Noble House

Hong Kong in 1963 isn't as interesting of a setting as it was in 1866. Even the current day would've been more intriguing with the region having been returned to China as well as China's rather strong position in the world's economics. But 1963 is dull to me like about all of the 20th century.

I also didn't care that much about the inclusion of different security agencies and international politics -- mainly of the Soviet Union -- that came with them. By dropping characters and plot elements related to those, Noble House would've been tighter and wieldier than the 1400-page brick it is.

The novel wasn't without good parts though. As per its name, it focuses on the Struan's trading company that was introduced in Tai-Pan. With 100 years having passed, the Struan family had grown quite a bit and I found it really cool when any of the characters were recollecting the family's history.

Of particular interest were the stories about Tess Struan. She ended up holding her unofficial position as the Noble House's true leader pretty much to her grave after having lived well over the age of 90. People started calling her a hag to which she took a liking and even changed her name to Hag Struan. She had trouble finding a suitable successor as all of her four sons died before coming of age and she thought Robb Struan's (her father-in-law Dirk's half-brother) bloodline had a "weakness" that makes poor leaders.

Hag also managed to destroy Struan's main competitor, Brock's -- her father's -- company with the information provided by Edward Gornt -- a plot element James Clavell later detailed more in Gai-Jin. Edward's company then proceeded to become the new nemesis for the Struan's up to this novel's day.

I was slightly surprised there was no Struan family tree provided with the book. Maybe Clavell wanted to keep it wholly within the story and or he didn't want to release an incomplete one as he clearly hadn't bothered to decide every member of the family.

The protagonist of the book is Ian Dunross. He is of the Struan line through Dirk's daughter Winifred Struan Dunross who was mentioned having survived plague in Tai-Pan. I think with the Struan name having so much prestige, Ian could've changed his last name. Sometimes other characters even add the Struan to the name when referring to Ian.

Ian is very alike to Dirk Struan. Ian denies the resemblance when others point it out however. He personally only wishes he was as great as Dirk whose portrait he often ends up staring.

In the prologue Ian becomes the Noble House's 10th tai-pan, inheriting a sinking ship -- a literal one too. Struan's have had trouble for a while actually. (They're always in trouble like then-retired Ian jokingly says in the following novel, Whirlwind.) Ian's suggested solution has been to make the company publicly traded to bring in more money. His father Colin Dunross, the 8th tai-pan, knew that too but hated his son being right so much that passed the mantle to Alastair Struan to prevent it from happening.

Later the Noble House faces a hostile takeover attempt when an American company, Par-Con Industries, wants to expand to Hong Kong. The Struan's are at the very brink of destruction for pretty much the whole novel but Ian Dunross never falters publicly.

Keeping one's face seems to be everything for the Chinese (and other locals) in Hong Kong -- and I assume there's at least half a truth in that like in all of Clavell's work. It makes dealing with the people kind of annoying too. For instance, when one of the leaders of Par-Con, Casey Tcholok, tries to instruct a hotel maid in Cantonese after having learned some of the language, the maid finds it rude and acts as if she doesn't understand. When Casey frustrated finally goes back to using English the maid considers having gained face from it.

It's such a shame that after the Struan's Noble House (unsurprisingly) prevails in the end, the novel doesn't spend any real time celebrating the delicious victory. I think the reader would've earned some serious savoring. Instead things go very much like the end of Tai-Pan. Clavell again showed how awful he was at writing endings to his novels.

Clavell's author surrogate, Peter Marlowe, had an unexpectedly large role in Noble House. He shows up having written his debut novel about the Changi prison camp. Peter gives advice to the main characters which felt like Clavell directing the plot inside the novel. Also, I noticed how Peter's wife Fleur is described as the most beautiful woman in the world every time current viewpoint character notices her. That was so obviously meant for Clavell's wife.

Finally, I have a feeling the translator may have had deadline approaching fast as for the last 200 or so pages the Chinese word for luck and all that (joss) changed its spelling from džoss to dsoss and the last name of a minor character switched to Ju after having been Yu up to that point.