The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy

Review (5/5 Stars):

Usually when people read a book written in the first person, they focus on the main character and forget that they're only introduced to all the other characters through the main character. We forget that those people have their own stories or their own versions of the same story that we are currently reading. Wayson Choy provides the "side stories" of All That Matters in The Jade Peony. From Kiam (first brother's) point of view, I really only saw Liang as the useless girl, Jung as the bought son and Sekky as the sickly baby brother. After reading The Jade Peony, I've fallen in love with the entire family and I grew with them, experienced loss with them and am genuinely concerned about where Jung's love story is going to end up. I'm sure every Chinese Canadian can relate to the characters Wayson Choy has brought to life and feel that nostalgic tug reminding them of their own parents and Grandparents. I loved it.

Synopsis (SPOILERS):

This is the second book about a first generation Chinese Canadian family living in Vancouver in the 30s and 40s. The first book "All That Matters" was written in Kiam - "first brother"'s point of view. It was a hit as it depicted life through the eyes of a boy who traveled across the Atlantic ocean with his father and grandmother to grow up in Vancouver. "The Jade Peony" fills in the different sides of the story we didn't see when Kiam told it. It's told from the point of the view the other children in the household.

We first read about Jook Liang (the only sister). Hers was a sweet story of an unlikely friendship formed between a disfigured old man and a five year old girl who thought he was the Monkey King from the old Chinese tales she heard. Even as she grew up, she remained a faithful friend of Wong Suk and their friendship held even after he decided he would leave and return to China after being away for 50+ years.

The next segment belongs to Jung Sum (second brother). Jung Sum was an adopted child brought into the family when he was 4 (Kiam was 8 and Jook Liang was 2). In "All That Matters", he kind of just appeared and was accepted into the family, now the readers get to hear his story. Jung Sum tells his last memories of his drunk abusive father and being curled up beside his mother's corpse, and finally how he first discovered that he was "of the moon" as Poh Poh puts it. His story was one that people will never forget.

Finally we hear from the youngest - Sek Lung or Sekky as they affectionately call him. In every sibling's story, Sekky was the sickly one that got all the attention from Poh Poh and because he spent all his time with Poh Poh, he became weird and anti-social as she became more and more senile. In "The Jade Peony", Sekky tells his and Grandmama's story of friendship, loyalty and loss. The reader see how Poh Poh's death affected him at the tender age of 7 and how hard it was for him to let go of his only friend. About a year after Poh Poh's death, Sekky started to let go by meeting new friend's his age and became a "normal" little kid for a precious amount of time. One day, after accidentally setting a fire to a stack of newspapers, he found himself back under the watch of a babysitter - this time, the beautiful daughter of their neighbour Mrs. Lim. MeiLing took Sekky everywhere with her, even to the "wrong end of town" to meet with her Japanese boyfriend and they became fast friends. As this book was set in time of WWII, befriending the Japanese was considered traitorous and Sekky was confused as to what he should think of MeiLing's relationship with Kazuo. Kaz seems like a nice guy, always playing with Sekky when MeiLing brings him along, but at the end of the day, he's a Jap - the enemy. Eventually, Kazuo has to leave when all the Japanese in Vancouver were rounded up to camp. This causes Sekky to lose not one, but two friends as MeiLing dies while trying to induce a homemade abortion.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Review (4.5/5 Stars):

I can see why this was one of Agatha Christie's best novels. I've only read one other book by this author but this one was by far superior in writing style, character development and plot. The suspense in her novels is what makes them page turners as the reader is trying to piece together the puzzle with each clue the characters in the book unravels. My favorite scene in the book was when the five of them were sitting in the living room and Christie gave the reader an inside look on each of their thoughts. It was interesting to try and pick out which thought belonged to the murderer and through that (the way of speech etc) decipher who the murderer is. Quite entertaining.

Synopsis (SPOILERS):

Ten Little Indians

Ten little Indian boys went out to dine;

One choked his little self and then there were nine. 

Nine little Indian boys sat up very late;

One overslept himself and then there were eight.

Eight little Indian boys traveling in Devon;

One said he’d stay there and then there were seven.

Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks;

One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.

Six little Indian boys playing with a hive;

A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.

Five little Indian boys going in for law,

One got in Chancery and then there were four.

Four little Indian boys going out to sea;

A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.

Three little Indian boys walking in the Zoo;

A big bear hugged one and then there were two.

Two little Indian boys sitting in the sun;

On got frizzled up and then there was one.

One little Indian boy left all alone;

He went and hanged himself and then there were none. 

Quite a few people are familiar with this children's rhyme.  In "And Then There Were None", Agatha Christie's villain tricks 9 people to a remote island and kills them off one by one the way the ten little Indians die in the poem. After supper on the first night they arrived, a gramophone mysteriously started announcing the allegations against each of the guests, implying that this is the reason they were all called forth to the house. In Agatha Christie's style, she allows each of the guests to explain their story. The plot then begins to thicken as people begin to die.

The first to die is Anthony Marston, a young man with the good looks and physique of a God. When he zoomed up in his fancy car, everyone had thought that he looked immortal, but they were wrong. Marston was accused with the murder of John and Lucy Combes, who he claimed he accidentally ran over while speeding one day. At first the reader is led to believe that he choked on his drink but it was later confirmed that the murdered had slipped him some poison while no one was looking.

Next up was Mrs. Rogers, who along with her husband was hired cook and butler to the party. They had no idea that this was a job that paid too little for what they were going to lose. They were accused of murdering their previous boss, an elderly lady who left a nice sum of money to them. She died in her sleep but again, was confirmed that someone slipped her a second dose of sleeping drugs providing her eternal rest. 

Third to go was General MacArthur. He was the only one that adamantly believed that he wouldn't leave the island alive right from the get-go. His crime was that as a General, he deliberately sent one of his men on a doomed mission. The young lad happened to be his young wife's lover. The day after Marston and Mrs. Rogers's death, General MacArthur went to sit out by the rocks and told anybody that would listen that he knew the end was coming and it did, for him.

The fourth little Indian that "chopped himself in halves" is Mr. Rogers. He was a wonderful butler according to the guests but as he was accused of the same crime that killed his wife, he too had to die. 

The only murder that didn't go exactly to the rhyme is Mrs. Brent's. Instead of being stung by a bee, as the rhyme indicates, the killer injected poison into her neck and then left a bee beside her. (I guess it would be a bit much if one of the guests was coincidentally allergic to bees). A deeply religious old lady, she was often considered a religion maniac by the other guests. She had a girl stay with her to help her with her housework years ago but when the girl turned up tarnished (to my understanding, she was pregnant), Mrs. Brent declared her a sin and sent her off. The girl later killed herself and thus, became reason enough for the killer to make Mrs. Brent pay.

The suspense mounts as there are only half the number of guests left after 3 days. The 5 remaining guests make a pack to not leave each other's sight. Only one guest could leave a time, ensuring that if they're the killer, they'll have no victim to work with. Despite their precaution, Instead of Judge Wargrave was found dead after everybody ran off to check on Miss Claythorne. It turned out the killer planted a seaweed on a hook in Miss Claythorne's room so that she would scream and get everyone's attention when it hit her. During the confusion, the killer shot the Judge and left him in his robes and wig making the 6th section of the rhyme come true. 

After Judge Wargrave's death, the last 4 guests locked themselves into the room at night. It was later discovered that Dr. Armstrong had disappeared. Mr. Blore was already suspecting Dr. Armstrong as he had in his possession a large assortment of drugs and many of the earlier victims died of poisoning. They all believed that he was feigning his disappearance to pull a fast one over them, hence - "red herring swallowed one". For the sake of order Dr. Armstrong was accused of killing one of his victims and the truth was he had operated while drunk so in a sense, the accusation was true and he died for it. (We later found that the real killer was the red herring and tricked Dr. Armstrong into helping him and ended up throwing him off the cliffs and into the water).

Now there were only 3 guests left and they all begin suspecting one another or having theories that Dr. Armstrong is still alive and looking for ways to kill them. When Mr. Blore is squished by a slab of marble pushed out of a second floor window while the other two guests were away from the house, it confirms their fear that there is someone else on the island. Mr. Blore was an ex-cop that planted evidence on someone he knew was guilty of a charge but didn't have evidence to arrest. (For the record, the slab of marble was from a clock that had a bear on it - completing the "A big bear hugged one"). 


That leaves us with two guests remaining: Miss Claythorne who, through neglect, purposely drowned a little boy that she was governess to; and Philip Lombard who left 21 East African men to die in order to preserve his own life. The two of them discovered Dr. Armstrong's dead body after Mr. Blore died and with that scapegoat out of the way, they turned on one another. Miss Claythorne managed to outsmart Lombard and ended up shooting him with his own gun, making her that last "little Indian boy" remaining. Perhaps she was tired of all the events, or perhaps she was not in her right mind after witnessing so many murders and deaths but when Miss Claythorne got back to her room and saw a noose and chair set up for a hanging, she followed the instructions of the rhyme and rightly hung herself.


When the island with all its dead bodies, no one could figure out how everyone died until someone found a letter from Judge Wargrave confessing to how he set up all the murders. It turns out he killed himself after Miss Claythorne and his death earlier in the book was staged!!

They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie

 

Review (3/5 Stars):

This is my first Agatha Christie book and I had really high hopes for it. I don't know if it was just this particular book but I was a bit disappointed as everyone painted Agatha Christie to be the best mystery author of all times. They Did It With Mirrors is your typical who-dun-it mystery novel and I actually figured out quite early on (before the real detectives were called in) who the murderer was. I did like how Miss Marple sorts out her thoughts to the readers so that we can either follow along or see if our own conclusions match the detective's. Perhaps she was hyped up so much that I was expecting too much, I dunno but I will give Agatha Christie another try.

Synopsis (SPOILERS):

Miss Marple is persuaded by her friend Mrs. Van Rydock to go and stay at her sister's Youth Centre because she has a premonition that there's something wrong about the place and the people in it. According to Mrs. Van Rydock, her sister Carrie Louise's life had been pretty eventful. At a young age, she married Gulbrandsen, who had 3 grown boys and a huge sum of money. Together, they adopted a beautiful daughter (who later died in childbirth, leaving Carrie Louise with a granddaughter who lives with her) and had one of their own (a more homely girl, who also lives with Carrie Louise after being happily married and widowed). After Gilbrandsen died, Carrie Louise married husband #2, who left her with his 2 grown boys, one still visits during the holidays and the other is a permanent resident visit. It was husband #3, Lewis, that persuaded her to do something with Stonygates to help educate the less fortunate and that was how they ended up with a juvenile delinquent centre in their giant home.

Upon arrival, Miss Marple was greeted by two people, Edgar Lawson (an delinquent turn help for Lewis), and Carrie Louise's granddaughter, Gina. Gina is portrayed as a spoiled and self confident new age girl and Miss Marple's early discussions with Carrie Louise, we can already see that she gets quite a bit of attention from the men. We meet a whole slew of characters once Miss Marple arrived Stonygates, including Carrie Louise's housekeeper Mrs. Bellever (who seems to adore Carrie Louise to an unexplainable degree), Wally (Gina's American GI husband), Stephan Restarick (her step-son by husband #2 who now lives with her), Mildred (her daughter who grew up in the shadows of her beautiful adopted sister) and a bunch of doctors and hired help.  Of all the people, Miss Marple is convinced that there's something off about Edgar Lawson but she doesn't know what - other than finding out that he has some sort of mental disorder where he believes that his father is famous and everyone's out to get him because of it. Then when you think that you've met everyone, Christian Gilbrandsen, Carrie Louis step son from her first marriage shows up unexpectedly asking after her health and has an urgent conversation with Lewis.

That night after everyone's had dinner, Christian leaves to write a few letters and Edgar blows up and accuses Lewis of being his father and conspiring against him. Lewis calmly takes him into his office, located off of the dining room to talk. The electricity goes out and in the mess, everyone just sits and listens to the argument going on inside of Lewis's office. All of a sudden, they heard a shot fired and a couple of minutes later, 2 more shots. Finally, Mrs. Bellever goes and finds the spare key, they open the room to find Edgar cowarding in the corner but lucid now and feeling remorse for trying to shoot Lewis. Later on, they find Christian had been shot and the detectives are called in to find out who did.  Lewis tells everyone at this time that Christian came to talk to him because he felt someone was trying to poison Carrie Louis. The detectives question everyone, some multiple times and everyone is puzzled who would want to kill Carrie Louis. Miss Marple eventually figures out that the poisoning story was just to throw everyone off the right track and Lewis had killed Christian because of financial reason.