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paul_cornelius's review
5.0
Paul French's more popular Midnight in Peking has a better story. But Destination Peking is a far better book. It is filled with information, and in some ways serves as a vast annotated bibliography. And that's a godsend for me at least. I wrote in my review of Midnight in Peking, for example, that I could only think of one book about Peking in the 1920s and 1930s. And that was John Marquand's Thank You, Mr. Moto. In this book, Paul French brings me up to date. He discusses at least a score of books and authors worth reading and, in some cases, researching. So I will. Thank you, Mr. French.
Speaking of Marquand, French leads off Destination with an epigraph from Thank You, Mr. Moto. And he goes on to rely on Marquand for much of his background information. Marquand also forms what is, for me, the best chapter of the book. A couple of things, however. One of Marquand's other books about China, Ming Yellow, I hold in higher regard than French--see my Goodreads review. It's another work that soaks up the atmosphere of Peking, China, and the era overall. French also doesn't mention Marquand's It's Loaded, Mr. Bauer. No, it's not a China novel. It's a spy thriller set in South America, in fact. But it does display Marquand's skill in transporting the spy and mystery genre to a completely different setting and time, World War Two.
There is one clunky chapter, the one on Harold Acton and his novel, Peonies and Ponies. But it's also invaluable. In revealing just who are the real life people behind Acton's characters, French sketches some very useful mini-biographies. He also lists and discusses a number of authors of fiction and travel writing I had never heard of. But I'm downloading their works even as I write this.
French has a feel for China and Peking. I don't know how contemporary events, with Covid and Xi's closing of China has affected him. But this and his other books take you right out of today and put you back in an era now obliterated by China's modernization.
Speaking of Marquand, French leads off Destination with an epigraph from Thank You, Mr. Moto. And he goes on to rely on Marquand for much of his background information. Marquand also forms what is, for me, the best chapter of the book. A couple of things, however. One of Marquand's other books about China, Ming Yellow, I hold in higher regard than French--see my Goodreads review. It's another work that soaks up the atmosphere of Peking, China, and the era overall. French also doesn't mention Marquand's It's Loaded, Mr. Bauer. No, it's not a China novel. It's a spy thriller set in South America, in fact. But it does display Marquand's skill in transporting the spy and mystery genre to a completely different setting and time, World War Two.
There is one clunky chapter, the one on Harold Acton and his novel, Peonies and Ponies. But it's also invaluable. In revealing just who are the real life people behind Acton's characters, French sketches some very useful mini-biographies. He also lists and discusses a number of authors of fiction and travel writing I had never heard of. But I'm downloading their works even as I write this.
French has a feel for China and Peking. I don't know how contemporary events, with Covid and Xi's closing of China has affected him. But this and his other books take you right out of today and put you back in an era now obliterated by China's modernization.
paulataua's review
3.0
The author of the wonderful ‘Midnight in Peking’ revisits the city, this time to tell the stories of many different people who stayed there during the first half of the twentieth century. While focusing his attention on the people and their stories, French manages to further explore the history and culture of the city in the period. Most fascinating for me was the ‘wild east’ feeling, the feeling that many of the western visitors of that time were stepping into the dangerous unknown. In the Wallis Spencer story (of later Duke of Windsor fame), we are told that her seventy-mile train journey from Tientsin to Peking had taken 38 hours thanks to
‘ a typhoid outbreak in Tientsin, marauding bandits and skirmishing warlords.'
I am always interested in how we take every possible measure to ensure safety and security in our lives, and yet are totally attracted to stories of people who have ventured into the dangerous unknown.
All in all, I found it a rewarding read, but one in which more than half the 18 stories left failed to interest me as stories in themselves
‘ a typhoid outbreak in Tientsin, marauding bandits and skirmishing warlords.'
I am always interested in how we take every possible measure to ensure safety and security in our lives, and yet are totally attracted to stories of people who have ventured into the dangerous unknown.
All in all, I found it a rewarding read, but one in which more than half the 18 stories left failed to interest me as stories in themselves
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