them. Just before reading this, since it centers around Maugham's composition of the short story (and subsequent stage adaptation of) The Letter, I not only read both of those, but also rewatched the 1940 Bette Davis film adaptation - and would strongly suggest doing at least one of those before attempting to read this. Such a lyrical novel about history, love, the mores of the era, and the love of landscape. I did not skip one word in this novel. It is another beautiful offering from Eng. Thank you Netgalley!It is 1921 and at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Robert Hamlyn is a well-to-do lawyer, his steely wife Lesley a society hostess. Their lives are invigorated when Willie, an old friend of Robert’s, comes to stay. An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored. From the bestselling author of The Garden of Evening Mists, a spellbinding novel about love and betrayal, colonialism and revolution, storytelling and redemption. The narrative dwells on memory and loss, its lush, dreamy prose evoking the bygone days of colonial pre-WWII British Malaya amid musings on life's ephemeral nature, while never losing its eye for injustice . . . This is a stunner. The House of Doors, by Tan Twan Eng, is a work of historical fiction set in the British colony of Penang, Malaya during three time periods, the earliest in 1910 and the next in 1921. A prologue and postscript are set on a farm in South Africa, far from the primary activity of the novel.