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Sour Sweet
Shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize, this novel explores the clans and conflicts of Soho's Chinatown, where the Chen family arrive and want to succeed as restaurateurs in the 1960s. No family can survive for long without encountering the Triads. By the author of "The Redundancy of Courage".
287 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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1406 people want to read
About the author
Timothy Mo
12 books63 followersTimothy Peter Mo is an Anglo-Chinese novelist. He is the son of a British mother and a Hong Kong Chinese father. He came to Britain as a 10-year-old.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
September 27, 2019
I have not read so many historic Booker nominees this year, but Timothy Mo has been on my radar for some time, so it was an easy decision to pick this one up. It was his second novel, and was shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize.
The story alternates between two groups of characters. On the one hand we have Chen and Lily, a married couple who have arrived from Hong Kong in 1960s London. The other thread follows the in-fighting among the leadership of a Triad gang, the Hung family. It is no surprise that these threads eventually converge, but their character is very different. The whole thing sheds light on a community that was largely ignored or taken for granted by most people in Britain, and is by turns funny and violent.
At the start of the book Chen is working as a waiter in a restaurant in Chinatown. Lily aspires to greater things, and has been almost starving herself to save money on her meagre housekeeping allowance. The household is completed by their young son Man Kee and Lily's unmarried elder sister Mui. Chen gets involved with the gang when he finds himself needing money to finance an operation for his father in Hong Kong, and a colleague ensnares him, first by drawing him into gambling and then by arranging a loan. Soon afterwards the family starts their own restaurant in a run-down suburban area, where most of the remaining part of their story is set.
The gang's operation and rituals, and the history of the wider organisation in China, are explored in some detail, and a vicious fight with a rival faction demonstrates their ruthlessness and barbarity - the infighting centres on a conflict between their traditions and a more pragmatic approach that is needed to thrive in an alien culture.
The story alternates between two groups of characters. On the one hand we have Chen and Lily, a married couple who have arrived from Hong Kong in 1960s London. The other thread follows the in-fighting among the leadership of a Triad gang, the Hung family. It is no surprise that these threads eventually converge, but their character is very different. The whole thing sheds light on a community that was largely ignored or taken for granted by most people in Britain, and is by turns funny and violent.
At the start of the book Chen is working as a waiter in a restaurant in Chinatown. Lily aspires to greater things, and has been almost starving herself to save money on her meagre housekeeping allowance. The household is completed by their young son Man Kee and Lily's unmarried elder sister Mui. Chen gets involved with the gang when he finds himself needing money to finance an operation for his father in Hong Kong, and a colleague ensnares him, first by drawing him into gambling and then by arranging a loan. Soon afterwards the family starts their own restaurant in a run-down suburban area, where most of the remaining part of their story is set.
The gang's operation and rituals, and the history of the wider organisation in China, are explored in some detail, and a vicious fight with a rival faction demonstrates their ruthlessness and barbarity - the infighting centres on a conflict between their traditions and a more pragmatic approach that is needed to thrive in an alien culture.
September 16, 2011
This curious book did not give any warning, although the title might have alerted me.
This story of Chinese immigrants struggling to achieve security in a foreign land follows two separate casts of characters. There is the fragment of the family, Lily, her sister Mui,her Husband and Son. And there is the Hung family, ruthless gang members who are portrayed with equal sympathy by Mo who has the uncanny knack of zooming in and out of his various characters perspective and drawing our empathy even as we are cringing in dismay.
Tension is built up early on as we anticipate these worlds will collide.
Most of the crucial events occur offstage so to speak, and some of our burning questions are left a mystery. But there is are a number of violent scenes described with a precision that I would rather the author had spared us, and applied where such detail would have been welcome. His insight into the nature of paradox and illusion is subtly displayed in his handling of the characters, and his conclusion, that we can accept paradox and integrate it into our life system, we cling to our illusions in the face of all obstacles. The amoeba of the family remains intact.
At times rambling, at times stark and relentless, this is a fairly fast paced book with lots of deadpan humor along the way. I learned a lot about Chinese logic and I got fond of the family.
The end was a kind of a suckerpunch so I cant say it was a comfortable one.
This story of Chinese immigrants struggling to achieve security in a foreign land follows two separate casts of characters. There is the fragment of the family, Lily, her sister Mui,her Husband and Son. And there is the Hung family, ruthless gang members who are portrayed with equal sympathy by Mo who has the uncanny knack of zooming in and out of his various characters perspective and drawing our empathy even as we are cringing in dismay.
Tension is built up early on as we anticipate these worlds will collide.
Most of the crucial events occur offstage so to speak, and some of our burning questions are left a mystery. But there is are a number of violent scenes described with a precision that I would rather the author had spared us, and applied where such detail would have been welcome. His insight into the nature of paradox and illusion is subtly displayed in his handling of the characters, and his conclusion, that we can accept paradox and integrate it into our life system, we cling to our illusions in the face of all obstacles. The amoeba of the family remains intact.
At times rambling, at times stark and relentless, this is a fairly fast paced book with lots of deadpan humor along the way. I learned a lot about Chinese logic and I got fond of the family.
The end was a kind of a suckerpunch so I cant say it was a comfortable one.
May 4, 2017
I really enjoyed this little gem. After the epic that was an insular posession, this feels like some departure following as it does the exploits of a Chinese immigrant family in 1960's Britain. If you've seen the movie (inexplicably the setting in 1980s Britain) please don't be put off, the book is soo much better.
June 11, 2024
An unusual little Hawthornden Prize winning book, which tells the story of a British Chinese family in London in the 1960s. We are drawn into the little family's story, which has a wider historical depth. It’s so cliche to say this - but the title reflects the book. It is sweet and sour. I wish it had been a little shorter and stuck with our host family more. The relationships are rich, you get a sense of complex gender dynamics. Lily and Chen, husband and wife, neither sure of each other, but entwined in their fortunes... for now. A marriage without attraction in the sense that might be imagined necessary, but where the hidden things are good and bodies are missed in the routine of night. Indeed in that secret space, she tactfully subjugates him in a way where he feels in control.
Their son is really cute and I found her sister, who joins them from Hong Kong, quite a good foil in many ways, transgressing and filling out from her prejudices. Lily's judgements are quite harsh towards her and it's not always pleasant to read but there's a twist to that which gives a sense of how judgement can suddenly collapse. There's also quite a sweet scene where Lily drives the family to the seafront and their son puts his little hand in his father's... something everyday but so poignant :)
Timothy Mo has a real descriptive flair - which I’ve been realising more and more is what I look for in fiction. ‘Sooty droplets ran down the ideographs of restaurants… tributary rivulets out of the mouth of a narrow alley like black blood from the stump of some ruined teeth, to feed the dark, rushing water in the gutter.’ Home as ‘a warm, bright oasis, throbbing with sound, diffusing rich odours of cooking.’ - my nostalgia for coming home as a kid in the autumn or winter from a long walk on the Heath or in Stoke Newington or visit to my granny’s couldn’t be stronger!
I love the way he captures camaraderie that can emerge in the diaspora. Mrs Law runs into mother and infant son in a corner shop, instantly adopts them for weekly visits to her big flat in Golder’s Green. ‘Tea drinking turned out to be a sumptuous affair of delicacies… sweet black gelatine rolls, gleamed and shiver tantalisingly; cakes of crushed lotus seed paste with fiery, salty egg yolks inside… English strawberry tarts and fragrant jasmine tea of the kind she adored.’ Also Mr Chen watching Cantonese films with his colleague on the wooden benches of a makeshift cinema. Mo charts the course of economic development and tells a story of emancipation for women, in strange environs. From waiting in the twilight for her husband to return, to running a takeaway business and raising her son as ma-bap.
There’s a humour but also bite in our protagonists observations of the English. At times comic - her wonder at having a loud, red faced, stereotypical Englishman in her home for the first time is apparent; as is his Greek Cypriot name, Constantinides. Chen's father invites his English friends from the hospital round to show them coffins he had kindly crafted for them. They respond by spryly fleeing, although one old lady with dementia states what a lovely funeral it had been. Lily cultivates detachment from her customers, dehumanising and dissociating from them in an interesting reversal of the immigrant encounter.
I suppose all of that is what’s transgressive about this book, you want to inhabit this little world and sit on Mrs Law’s emerald sofas, warm yourself drinking gin in the flurrying snow, eat richly and dance in the light of bonfires. The West Indian bus driver who undercharges Mr Chen with a wink, or Indian friends of their son at school, there’s something optimistic there. I just read Panikos Panayi's book about migrant London and that solidarity is something he plays around with. I'm almost tempted to read The Monkey King next because that's such a fun title, but I just don't think I'm cut out to be a Mo superfan. Anyway feeling grateful to have such a well-read recommender of books - it's useful as hell for my dissertation - maybe there should be a Vinita bookclub?
Their son is really cute and I found her sister, who joins them from Hong Kong, quite a good foil in many ways, transgressing and filling out from her prejudices. Lily's judgements are quite harsh towards her and it's not always pleasant to read but there's a twist to that which gives a sense of how judgement can suddenly collapse. There's also quite a sweet scene where Lily drives the family to the seafront and their son puts his little hand in his father's... something everyday but so poignant :)
Timothy Mo has a real descriptive flair - which I’ve been realising more and more is what I look for in fiction. ‘Sooty droplets ran down the ideographs of restaurants… tributary rivulets out of the mouth of a narrow alley like black blood from the stump of some ruined teeth, to feed the dark, rushing water in the gutter.’ Home as ‘a warm, bright oasis, throbbing with sound, diffusing rich odours of cooking.’ - my nostalgia for coming home as a kid in the autumn or winter from a long walk on the Heath or in Stoke Newington or visit to my granny’s couldn’t be stronger!
I love the way he captures camaraderie that can emerge in the diaspora. Mrs Law runs into mother and infant son in a corner shop, instantly adopts them for weekly visits to her big flat in Golder’s Green. ‘Tea drinking turned out to be a sumptuous affair of delicacies… sweet black gelatine rolls, gleamed and shiver tantalisingly; cakes of crushed lotus seed paste with fiery, salty egg yolks inside… English strawberry tarts and fragrant jasmine tea of the kind she adored.’ Also Mr Chen watching Cantonese films with his colleague on the wooden benches of a makeshift cinema. Mo charts the course of economic development and tells a story of emancipation for women, in strange environs. From waiting in the twilight for her husband to return, to running a takeaway business and raising her son as ma-bap.
There’s a humour but also bite in our protagonists observations of the English. At times comic - her wonder at having a loud, red faced, stereotypical Englishman in her home for the first time is apparent; as is his Greek Cypriot name, Constantinides. Chen's father invites his English friends from the hospital round to show them coffins he had kindly crafted for them. They respond by spryly fleeing, although one old lady with dementia states what a lovely funeral it had been. Lily cultivates detachment from her customers, dehumanising and dissociating from them in an interesting reversal of the immigrant encounter.
I suppose all of that is what’s transgressive about this book, you want to inhabit this little world and sit on Mrs Law’s emerald sofas, warm yourself drinking gin in the flurrying snow, eat richly and dance in the light of bonfires. The West Indian bus driver who undercharges Mr Chen with a wink, or Indian friends of their son at school, there’s something optimistic there. I just read Panikos Panayi's book about migrant London and that solidarity is something he plays around with. I'm almost tempted to read The Monkey King next because that's such a fun title, but I just don't think I'm cut out to be a Mo superfan. Anyway feeling grateful to have such a well-read recommender of books - it's useful as hell for my dissertation - maybe there should be a Vinita bookclub?
May 5, 2025
funny and sad - i really liked the family chapters but found the gangster ones a little dry & not sure i understood all the subtext
March 8, 2025
At my surprise this was difficult to finish, probably because of the excruciating attention the writer pays on details. The mention of the procedures of the Hong Kong triad bored me a little and in the end proved to be not that much vital to the book's power. Despite all this, this book is a vivid portrait of immigrant family life. At its core lies Lily's story and her circumstances. All the other characters, even husband Chen, fade in front of her enormous strength and doggedness to survive and protect her son. The writer opens a window to her decisions and agonies which stem from her trying to balance her roles as a mother, wife, sister and businesswoman. Lily's is a truly amazing character sketch, and congrats to the male writer for portraying a female character with such accuracy and respect.
June 1, 2025
Oli vähän tylsä…
November 10, 2025
This is another of those engaging and unexpected gems that you find when looking through prize winning books from the 1970s and 80s. Sour sweet actually evokes an earlier decade: Chinatown in London in the 1960s - florins in your pocket anyone?
For me the subject matter was entirely new ground: a couple Chen, a waiter in a Gerrard Street restaurant and Lily his ascerbic and ambitious but hard working wife both emigrants from Hong Kong decide to set up a Chinese takeaway in bomb damaged South London with Lily’s sister Miu. There are many hilarious moments as the family navigate a foreign country and its customs, learn to drive in terrifyingly unroadworthy vehicles, make friends with the Greek owner of the neighbouring garage and the attendant fleet of friendly lorry drivers. The family is soon added too with a much loved son for Lily and Chen plus the arrival of Chen’s widowed father from Hong Kong, family loyalties being central to life in any Chinese community. The main story is interleaved with the machinations of the Triads and their role in ‘law enforcement’, protection and drug dealing, Chen becoming unwittingly involved in a very minor but fatal way when he needs to borrow money for family hospital bills in Hong Kong.
Overall the book lives up to its title: in turns sweet with its hilarious and affectionate portrayal of Chinese family life but also sour with the mysterious and deadly background of the Triad gangsters based in London’s Chinatown.
For me the subject matter was entirely new ground: a couple Chen, a waiter in a Gerrard Street restaurant and Lily his ascerbic and ambitious but hard working wife both emigrants from Hong Kong decide to set up a Chinese takeaway in bomb damaged South London with Lily’s sister Miu. There are many hilarious moments as the family navigate a foreign country and its customs, learn to drive in terrifyingly unroadworthy vehicles, make friends with the Greek owner of the neighbouring garage and the attendant fleet of friendly lorry drivers. The family is soon added too with a much loved son for Lily and Chen plus the arrival of Chen’s widowed father from Hong Kong, family loyalties being central to life in any Chinese community. The main story is interleaved with the machinations of the Triads and their role in ‘law enforcement’, protection and drug dealing, Chen becoming unwittingly involved in a very minor but fatal way when he needs to borrow money for family hospital bills in Hong Kong.
Overall the book lives up to its title: in turns sweet with its hilarious and affectionate portrayal of Chinese family life but also sour with the mysterious and deadly background of the Triad gangsters based in London’s Chinatown.
June 16, 2025
Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo – it was shortlisted for The Booker Prize for Fiction in 1982, the year when Schindler’s Ark won the top spot https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/07/...
8 out of 10
Sour Sweet is also included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, for whatever reason, I am already jesting here and offering the conclusion of my encounter with this book, it was not my cup of tea, although it seemed promising, and then it is clear that others know better, and you should already look for a professional review
We have a trio of main characters here, albeit we could put Chen and his wife, Lily, ahead, with top stop going to the female, who is tough, she had been trained by her father, a fighter, to win in physical combat, and then she also has a peculiar resistance, determination, in short, she is the number one personage, if we take it that way
They live in London, first the man, then he takes his wife, who had worked in some of those gruesome factories in Hong Kong – I think – some decades ago, and they also have Lily’s sister, Mui, in the same, rather small premises, which would change after some chapters, when they embark on a new adventure, start a business
For a while, Chen works as a waiter, and it seems to be going well, they are not affluent, evidently, but they go by, until trauma is changing things, the reversal involves Chen’s parents – Husband, as he is called by his spouse, in the period when he is respected, he loses some face at times, and then he is taken down a notch
Chen senior has been obstinate, continued with a lawsuit – even now, after so many years, the courts in China would still give the verdict the communists want, I think it is over 99% if you oppose the officials, or those approved by them – which he lost, and to cap it all, the old man falls sick, and that is a disaster in more ways
Financially, this means there is a burden on the son – The Far East has a different culture, Confucianism is centered on respect for elders, the family has to care for them, there is more on that in Confucius https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... reading the Analects
You could also give a look to Outliers, a classic of psychology by Malcolm Gladwell, in which he gives you the formula for massive success, which is ten thousand hours of practice or exercise over ten years, that is three hours every single day, which means you can reach the top, if you meet some other criteria, but this is sine qua non
Malcolm Gladwell has looked at biographies from different walks of life, from Steve Jobs to The Beatles, from Bill Gates to Olympic teams, and came up with that result, for those extraordinary achievers have all worked extremely hard to reach the pinnacle of success, and this means that we can all try to use the formula…
There is another thing in Outliers https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/... which regards the culture of the Far East, based on the cultivation of rice, which is very demanding, and has contributed in making the people there hard working, resilient, and we see that in Sour Sweet
In other words, there is much to like, admire in the novel, that is if you still have the patience and you are a satisfizer, and not a maximizer, which is what I am becoming, apparently, for I want to love the characters I read about, they have to be inspiring, Nobel, sensational and lovable, not just interesting, notable
The Paradox of Choice https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/07/... by Barry Schwartz is another psychology classic and it presents you with two different types, the satisfizer, the one who wants excellent options, and accepts them, the other is the maximizer, who wants perfection
It looks like I am in the wrong team, I expect too much from the books that I now take, and then when they do not scintillate, appear luminous, if there is no rapture, then I complain and like with Sour Sweet, I just abandon the project midway, it is at page 150 or so that I decided to stop, but then lost concentration before that
It may have to do with the Triad, since along the characters aforementioned, we have gangsters, the Chinese version, who operate drug distributions, ask for protection money – just like the Orange Pig was doing a while ago, saying that he will only protect Taiwan, if that country pays up, as if he was out of Goodfellas
I was not keen on reading about the Triad, so skipped those passages, but then Chen gets entangled, he has to send money for his father, who is ill, and thinks maybe he can gamble and win, pushed as he is by a colleague, he loses money and gets indebted to those ghouls, tries to escape by moving from his present flat
They open a business, with Chinese food, which actually fake, because Westerners want that, they would not buy the original recipes, and try to live away from the path of the Triad, when they invite a woman and a former colleague, Chen is worried that the villains might get word of his new place and come to get him
We see the interaction with customers, tax man, Mui finds some distributors, drivers who have access to drinks and ice-cream, they transport them, and then part of the goods get damaged, so they claim some losses, but sell them to Mui…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
8 out of 10
Sour Sweet is also included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, for whatever reason, I am already jesting here and offering the conclusion of my encounter with this book, it was not my cup of tea, although it seemed promising, and then it is clear that others know better, and you should already look for a professional review
We have a trio of main characters here, albeit we could put Chen and his wife, Lily, ahead, with top stop going to the female, who is tough, she had been trained by her father, a fighter, to win in physical combat, and then she also has a peculiar resistance, determination, in short, she is the number one personage, if we take it that way
They live in London, first the man, then he takes his wife, who had worked in some of those gruesome factories in Hong Kong – I think – some decades ago, and they also have Lily’s sister, Mui, in the same, rather small premises, which would change after some chapters, when they embark on a new adventure, start a business
For a while, Chen works as a waiter, and it seems to be going well, they are not affluent, evidently, but they go by, until trauma is changing things, the reversal involves Chen’s parents – Husband, as he is called by his spouse, in the period when he is respected, he loses some face at times, and then he is taken down a notch
Chen senior has been obstinate, continued with a lawsuit – even now, after so many years, the courts in China would still give the verdict the communists want, I think it is over 99% if you oppose the officials, or those approved by them – which he lost, and to cap it all, the old man falls sick, and that is a disaster in more ways
Financially, this means there is a burden on the son – The Far East has a different culture, Confucianism is centered on respect for elders, the family has to care for them, there is more on that in Confucius https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... reading the Analects
You could also give a look to Outliers, a classic of psychology by Malcolm Gladwell, in which he gives you the formula for massive success, which is ten thousand hours of practice or exercise over ten years, that is three hours every single day, which means you can reach the top, if you meet some other criteria, but this is sine qua non
Malcolm Gladwell has looked at biographies from different walks of life, from Steve Jobs to The Beatles, from Bill Gates to Olympic teams, and came up with that result, for those extraordinary achievers have all worked extremely hard to reach the pinnacle of success, and this means that we can all try to use the formula…
There is another thing in Outliers https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/... which regards the culture of the Far East, based on the cultivation of rice, which is very demanding, and has contributed in making the people there hard working, resilient, and we see that in Sour Sweet
In other words, there is much to like, admire in the novel, that is if you still have the patience and you are a satisfizer, and not a maximizer, which is what I am becoming, apparently, for I want to love the characters I read about, they have to be inspiring, Nobel, sensational and lovable, not just interesting, notable
The Paradox of Choice https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/07/... by Barry Schwartz is another psychology classic and it presents you with two different types, the satisfizer, the one who wants excellent options, and accepts them, the other is the maximizer, who wants perfection
It looks like I am in the wrong team, I expect too much from the books that I now take, and then when they do not scintillate, appear luminous, if there is no rapture, then I complain and like with Sour Sweet, I just abandon the project midway, it is at page 150 or so that I decided to stop, but then lost concentration before that
It may have to do with the Triad, since along the characters aforementioned, we have gangsters, the Chinese version, who operate drug distributions, ask for protection money – just like the Orange Pig was doing a while ago, saying that he will only protect Taiwan, if that country pays up, as if he was out of Goodfellas
I was not keen on reading about the Triad, so skipped those passages, but then Chen gets entangled, he has to send money for his father, who is ill, and thinks maybe he can gamble and win, pushed as he is by a colleague, he loses money and gets indebted to those ghouls, tries to escape by moving from his present flat
They open a business, with Chinese food, which actually fake, because Westerners want that, they would not buy the original recipes, and try to live away from the path of the Triad, when they invite a woman and a former colleague, Chen is worried that the villains might get word of his new place and come to get him
We see the interaction with customers, tax man, Mui finds some distributors, drivers who have access to drinks and ice-cream, they transport them, and then part of the goods get damaged, so they claim some losses, but sell them to Mui…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
July 31, 2018
I was fascinated as a boy in 1960s Liverpool by the Chinese community, closed and mysterious behind a virtual great wall. So how accurately in its essentials is it reflected in Timothy Mo's novel?
The main plot is conventional enough, and pretty unelaborated at that. Waiter Chen takes on a family debt, gambles, owes more and becomes prey to a Triad clan. There are poignant and sometimes semi-comic moments: Chen's wife Lily and her sister Mui almost starving themselves but providing a duty-bound meal for his home-coming , which - although already fed at his restaurant - he duty-bound eats; grandfather coming from Hong Kong and prefering to sleep under the counter than in the small (but seemingly over-spacious) bedroom, and inviting friends from the NHS clinic to tea, even though they have no language of communication.
Mui meanwhile is becoming more westernised, from becoming a Coronation Street addict, to striking friendships with passing lorry-drivers at the family takeaway. Lily however remains resolutely traditional, naive or perhaps wilfully blind to cash disappearing from the till.
There's not much nuance here, and the rather stereo-typical characterisation is heightened by the author's style of direct speech. The family converse in Chinese, with its admitted formalities, "You are right, eldest sister .." but rendered into slightly broken English: "'Taxi is expensive.' 'No need. Big nuisance.'"
The other strand, concerning the activities of a local Triad clan, hardly interacts with the Chen family. Its members, hardly more than ciphers, could be characters from a chop-'em-up Kung Fu film. No doubt to expand the book's potential readership to martial arts fans, Timothy Mo reproduces a tedious initiation ceremony from an old document, and describes in irrelevant detail a deadly attack on a rival gang as if it were a blow-by-blow account for Boxing News (for which he worked as a journalist.)
The main plot is conventional enough, and pretty unelaborated at that. Waiter Chen takes on a family debt, gambles, owes more and becomes prey to a Triad clan. There are poignant and sometimes semi-comic moments: Chen's wife Lily and her sister Mui almost starving themselves but providing a duty-bound meal for his home-coming , which - although already fed at his restaurant - he duty-bound eats; grandfather coming from Hong Kong and prefering to sleep under the counter than in the small (but seemingly over-spacious) bedroom, and inviting friends from the NHS clinic to tea, even though they have no language of communication.
Mui meanwhile is becoming more westernised, from becoming a Coronation Street addict, to striking friendships with passing lorry-drivers at the family takeaway. Lily however remains resolutely traditional, naive or perhaps wilfully blind to cash disappearing from the till.
There's not much nuance here, and the rather stereo-typical characterisation is heightened by the author's style of direct speech. The family converse in Chinese, with its admitted formalities, "You are right, eldest sister .." but rendered into slightly broken English: "'Taxi is expensive.' 'No need. Big nuisance.'"
The other strand, concerning the activities of a local Triad clan, hardly interacts with the Chen family. Its members, hardly more than ciphers, could be characters from a chop-'em-up Kung Fu film. No doubt to expand the book's potential readership to martial arts fans, Timothy Mo reproduces a tedious initiation ceremony from an old document, and describes in irrelevant detail a deadly attack on a rival gang as if it were a blow-by-blow account for Boxing News (for which he worked as a journalist.)
June 11, 2019
I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
This is a story of Chinese immigrants in London and how they try to live in the new and alien society. But they are unaware of the underground gangsters who are targeting them... or are they? It is a struggle between tradition and modernity set in the 60s.
Human vulnerability is carefully studied. It was a delight to get to know each character.
The parts dealing with the gangsters bored me sometimes-- but Lily and Chen with their family were rather refreshing. Apart from the food (god yes, such good food), Mo mentions little rituals that gave me an idea of Chinese families (Pearl Buck may have done that already but Timothy Mo has a fresh perspective). I loved Man Kee and his mother. Lily and Chen's little family was so entertaining, with their small conversations, little fiascos, big victories and plans.
All in all, it was raw and heartwarming. The book ended abruptly, making me guess that the story was revolving around Chen, further reinforcing Lily's love for her husband, so her story is on hiatus while he is missing (?)
you can almost taste the Ajinomoto.
.
.
.
4 stars will be enough to show my love for Sour Sweet.
I shall now hunt for Soursweet the movie.
This is a story of Chinese immigrants in London and how they try to live in the new and alien society. But they are unaware of the underground gangsters who are targeting them... or are they? It is a struggle between tradition and modernity set in the 60s.
Human vulnerability is carefully studied. It was a delight to get to know each character.
The parts dealing with the gangsters bored me sometimes-- but Lily and Chen with their family were rather refreshing. Apart from the food (god yes, such good food), Mo mentions little rituals that gave me an idea of Chinese families (Pearl Buck may have done that already but Timothy Mo has a fresh perspective). I loved Man Kee and his mother. Lily and Chen's little family was so entertaining, with their small conversations, little fiascos, big victories and plans.
All in all, it was raw and heartwarming. The book ended abruptly, making me guess that the story was revolving around Chen, further reinforcing Lily's love for her husband, so her story is on hiatus while he is missing (?)
you can almost taste the Ajinomoto.
.
.
.
4 stars will be enough to show my love for Sour Sweet.
I shall now hunt for Soursweet the movie.
April 14, 2014
I really enjoyed it. I am always interested in reading about the experiences of immigrants in their new homes. As somebody who has lived in another country, I appreciate their hard work, confusion, happiness and miscommunication. I like that this went back and forth between a "regular" family who moved from Hong Kong to London and a group of gangsters/mobsters also originally from Hong Kong. Watching the family try so hard to be happy and fulfilled at the same time as the mobsters are ruining the city and their own people. I have to admit that I expected a different outcome from the story, given that the main character was a trained fighter, but alas, we can't always get the ending that we want - unless we write the story ourselves.
Read
March 6, 2019I absolutely loved this book. It is beautifully written and eloquently described a story of two sisters, a husband and a child and their determination to cope and do as best as they can in difficult circumstances. It reveals and draws each of their characters slowly and beautifully. Tragic at times but also uplifting and warming at other times with a few good laughs too. I highly recommend this book. I wanted to read it having read many years ago an Insular Possession by Timothy Mo. It seems he doesn't write any more - what a loss!!
July 23, 2011
I absolutely love this book but my Chen love is not shared with my friends! It's such a moving story and the way it flips from the heartwarming and funny Chens to the darker forces at work is very well done. You really feel as though you're part of the family.
August 9, 2011
Excellent! In places had me laughing out loud, in places hard and cold as iron. A wonderfully penetrating portrayal of a Chinese immigrant family in England and the world they live in.
January 20, 2016
An insight into a part of London I knew nothing about. Rivetting.
fic-guided
August 21, 2020Sour Sweet tells an everyday story of the Chinese takeaway food-retail trade from what is an unusual angle in the Western world. The novel is set in the 1960s, and chronicles a period of miniature cultural revolution in London’s Gerrard Street (‘Chinatown’) and its outlying dependencies. The plot has two centres, both concerned with clan groupings. Foremost is that of the immigrant Chen family, the head of which graduates from being a Soho waiter to opening a takeaway in outer London. The other main element concerns a triad, or secret society, fighting a rival for control of the heroin and protection rackets in ‘the Street’. (The ‘official bandits’ – that is, the police – are fended off with no trouble at all.)
The way in which the honest little shopkeeper gets caught up in the Hung triad’s web and is eventually killed (by having his ‘face washed’) is not the most original feature of Mo’s novel. What is fresh and consistently comic is the quaint way in which familiar life is reflected back to the British reader off an alien ethnic surface. We see ourselves as these very different others see us. The trick is easier shown than described – such as in the following passage about the Chens’ perplexity about ‘Chinese Food’, British-style:
The food was, if nothing else, thought Lily, provenly successful: English tastebuds must be as degraded as their care of their parents; it could, of course, be part of a scheme of cosmic repercussion. ‘Sweet and sour pork’ was their staple, naturally: batter musket balls encasing a tiny core of meat, laced with a scarlet sauce that had an interesting effect on the urine of the consumer the next day. Chen knew, because he tried some and almost fainted with shock the morning after, fearing some frightful internal haemorrhaging (had Lily been making him overdo it lately?) and going round with a slight limp until in the mid-afternoon the stream issued as clear as ever. ‘Spare ribs’ (whatever they were) also seemed popular.
If we credit Mo, the presiding thought in the Chinese catering mind is mild curiosity as to why foreign devils should eat the muck. And, more mystifyingly, pay to eat it.
Mo’s novel shouldn’t be read for its contribution to good race-relations in multi-cultural Britain. It is extremely funny. A particularly successful creation is Mui, Chen’s sister-in-law. She has been housebound for years, despite being sound in body. But steeping in her favourite soap opera, Crossroads, gives her the happy knack of being able to tell one occidental face from another, and some sympathy with the host country’s irrational ways. Gradually she emerges from her low status of unmarried hanger-on. By the end of the novel she is the Chen clan’s matriarch, all set to open a fish-and-chip parlour.
The arc of the narrative traces a larger cultural adaptation. The Chens finally come to terms with car-owning, schools and tax-returns. It means ‘the end of the old life, the life of the loving, closely knit family’. The triad gives up its heroic street-fighting ways, in which gang armies pulverise, cleave and shatter each other in epic, set-piece battles. The new line of crime is bureaucratic, discreet, and, like Mui’s fish-and-chipper, highly profitable.
The way in which the honest little shopkeeper gets caught up in the Hung triad’s web and is eventually killed (by having his ‘face washed’) is not the most original feature of Mo’s novel. What is fresh and consistently comic is the quaint way in which familiar life is reflected back to the British reader off an alien ethnic surface. We see ourselves as these very different others see us. The trick is easier shown than described – such as in the following passage about the Chens’ perplexity about ‘Chinese Food’, British-style:
The food was, if nothing else, thought Lily, provenly successful: English tastebuds must be as degraded as their care of their parents; it could, of course, be part of a scheme of cosmic repercussion. ‘Sweet and sour pork’ was their staple, naturally: batter musket balls encasing a tiny core of meat, laced with a scarlet sauce that had an interesting effect on the urine of the consumer the next day. Chen knew, because he tried some and almost fainted with shock the morning after, fearing some frightful internal haemorrhaging (had Lily been making him overdo it lately?) and going round with a slight limp until in the mid-afternoon the stream issued as clear as ever. ‘Spare ribs’ (whatever they were) also seemed popular.
If we credit Mo, the presiding thought in the Chinese catering mind is mild curiosity as to why foreign devils should eat the muck. And, more mystifyingly, pay to eat it.
Mo’s novel shouldn’t be read for its contribution to good race-relations in multi-cultural Britain. It is extremely funny. A particularly successful creation is Mui, Chen’s sister-in-law. She has been housebound for years, despite being sound in body. But steeping in her favourite soap opera, Crossroads, gives her the happy knack of being able to tell one occidental face from another, and some sympathy with the host country’s irrational ways. Gradually she emerges from her low status of unmarried hanger-on. By the end of the novel she is the Chen clan’s matriarch, all set to open a fish-and-chip parlour.
The arc of the narrative traces a larger cultural adaptation. The Chens finally come to terms with car-owning, schools and tax-returns. It means ‘the end of the old life, the life of the loving, closely knit family’. The triad gives up its heroic street-fighting ways, in which gang armies pulverise, cleave and shatter each other in epic, set-piece battles. The new line of crime is bureaucratic, discreet, and, like Mui’s fish-and-chipper, highly profitable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 18, 2022
SUMMARY: A book as balanced as its title suggests, as a distinctive voice on immigrant experience that carries messages of universal relatability.
----------------
After finishing this book I glanced at Ian McEwan's works, and found that he had written the screenplay for the 1980s film adaptation (1988's 'Soursweet'). The book itself - the first I've read of Mo's - is multisensory and filled with the the smells of Chinese takeaway, the images of late 1960s London, and the physical pain of gangland warfare.
I had only come across Mo relatively recently in reviews that compared him to contemporaries such as Salman Rushdie. Beyond the very broadest themes of decolonisation, migration and multiculturalism however, I couldn't see much to connect these authors that respectively deal in fairydust magical realism on one hand, and a documentary lens realism on the other. Both use humour to skewer westerners' perceptions, and perhaps the similar comparison to William Boyd and J.G. Farrell holds slightly more water.
We get a story from both sides: firstly from Lily, Chen and Mui's family, and secondly from the Hong Kong mafiosa whose extortions enmesh big and little fish alike. And this is the story of little fish, making a living on the margins of post-war London. I felt sympathy for the family that tries to square economy with entrepreneurialism, and loyalty to an extended family overseas with a desire to focus on nuclear family priorities. Lily was the star in this book, but Chen and Mui are characters in their own right.
Mo kept me rapt throughout, with the denouement less in doubt than how Lily, Chen and Mui will respond, and how much agency they can manage in the encircling net of impersonal forces. This is a universal question of autonomy under social and governmental duress, and consequently thought-provoking beyond the immediate setting in Hong Kong-ese expat Soho.
One twinge of factual questioning arose, however, given that this was meant to be the '1960s'. There is a second-hand car dealer selling dodgy cars including a Ford Escort. Given this didn't come into production until 1968 it seemed unlikely it would have been on such forecourts anytime in the 1960s, and the baby's age suggests that the story cannot have jumped far into the 1970s. That's my only (very minor) geeky observation that might question the historical accuracy of what is otherwise a plausible microcosm of underbelly metropolitan immigrant life in 1960s London.
----------------
After finishing this book I glanced at Ian McEwan's works, and found that he had written the screenplay for the 1980s film adaptation (1988's 'Soursweet'). The book itself - the first I've read of Mo's - is multisensory and filled with the the smells of Chinese takeaway, the images of late 1960s London, and the physical pain of gangland warfare.
I had only come across Mo relatively recently in reviews that compared him to contemporaries such as Salman Rushdie. Beyond the very broadest themes of decolonisation, migration and multiculturalism however, I couldn't see much to connect these authors that respectively deal in fairydust magical realism on one hand, and a documentary lens realism on the other. Both use humour to skewer westerners' perceptions, and perhaps the similar comparison to William Boyd and J.G. Farrell holds slightly more water.
We get a story from both sides: firstly from Lily, Chen and Mui's family, and secondly from the Hong Kong mafiosa whose extortions enmesh big and little fish alike. And this is the story of little fish, making a living on the margins of post-war London. I felt sympathy for the family that tries to square economy with entrepreneurialism, and loyalty to an extended family overseas with a desire to focus on nuclear family priorities. Lily was the star in this book, but Chen and Mui are characters in their own right.
Mo kept me rapt throughout, with the denouement less in doubt than how Lily, Chen and Mui will respond, and how much agency they can manage in the encircling net of impersonal forces. This is a universal question of autonomy under social and governmental duress, and consequently thought-provoking beyond the immediate setting in Hong Kong-ese expat Soho.
One twinge of factual questioning arose, however, given that this was meant to be the '1960s'. There is a second-hand car dealer selling dodgy cars including a Ford Escort. Given this didn't come into production until 1968 it seemed unlikely it would have been on such forecourts anytime in the 1960s, and the baby's age suggests that the story cannot have jumped far into the 1970s. That's my only (very minor) geeky observation that might question the historical accuracy of what is otherwise a plausible microcosm of underbelly metropolitan immigrant life in 1960s London.
August 26, 2025
An interesting, sometimes entertaining novel about the Chen family in 1960s London. They are Chinese immigrants and work hard, establishing a Chinese British food business. Chen and his wife Lily are from Hong Kong and initially struggle for four years in London. They have one son, Man Kee, and Lily’s unmarried sister, Mui, lives with them. Chen works as a waiter in a restaurant in Chinatown. Chen finds himself after four years not going anywhere and when he starts gambling, he becomes beholden on a triad member. Chen knows paying back loans is not enough, he will be required to do something else. He decides to disappear with Lily and Mui, her sister, not telling Lily or her sister the reason for moving location and doing it secretively. They buy a property in a remote cheap city neighborhood and establish a food business with Lily being the main cook. It becomes successful. Over a number of years Lily, (with Chen’s knowledge), has been sending money overseas to Chen’s parents. Lily has good business acumen and has always managed to save money. When Chen’s mother dies, Chen feels obligated to bring his father to England to live with Chen’s family.
Good character development and plot momentum made this novel a very satisfying reading experience. I particularly liked the descriptions of Lily’s learning to fight in Hong Kong, the triad gang’s operation and rituals, and how the gang copes with infighting as it tries to adapt to an alien British culture.
This book was shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize.
Good character development and plot momentum made this novel a very satisfying reading experience. I particularly liked the descriptions of Lily’s learning to fight in Hong Kong, the triad gang’s operation and rituals, and how the gang copes with infighting as it tries to adapt to an alien British culture.
This book was shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize.
June 17, 2022
The Short Answer
A fascinating and touching look at life for a Chinese family living in England in the 1980s. While a bit meandering at times, the book manages to create a group of characters that you truly care about.
The Long Answer
This book is more like 3.5 stars. The highlights of this book are good enough that I want to give it four stars, but unfortunately it's held back in a few places.
The book follows two different stories, one of a family trying to make their way in England after opening a Chinese restaurant, and the other of a Chinese gang trying to adjust their operations to match London's realities compared to those of Hong Kong. It takes quite a while for the gang story to really get going, and we spend so little time with it that it never really seems to go anywhere. I wish this book had more gang sections, or less. Especially given how rarely the two stories intersect.
That said, I truly found myself falling for the Chinese family and their struggles getting the restaurant going. While this story sometimes had the tendency to meander a bit too much, it was also the most compelling. While I never cared about the gang members, I cared a lot about the family.
The book also has a perfect ending given the subject matter. I do wish it had been a little tighter written, but I'm very glad I read it.
A fascinating and touching look at life for a Chinese family living in England in the 1980s. While a bit meandering at times, the book manages to create a group of characters that you truly care about.
The Long Answer
This book is more like 3.5 stars. The highlights of this book are good enough that I want to give it four stars, but unfortunately it's held back in a few places.
The book follows two different stories, one of a family trying to make their way in England after opening a Chinese restaurant, and the other of a Chinese gang trying to adjust their operations to match London's realities compared to those of Hong Kong. It takes quite a while for the gang story to really get going, and we spend so little time with it that it never really seems to go anywhere. I wish this book had more gang sections, or less. Especially given how rarely the two stories intersect.
That said, I truly found myself falling for the Chinese family and their struggles getting the restaurant going. While this story sometimes had the tendency to meander a bit too much, it was also the most compelling. While I never cared about the gang members, I cared a lot about the family.
The book also has a perfect ending given the subject matter. I do wish it had been a little tighter written, but I'm very glad I read it.
March 22, 2025
Type of book that’s sits with you a bit. It took me a bit of sitting to decide that it’s five stars, but now I’m solid in my choice.
It’s first of all, genuinely funny. The characters feel like they are alive and breathing and frustrating. And the way that they think is enrapturing (?) (is that the right word?) (I think not). Obviously my background is far different than the family’s, and it felt alien to step into their heads. More so than I thought it would.
The interweaving of the triads is necessary, but the weakest part.
I’m not sure what I find so compelling about it? There’s a light touch, delicate. Filtered through Lily’s obstinacy, other characters hint at internal lives that Lily refuses to consciously acknowledge, even though she clearly subconsciously has some understanding.
The end too, unsettled me, but I think it was right.
I wish I could cohere these thoughts better, but this might be the type of book the denies such easy analysis, which in fact would be exactly what I like about it.
It’s first of all, genuinely funny. The characters feel like they are alive and breathing and frustrating. And the way that they think is enrapturing (?) (is that the right word?) (I think not). Obviously my background is far different than the family’s, and it felt alien to step into their heads. More so than I thought it would.
The interweaving of the triads is necessary, but the weakest part.
I’m not sure what I find so compelling about it? There’s a light touch, delicate. Filtered through Lily’s obstinacy, other characters hint at internal lives that Lily refuses to consciously acknowledge, even though she clearly subconsciously has some understanding.
The end too, unsettled me, but I think it was right.
I wish I could cohere these thoughts better, but this might be the type of book the denies such easy analysis, which in fact would be exactly what I like about it.
November 6, 2024
Comparing 2024 to the 1960's, it sounds like things haven't really change in society, economics and immigration.
There were some funny vocab in this book, like:
Whore Lock meaning Coca Cola
Aitchgevees - I think this meant truck drivers
If you intend to read this book, make sure to read up on The Triads. The chapters on The Triads seemed intense and a little confusing at first, but you soon realise what's going to happen in the end.
Lily and Mui are mismatched sisters, but that's what siblings are like.
Chen, the Husband, surprisingly has many skills! Waiter turned chef, can garden and does carpentry! It's too bad he doesn't know his own destiny.
Grandfather Chen is indeed very funny in his own old ways and trying to swindle customers.
Man Kee, the son of Chen and Lily, is an innocent child who learns both the English and Chinese ways of life. I understand him more!
Chinese families are definitely frugal!!
There were some funny vocab in this book, like:
Whore Lock meaning Coca Cola
Aitchgevees - I think this meant truck drivers
If you intend to read this book, make sure to read up on The Triads. The chapters on The Triads seemed intense and a little confusing at first, but you soon realise what's going to happen in the end.
Lily and Mui are mismatched sisters, but that's what siblings are like.
Chen, the Husband, surprisingly has many skills! Waiter turned chef, can garden and does carpentry! It's too bad he doesn't know his own destiny.
Grandfather Chen is indeed very funny in his own old ways and trying to swindle customers.
Man Kee, the son of Chen and Lily, is an innocent child who learns both the English and Chinese ways of life. I understand him more!
Chinese families are definitely frugal!!
October 15, 2017
Finally taken off the To Be Read list. All I knew about it was Ian McEwan wrote the script for the film version, which not even YouTube pirates bother with.
Glad I did. You could write what I know about China and its citizenry on the back of a soggy hob-nob, let alone about Chinese immigrants living in 60s London. The outsider’s viewpoint is what it makes the book so compelling - and fascinating. Just describing a housewife’s fascination with Coronation Street is a high aesthetic outing.
I found the characters and their histories - especially about the intricacies of Chinese boxing - far more interesting than the Triad protection racket that drives the plot, and takes over halfway through. Hope to get hold of more.
Glad I did. You could write what I know about China and its citizenry on the back of a soggy hob-nob, let alone about Chinese immigrants living in 60s London. The outsider’s viewpoint is what it makes the book so compelling - and fascinating. Just describing a housewife’s fascination with Coronation Street is a high aesthetic outing.
I found the characters and their histories - especially about the intricacies of Chinese boxing - far more interesting than the Triad protection racket that drives the plot, and takes over halfway through. Hope to get hold of more.
February 25, 2024
I read this many years ago, when I was around 13, so I thought thirty years later, it might be time for a re-read. It is even better than I remember it. A meticulously detailed, yet never dull, tale of two families, one biological, the other criminal as they adapt to life in the UK and a rapidly changing world. Wit and warmth are present in equal measure and the author allows everyone to fully exist on the page. Worthy of all the critical praise it received at the time and definitely worth a far higher profile now, as a landmark text not just in British Chinese fiction, but in British fiction, full stop.
October 31, 2020
A book, I feel, that I will remember for a long time. Slow start, but I was drawn in. The shift from many characters to the centrality of Lily and the world seen from her eyes worked. As did the two or three scenes in which the workings of the Hung Triads were put in sharp and graphic focus. The book describes London and it's inhabitants as seen through the eyes of Cantonese, and the thought process of newly arrived immigrants in a strange and different society and complex interplay of individuals living closely together.
A great book and one I thoroughly recommend.
A great book and one I thoroughly recommend.
February 12, 2024
I really wanted to love this story of Chinese immigration to Britain in the 1960s. The story of the hard-working Chen family, and their early encounters with British culture and habits, were indeed entertaining. What I personally found off-putting was the shift between their lives and the rather opaque lives of the Chinese criminal gang hovering in the shadows. This aspect of the 'Chinese immigrant experience' I found confusing and overworked. Yet the author employed enough cultural quirks and humor to carry the story line to an acceptable ending.
Mark di Frangia
Mark di Frangia
December 29, 2025
A classic tale of immigrant Chinese in London 1960s. There is a comic tone as a family try to use all their resourcefulness to make their life in a completely foreign place, with all its foreign values and bureaucracy. None of the characters are particularly likeable but Timothy Mo (my first time reading him) makes incredibly perceptive comments about Hong Kong, Chinese customs, family life, education, and triads. His prose is very rich and well-crafted. It wasn't a moving read but highly entertaining!
November 17, 2019
I first read this book in 1983, after having heard it read as "A Book at Bedtime" on BBC radio. At that time, I was astounded to learn about the underworld of (Chinese) immigrants in Britain. Since then things have definitely not improved, obviously, and I am now going to re-read the book (for probably the fourth time) in the light of the poor Vietnamese illegal immigrants to UK in autumn 2019. A very important book.
February 11, 2021
Day 1, 60 pages.
Day 2, 110 pages.
Today, 108 pages.
(I hope this pandemic never ends.)
Certainly I will look back at the end of this year and think 'Sour Sweet' was one of the top books of the year.
Always such a happy reward to discover not just a novel, but an author one has never heard of. Very much looking forward to reading more Timothy Mo.
Finally! My pursuit of the Booker winners/shortlisters is beginning to pay off!
Day 2, 110 pages.
Today, 108 pages.
(I hope this pandemic never ends.)
Certainly I will look back at the end of this year and think 'Sour Sweet' was one of the top books of the year.
Always such a happy reward to discover not just a novel, but an author one has never heard of. Very much looking forward to reading more Timothy Mo.
Finally! My pursuit of the Booker winners/shortlisters is beginning to pay off!
January 10, 2022
A book club choice - and a good illustration of why book clubs are great. I very much enjoyed this story of a Chinese family settling in the London of the 1960s and of the wider Chinese community then. The story is told patiently and in detail, contrasting the pressure to maintain traditions with the need to adapt and survive. The main character, Lily, personifies these tensions. They remain unresolved but she achieves a kind of inner solace.
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