Miss Jill: A Novel

by Emily Hahn

A novel about an enterprising Shanghai streetwalker from the "American literary treasure" and author of the memoir China to Me (The New Yorker).


Meet Miss Jill, a young woman pursuing the oldest profession in prewar Shanghai. Fifteen, blonde, and full of personality, Jill begins her career as a Japanese banker's mistress. Soon after, she becomes a European prostitute in the house of Annette, and believes that any day now she'll be married to a nobleman. But none of her adventures prepare Miss Jill for the war and her subsequent internment.

An early feminist and an American journalist who traveled to the Belgian Congo and China in the 1930s, Emily Hahn wrote more than fifty books, both fiction and nonfiction; this is Hahn at her touching and entertaining best, portraying an exotic place in a dramatic time with great authenticity and empathy.

Genres: China, Fiction, Historical Fiction

261 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 26, 2013

About the author

Emily "Mickey" Hahn was called "a forgotten American literary treasure" by The New Yorker magazine; she was the author of 52 books and more than 180 articles and stories. Her father was a hardware salesman and her mother a suffragette. She and her siblings were brought up to be independent and to think for themselves and she became the first woman to take a degree in mining engineering from the University of Wisconsin. She went on to study mineralogy at Columbia and anthropology at Oxford, working in between as an oil geologist, a teacher and a guide in New Mexico before she arrived in New York where she took up writing seriously. In 1935 she traveled to China for a short visit and ended up by staying nine years in the Far East. She loved living in Shanghai and met both Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai. She became the lover of Zau Sinmay, an intellectual, whom she particularly liked for his overwhelming curiosity about everything, she felt it rubbed off on her, and together they founded the English-language magazine Candid Comment. During her time in China she learned to smoke opium, persisting for two years until, inevitably, she became addicted; she was then cured by a hypnotist.

In Hong Kong Hahn met Major Charles R. Boxer, a married British intelligence officer; in 1940 she became pregnant and they had a daughter, Carola. Boxer was captured by the Japanese after being wounded in the attack on Hong Kong; Hahn visited him as much as possible in his prisoner-of-war camp, until she and Carola were repatriated to the United States in 1943. On his release they got married and in 1946 they arrived in Dorset where she called herself a "bad housewife". Although Boxer continued to live in England, where he became Professor of Portuguese at London University, Hahn lived mostly in America as a tax exile.

Reviews

[Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published in 1947. It is worthwhile to read about the author and her accomplishments.

The book is set from 1937 through 1945 and follows the life of a girl who was born in Australia to a woman who took up with various men who were called her "stepfathers". She ran away at 15 years old and went to Japan where she was "governess", no, companion, to a 15 year old Japanese daughter of a Japanese businessman who had a country home where his wife lived while he lived in the city. She was actually the man's mistress at 15 years old. Eventually, at 18 years old she had to leave and was sent away with money, which she managed poorly and let a man squander. This story follows her life as a prostitute in Shanghai and Hong Kong through WW II and Japanese occupation, including prison camp life.

This is actually worth reading, not only for the story, but for the issues it addresses. Considering this was printed in 1947, it deals with issues that would have been taboo at the time. She touches on conditions of this underaged girl being a mistress, mentions "the down low" practices, abortions for the "girls", venereal disease, men using the women for their own benefit, as in being pimps and sponges, women running brothels, opium smoking, and even betrayal. The story is believable in the time and location settings.

I would recommend this book, not only for the story and good writing, but for the issues that are addressed relative to the time.

[Christina Smith]

In reading about Old Shanghai, this character finds her way through many of the narratives, including a comic book. She was real. But, Micky Hahn's account may have included some embellished episodes as she was want to do with other historical figures she wrote about. Not that these people needed any added sparkle.

[Gregory Crouch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t enjoying this novel very much for the first half, but I persisted because, well, Mickey Hahn, and I love me some Mickey Hahn, and I’m glad that I did, for I found the second half of MISS JILL surprisingly satisfying.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book about some of the hidden life of Europeans in China in the 40’s.
There was a strange gap between life before Stanley, felt like I missed something, but besides that I really loved it. Emily was a great writer.

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

The early years

I didn’t find the book easy to follow. Jill had too many affairs at the same time she was better in the prison.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book worth reading.

[Isham Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shanghai 1930s by a contemporary American reporter, told through the eyes of a real-life friend and sex worker.

[Will Albers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was surprisingly interesting and well written.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical fiction of leading up to WW II and the Japanese occupation of China. The author is a long time travel writer for the New Yorker and the book is semi autobiographical.