Original Face

by Nicholas Jose

The drama begins with a body dumped in south-western Sydney – skinned, with no face. Lewis Lin, taxi driver, photographer, recent arrival from Beijing, happens to be at the scene. With detectives Ginger Rogers and Shelley Swert in pursuit, Lin finds himself drawn into a deadly immigration racket, with a cast which includes a film-maker just in from LA, a Buddhist monk, a millionaire bachelor artist, a masseuse, a maniacal violinist, and a refugee assassin.

Genres: Fiction

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Born Robert Nicholas Jose in London, England, to Australian parents, Nicholas Jose grew up mostly in Adelaide, South Australia. He was educated at the Australian National University and Oxford University. He has traveled extensively, particularly in China, where he worked from 1986 to 1990. He was President of Sydney PEN from 2002 to 2005 and currently holds the Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide.

(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jesica Sabrina Canto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Empecé a leer este libro para la facultad, pero por cuestiones de tiempos termine la materia habiendo dejado el libro sin finalizar. Un mes más tarde, habiendo leído otros libros en ese tiempo, aun me rondaba en la cabeza la pregunta por la resolución del crimen y la historia de este libro. Eso me llevó a retomarlo y terminarlo. Ese hecho, de haberlo querido retomar aunque hubiera pasado el tiempo, en mi opinión es indicio de que se trata de un buen libro.
La historia me parece interesante por la situación social que retrata (la inmigración ilegal), los personajes están bien construidos y uno se encariña con ellos, y en tercer lugar el modo de narración de novela coral (la historia de varios personajes intercaladas) ayuda a construir esa sensación de misterio y genera las ganas de querer llegar al final para que se revele.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can see from the blurb on the back cover that it's a departure from Jose's novels that I'd previously read.
So, is it a thriller/crime novel? Well, the tropes are there.  It has a grisly murder, and the mastermind thereof comes to know about the network of people who know something about it and has a perpetrator able to dispose of them.  There is an accidental witness, and another one who is not accidental at all.  The police, withholding information from each other, include senior ones not interested in doing anything about it and junior ones who'd like to make their mark.  One of them is old and wise and shrewd, and the other is young and sexy with a dose of braggadocio.  The accidental witness decides to play amateur detective and he networks with a bunch of other people who 'know something' but are not telling the police.  People stake out buildings and cars get followed.  The settings range from the luxury mansion to industrial wastelands, and of course a Sydney bridge is involved, but no, not that one, a different one! And in the best traditions of the genre, the perpetrator gets what looks like his just desserts towards the end of the book only there are some pages left to go — so the reader knows there must be a twist in the tail... and there is, nicely done.

So yes, Original Face does have some elements in common with both police procedurals and thrillers, but unlike other novels purporting to be literary versions of this genre, this one transcends those genre elements, and it's more than prose like this that makes it so:

He named a family-run restaurant in suburban Ashfield where they were less likely to be recognised than in Chinatown. Recent migrants from Shanghai had settled there and their enterprises were turning the old red-brick suburb, with its competing churches and pubs, gracious gardens and fine civic architecture, into a bustling hub of small business.  Lewis suggested they meet outside the Ashfield Town Hall.

He was taken by surprise when Ah Mo climbed down from the shiny green Forester that pulled up right on twelve noon.  He had been expecting the black Beamer.  This brand-new Subaru AWD had tinted glass that screened the driver.  As soon as Ah Mo slammed the door, the vehicle pulled away.

Without a glance over his shoulder Ah Mo strode across the footpath with a wide green and outstretched hand.  He clasped Lewis's hand with his left as well as the right to signal that they were brothers.  Ah Mo wore dark glasses, his face was white and his hair thickly waxed as if he were about to go on stage. Lewis in his blue jeans and ponytail felt poor by comparison. (pp.150-1)

As I've noted in my reviews of Jose's other books, he has lived and worked in China, and his knowledge of their culture is deep and profound.  The long shadow of Tiananmen Square finds its way into the back stories of his characters, and one of the most poignant moments takes place when elderly Chinese parents who lost their older son in the 1989 massacre, are brought to Australia to identify the mutilated body of their other son.  (Gauche consular officials provide them with a Taiwanese interpreter which adds to the incomprehensibility of the situation.)

Identity, the masks people use, and what makes us who we are, are at the core of this sophisticated novel.  The city of Sydney itself is rendered in all its complexity: its varied landscapes and its rich ethnic diversity, the old and the new rubbing along beside one another.  The Chinese expats are a microcosm of a Sydney sub-culture, its networks and hierarchies and its distorted Confucian values of fidelity and family.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/01/09/o...

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing crime thriller involving the grubby underside of Sydney's increasing multiculturalism, immigrations scams and identity theft. Full review to follow.

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extremely predictable and unbelievable. Lots of plot problems.