I picked this up in my local Waterstones based on the fact that it had been shortlisted for the Costa first novel award. It's not a book I would have considered reading otherwise but the nomination caught my eye and the subject matter sounded interesting.

I came to it full of hope and interest in it but found after a while that it just didn't grab me in the way I hoped. My first major bug-bear is the way Young writes using the accents quite often. After a while I found this quite irritating and in certain parts of the book it was hard to follow. Apart from that I just found it to be a bit flat. The story as a whole was ok but apart from Pao I didn't really feel involved with any of the characters.

The big redeeming feature of the book for me was the tie in with Jamaican history. The changing face of the country was well portrayed albeit from just one point of view. The Sun Tzu quotes fit in with the story well but can get a little tiresome after a while. There was little descriptive detail to the characters and setting to really grab me although that may well be down to the style in which is was written from Pao's point of view.

I really thought that this would be a quick read for me but somehow it just wasn't. I didn't hate it, there were some parts that I liked but all in all I found this a disappointing book. ( )

I snagged this book last year as a LTER. I attempted to read it when I first got it, but wasn't engaged and had to put it down. This attempt was successful, however. I found the dynamic between cultures interesting: Jamaican vs Chinese, arranged marriage vs brothel mistress, tradition vs politics, hard work vs power. At times the novel seemed to drag with mob-like activities and historical information. Overall, I thought it was an okay book, but at times I did enjoy the reading experience. ( )

This was another serendipitous find - having finished the book I was reading and not having my Kindle to hand i needed something to read on the journey home, and picked this up by chance as it was on special offer in Waterston'es at Trafalgar Square.
It proved to be an intriguing debut novel from Kerry Young following the life of Philip "Pao" Yang who at the age of 14 flees from China in 1938 following his father's death. He and his mother come to live with his "uncle" Zhang who has already established a robust protection network within the burgeoning Chinese community in Kingston, Jamaica. Zhang is a committed adherent of Mao Zedong, and brings the young Pao up to believe in the necessity to display social responsibility, though this guidance is bolstered with immersion in the teachings of Sun Tzu.
Pao grows up learning the ropes of protection, benefiting from the steady source of income but never forgetting the responsibility to help his "clients" when necessary. He falls in love with Gloria, a beautiful prostitute, though he marries Fay Wong, daughter of another senior figure within the Chinese community.
The novel gives an interesting insight into Jamaican history (a subject about which I knew precisely nothing). Pao, despite his criminal activities, is essentially a very sympathetic character, and he takes great care of all of the people with whom he has any extended dealings.
Very different to my normal reading material, but very enjoyable, too. ( )

I tried to read this one, I really did, but I just couldn't get into it. I've been holding onto it for months in hopes that the next time I pick it up I will find it more interesting. After several failed attempts I am calling it quits.

I was so thrilled to learn I had snagged this in the Early Reviewers program!!!..in fact, I had never been so thrilled to snag one before!!! I wish I could say that Pao was as awesome a read as I thought it would be!!

I was immediately dismayed to discover that this was written in the vernacular, Pao's words on the page "sounding" like they would if he were speaking to me in person, Jamaican accent and all. Normally this drives me craaaaaaaazy, but I didn't find it too distracting in Pao, thankfully...though I don't know if it really added as much to the experience as the author obviously intended, either.

As for Pao himself, in order for me to really get emotionally invested in a book (and thus, get full enjoyment out of my reading experience) I usually have to engage with the main character, and I just didn't get that connection with Pao. The experience left me feeling like I was simply reading about someone's life.

As other reviewers mentioned, the depiction of Jamaica from a Chinese immigrant point of view was interesting and unique, and I feel like I learned a lot about that experience from this novel, especially given that Jamaica = beach vacay to me! :-) I just feel that, if the novel had only covered a few years of Pao's life perhaps, it could've been a much richer...deeper?..more engaging story. As it were, it tried to cover too much, too long a time period, in too short a novel. ( )