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Chargement... Hong Kong On Airpar Muhammad Cohen
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The fast-paced novel takes the reader along for an exciting ride of betrayal, high finance and cheap lingerie, while also giving the reader an insider's look at what really goes on behind the newsroom's closed doors. A truly hilarious satirical novel that reveals many of the mysteries taking place behind the set in the fast-paced world of television reporting.
As the Hong Kong hand-over boom fizzles into the Asian economic bust, a young expat couple's marriage and careers tumble into a maze of television news, betrayal, high finance, and cheap lingerie. For newspaper reporter turned TV producer Laura Wellesley, the morning show at Franklin Global Networks Asia means going to bed before dark and swallowing the first rule of broadcast news: the anchor is always right, especially when it's American-born Chinese egomaniac Deng Jiang Mao. The station's fortunes and Laura's outlook improve with the arrival of Peter Franklin, the 28-year-old son of FGN's billionaire founder. But Franklin's eye falls on China-born graphics drone Pussy, Laura's control room nemesis, and a butterfly emerges from the web he spins. For Laura's husband Jeff Golden, the production line for his Golden Beauties lingerie runs through a cagey mother minding their stores on Long Island, cookie tins stuffed with cash smuggled over the border, and hot tubs in Hong Kong's Jewish Community Club and mainland brothels. Cut out of his own multi-million dollar deal, Jeff's consolation prize is Yogi, a Japanese banker with a yen for "Jew food" and men raised on it. During Hong Kong's pre-hand-over boom, FGN Asia becomes a hit, a star is born, and mistakes are easy to overlook. But the economic crisis ripens relationships for treachery, creates opportunities for revenge, and moves China centre stage, triggering a great leap forward for some, a long march to failure for others. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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This is a good first novel, and it shows. By that, I mean that it's got lots of energy and color, but it's also shot through with obvious flaws that become distracting at times.
Let's get the negatives out of the way first.
They say that the good novelist should show, not tell. That means dialog and action, not narrative description, right? Cohen follows this rule to the nth degree, especially as he describes Laura's adventures as a TV news producer. Long stretches of the book comprise almost minute-by-minute behind-the-scenes accounts of new broadcasts, including Laura's directions (and often her thoughts), the chatter of the other crew members, plus lengthy voiceovers as spoken by the news anchors and reporters on screen.
This technique works well at times, especially in novel's heart, i.e. a recounting of the newscast on handover night itself. But Cohen turns to this trick so often it becomes exhausting; it should have been saved as a one-off for the handover sequence.
Next, Cohen's characterization needs work. Neither Laura nor Jeff is particularly likable (which is fine in a satirical work) or memorable (which is not fine). They've each got a couple of quirks (Laura, for example, unknowingly shouts out stage directions in the throes of passion), but they don't come alive. Jeff is particularly bland, drifting about in reaction to shoves from the women in his life.
Most of the secondary characters are also thin. For example, Yogi, Jeff's sexually rapacious and seemingly single-minded mistress, is also supposed to be an investment banking savant, but there's no way to reconcile these two aspects of her character.
On the plus side, this novel wallows magnificently in the daily absurdities of life in this singular city.
Cohen also digs out many of the inevitable burrs under the saddle of expat life: Jeff must try to deal with manufacturers in the mainland; Laura is crushed to discover that 'who-you-know' is often the key to power and promotion in her workplace; the wildly inflated costs of western grocery items are surveyed, with Jeff turning to the alternative of fighting through the old ladies at the wet market; and so on.
Another strength is Cohen's ability to evoke the ethos of the handover era. Cohen has nailed the enervating confusion of that strange time, with hope and ambiguity and greed and insecurity all competing for the top spot in one's daily emotional workout program.
Recommended. ( )