It is 1995 in Hong Kong, which in two years will be returned to China as part of the handover, and "life is surreal, swift, out of control." But in this aimless novel crammed with extraneous detail ("Water pressure was unusually low, although it never was high") and an abundance of clichés ("He hadn't called even though he said he would. Men"), Xi (Hong Kong Rose)
focuses so tediously on the pasts of her four main characters that a vivid picture of modern-day Hong Kong never materializes. Andanna is a part-time fashion model and jazz singer trying to endure a split with her musician boyfriend. Vince is a divorcing, middle-aged New York photographer with a penchant for Asian women; one of them is Colleen, a friend of Andanna's who is happily married but "free to date others." Gail, a single mother and senior executive at an investment bank, longs for Vince, but Vince suspects she's his "wife all over." Much of the "action" takes place on the phone (some readers will find this the equivalent of being chatted up by a telemarketer), and habits used to distinguish characters are as trite as cigarette smoking or cola drinking. Granted, many of the characters are vapid by nature, but their shallowness is surpassed only by their treatment: "He was appealing in his sensuality, the way a movie star or stranger could be." The novel has credible aspirations: to explore multiculturalism among the well-off in a land where the line between East and West is perhaps more blurred than anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately, readers are offered only a glimpse, at best. Agent, Ben Camardi. (Sept.)
