Customer Reviews

Tai-Pan

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

James Clavell began his Asian Saga with "Tai-Pan," and in doing so brought the Far East to life in an unparalleled fashion.

"Tai-Pan" tells the story of Dirk Struan, Tai-Pan ("Supreme Leader") of Struan's, more popularly known as the Noble House. First in everything (money, influence, panache, daring, etc.), the Noble House has tied its future to the rise of Hong Kong, which is "founded" in the book's first chapter.

Struan, who has founded the Noble House with the vast fortune he built as an opium smuggler along the Chinese coast (many of the trading houses in "Tai Pan" owe their fortunes to opium smuggling, although they euphemistically refer to themselves as "China Traders"), has used his influence in Britain and with certain Chinese figures to take Hong Kong for the British crown as a toehold in China. Guided by his near-mystical vision of the importance of China to the world's future (at this point, China is considered by many Europeans to be a profitless wasteland populated by "heathens"), Struan will fight and kill to defend Hong Kong.

Newly widowed, Struan is comforted by his Chinese lover, May-May, who is also one of Clavell's most wonderful characters. Teetering on the verge of a stereotypical "dragon lady," May-May is a woman of courage, cunning, refinement, humor, and great beauty. Clavell lets May-May speak in both English (hilarious malaprops abound) and in Chinese so the reader gets a true picture of May-May's intelligence. Prejudices being what they were, Struan is forced to keep May-May under wraps, as it were, although the legend of the Tai Pan's Chinese mistress abound.

In addition to the loss of his family, Struan must contend with Tyler Brock, his one-eyed nemesis and leader of the second most powerful trading house, Brock and Sons. Brock and Struan have a deep-seeded hatred that is doomed to head for a reckoning. Brock, constantly maneuvering to best the Noble House, has quite a few tricks up his sleeve, and he forces Struan to make a dangerous gamble with the future of the Noble House.

In the novel's most intriguing sub-plot, Struan can ensure his financial status only if he accepts four half-coins from his Chinese mentor, Jin-Qua. Anyone who presents the other half-coin to the tai pan can have one favor granted -- no matter what it is. A chilling bargain, and one that flows through Clavell's future novels (Noble House).

Through it all, Clavell goes to great lengths to capture the clash of cultures on Hong Kong -- from the British, American, Chinese, and Eurasian perspectives. The sheer scope of man's prejudice is staggering!

As pervasive as the racial conflicts may be, ulterior motives also abound. Virtually every character in the novel has a wide range of goals, ambitions, and plots they are trying to weave, and Clavell handles this vast plot with great skill.

Struan, clearly the dominant character of the novel, does not quite reach superhero status, which shows proper restraint by Clavell. Struan is forced to cope with Culum, his resentful, conflicted, naive son, as well as his brother, Robb, and of course May-May. Struan struggles mightily, but he demonstrates that even the Tai-Pan is all too human.

All in all, a wonderful tale of the founding of one of the world's great cities, Hong Kong, and an expert treatment of the clash of cultures between East and West. A must read!

Unlike many of the previous reviewers, I have no particular connection to Asia or an extensive knowledge of Chinese history, rather I am merely a fan of exciting stories and great writing and if the novel is full of interesting facts, then all the better. Tai-Pan fits the bill.

It is an engaging story about the European community in China just after the British have taken control of Hong Kong. It centers on Dirk Struan, a manipulative, shrewd, and charismatic man who happens to be the most powerful trader in Asia. There is intrigue, violence, romance and tragedy, but this all adds flavor to the epic story of how the British controlled their first stronghold in Asia. Clavell does an amazing job of creating realistic characters and incorporaring facts about the time period and his knowledege of the culture. Despite being a fictional account of this era, I learned a great deal about China, British trade and sailing in the 1800's.

I would recommend this book to everyone who enjoys historical fiction or just great writing and good stories. Further, this book is at least as good as Shogun and is a critical component of the Asia Saga, so it is a must read for people who enjoy Clavell's other books.

I'm an avid reader, have been my whole life, and I'm in love with Asia. At first, this book starts off rather slowley, giving you the low-down on basic history and building the massive amount of charectors. Clavell has always had a knack for using hundreds of charectors, each of whom you recognize imediately. About half way through Tai-Pan I was gripping my seat. Clavell has managed to stay true to history yet weave a beautiful, romantic, and heroic story around facts (as is his talent!) Truely a must read for historians, Asian enthusists and anyone who enjoys reading!

Clavell's Asia Saga is a masterpiece of historical fiction. In this edition, Clavell captures the creation of a great trading house amidst several themes common to the series:
- Characters with histories spanning multiple books
- Western pioneers meet Eastern tradition
- Intrigue at every turn
- History and cultural lessons when you least expect them.

Standalone, the book is fantastic. As part of the series, it is a treasure. Deep. Longlasting. For those impatient with the heft of the book (It carried me through several coast to coast flights), there is the video, but you'll lose quite a bit in the translation to film.

Just doesn't get better than this. I'd say it ranks right up with Shogun. The entire book is filled with everything you could ask for in a book (intrigue, suspense, action, intellect, love) and the ending is priceless. On reading the last paragraph, I threw my head back, laughed, then cried. Absolutely amazing work.

Tai-Pan is James Clavell's second published novel and is loosely based on the history of Jardine Matheson. This is my favorite in Clavell's "Asian Saga." The setting is Hong Kong in 1841. The British have just secured the island from the Chinese following the Treaty of Cheupi and Dirk Struan, Tai-Pan (supreme leader) of the Noble House, has staked his life and his company's future there. Struan and the other China traders smuggle opium into China to trade for bullion used to buy tea for England. Together, they've made vast fortunes, but no one more than Struan himself--the Noble House is the most powerful company in the Far East. Struan's struggle to maintain his dominance over his chief rival, Tyler Brock, and the other traders provides plenty of thrilling action. This is an exciting novel of piracy, politics, conspiracy, love and loathing. A multi-plotted tale that'll keep you turning pages--you won't be able to put this book down! And what's more, the story isn't resolved until the very last page...the last sentence, in fact.

2.5 stars.

I'll be honest: this book may have a good portrayel of English and Chinese customs and good historical accuracy (I'm guessing), but that's not what I was really looking for, not in a fiction book, anyway. What I look for in fiction, any fiction, is a book that's gripping and entertaining from start to finish. For that to happen the first thing you need is good characterization, which I think Clavell does reasonably well in this book, and secondly, ACTION. I found this book lacking in the latter. For an interesting book you need some type of coflict, tension, and this book really didn't have that much. Shogun(which is a 5 star book) had plenty to keep you interested, and I was hooked, and the only times that I got bored were a few sporadic instances scattered throughout the book that didn't last more than three pages. There was a lot of action, lots of conflict, characters' fates were uncertain, war was looming in the distance... There's a war in this book but it's only in the background, and there's no doubt that the British will easily defeat the Chinese, so there's no conflict there. Basically the only real conflict in this book is the enmity between Struan and his rival, Brock. Might have been a good sub-conflict, but as the forefront of a 700 page book makes the book lacking in terms of enjoyment. This book is divided into six parts. There's really only two sections of the book where there was enough action and conflict to get me really interested. The first was the ending of book one, and the second was of course the climax. The rest of the book, books two, three, four, and most of five, is mainly talking, planning, fretting, Struan arguing with his mistress, and more talking. It gets boring real fast, and then it gets REALLY boring. There were a few instances in which something would happen that would peak my interest, but it wouldn't be long before it faded into the boring monotomy that was so prevalent during the middle portion of this book. Honestly, there were many times where I nearly gave up, and the only thing that kept me going was my desire to read the other books and not miss out on anything. I got interested again when I got to the climax, and the good ending gave this book some redemption. But, compared to the ninja-attack climax of Shogun, the climax in this book is still a pale shadow. Shogun was the first book I read and this is my second, I'm reading them in order. I know that Shogun was his best, maybe it spoiled me for his other works. I know many people rank this as his second best. I hope that isn't true. But then again, I don't think I'm evaluating using the same criteria that the rest of you are using. The next book is Gai-jin, and just by reading the reviews it seems that it has more action and more conflict, more on the lines of Shogun, so I'm still game. And if you're asking me, "You mean you'd really pick lots of action and conflict over intricate plots, good evalution of different cultures and social systems, and historical accuracy?", my answer is, "Absolutely." All that other stuff is good but it comes second.

...there are many similarities between "Shogun" and "Tai-pan", only the first is about Japan in 17th century, and the second is about China/Hong Kong in 19th century. However, both books have european (british) characters in the main role, and both books are based on the differences and struggling of these characters in a different environement.

Dirk Struan is the Tai-pan (supreme ruler) of the Noble House Trading Company, one of the Hong Kong-based companies that provide England and Europe with the middle-1800s wonder: tea. Along the book, Struan has to overcome rival companies, murder threats, malaria, love interests and the supposedly dettachment of Britain towards having an Asian base on Hong Kong.

Like "Shogun", "Tai-pan" has dozens of plot twists, many characters all involved with each other in one level or another, forces of nature, etc. Unlike "Shogun", "Tai-pan" has a very fast pace and the chapters follow one another with the speed of a Typhoon. In the beggining, the reader will struggle with the speed Clavell introduces his characters, and there will be at least 100 pages until you know who is who, but past that phase, "Tai-pan" is very enjoyable.

Dirk Struan, the main character, sure seems a little super-human sometimes, but that's not something that will spoil the reading. In fact, Struan is the kind of central character that the reader will always relate to. ...P>Now I'm surely moving on to "Gai-jin" and "Noble house".

James Clavell was second to none in decribing the charcters' reasining process. The reader can think he actually knows the characters. However, it seems to me like the author wanted to end the story and did it so abruptly. Unlike Shogun, many stories were left incomplete. This is why I didn't give it 5 stars.

Despite being overshdowed by it's suposedly better books in the Asian Saga, Tai-Pan is the best novel Clavell wrote. Having read all of the series more then once I can truly say that Tai-Pan is far better then Noble House and even Shogun. It's Clavell's shortest book(except King Rat) but still has all the magnificient plot lines. Dirk Struan is the Perfect Hero. He is not perfect but his power is felt even by the reader. Despite sevrel reviews that said that Clavell shouldn't have written in pidgin this from gives credabilty to the novel. The ending is Clavell's best, it is the perfect soultion and the book ends still in a climax. Tai-Pan is captiviting from the start and the 732 pages flow by as if they were just a few. I give this book 10 stars out of 5. A MUST READ