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Soldier of Fortune
Louis Hoyt, Jane's wild Irish husband, has traveled the world over on lock and looks and personality. Now he is presumed dead in Red China. Jane alone cannot believe it.
So Jane comes to Hong Kong with a few thousand dollars and a great determination to help this man who, for the first time in his life, cannot help himself. From the hotels and embassies to the dives, she follows every slightest lead. Each one points to Hank Lee--the fabulous American whom people either know too well or don't know at all--as the one who might save Louis. Knowing this, disregarding all warnings about the man, Jane seeks him out...and the stage is set for action.
So Jane comes to Hong Kong with a few thousand dollars and a great determination to help this man who, for the first time in his life, cannot help himself. From the hotels and embassies to the dives, she follows every slightest lead. Each one points to Hank Lee--the fabulous American whom people either know too well or don't know at all--as the one who might save Louis. Knowing this, disregarding all warnings about the man, Jane seeks him out...and the stage is set for action.
217 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1954
1 person is currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Ernest K. Gann
58 books98 followersErnest K Gann was an aviator, author, filmmaker, sailor, fisherman and conservationist.
After earning his pilot license, Gann spent his much of his free time aloft, flying for pleasure. The continuing Great Depression soon cost him his job and he was unable to find another position in the movie business. In search of work, he decided to move his family to California. Gann was able to find odd jobs at Burbank Airport, and also began to write short stories. A friend managed to get him a part-time job as a co-pilot with a local airline company and it was there that he flew his first trips as a professional aviator. In the late 1930s many airlines were hiring as many pilots as they could find; after hearing of these opportunities, Gann and his family returned to New York where he managed to get hired by American Airlines to fly the Douglas DC-2 and Douglas DC-3.
For several years Gann enjoyed flying routes in the northeast for American. In 1942, many U.S. airlines' pilots and aircraft were absorbed into the Air Transport Command of the U.S. Army Air Forces to assist in the War Effort. Gann and many of his co-workers at American volunteered to join the group. He flew DC-3s, Douglas DC-4s and Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express transports (the cargo version of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber). His wartime trips took him across the North Atlantic to Europe, and then on to Africa, South America, India, and other exotic places. Some of his most harrowing experiences came while flying The Hump airlift across the Himalayas into China. In the years to come Gann's worldwide travels and various adventures would become the inspiration for many of his novels and screenplays.
At the end of World War II, the Air Transport Command released the civilian pilots and aircraft back to their airlines. Gann decided to leave American Airlines in search of new adventures. He was quickly hired as a pilot with a new company called Matson Airlines that was a venture of the Matson steamship line. He flew from the U.S. West Coast across the Pacific to Honolulu. This experience spawned ideas that were developed into one of his best-known works, 'The High and the Mighty.' Matson ultimately soon fell prey to the politically well-connected Pan American Airlines and failed. After a few more short-lived flying jobs, Gann became discouraged with aviation and he turned to writing as a full-time occupation.
Gann's major works include the novel The High and the Mighty and his aviation focused, near-autobiography Fate Is the Hunter. Notes and short stories scribbled down during long layovers on his pioneering trips across the North Atlantic became the source for his first serious fiction novel, Island in the Sky (1944), which was inspired by an actual Arctic rescue mission. It became an immediate best-seller as did Blaze of Noon (1946), a story about early air mail operations. In 1978, he published his comprehensive autobiography, entitled A Hostage to Fortune.
Although many of his 21 best-selling novels show Gann’s devotion to aviation, others, including Twilight for the Gods, and Fiddler's Green reflect his love of the sea. His experiences as a fisherman, skipper and sailor, all contributed storylines and depth to his nautical fiction. He later wrote an autobiography of his sailing life called Song of the Sirens.
Gann wrote, or adapted from his books, the stories and screenplays for several movies and television shows. For some of these productions he also served as a consultant and technical adviser during filming. Although it received positive reviews, Gann was displeased with the film version of Fate Is the Hunter, and removed his name from the credits. (He later lamented that this decision cost him a "fortune" in royalties, as the film played repeatedly on television for years afterward.) He wrote the story for the television miniseries Masada, based on 'The Antagonists.'
After earning his pilot license, Gann spent his much of his free time aloft, flying for pleasure. The continuing Great Depression soon cost him his job and he was unable to find another position in the movie business. In search of work, he decided to move his family to California. Gann was able to find odd jobs at Burbank Airport, and also began to write short stories. A friend managed to get him a part-time job as a co-pilot with a local airline company and it was there that he flew his first trips as a professional aviator. In the late 1930s many airlines were hiring as many pilots as they could find; after hearing of these opportunities, Gann and his family returned to New York where he managed to get hired by American Airlines to fly the Douglas DC-2 and Douglas DC-3.
For several years Gann enjoyed flying routes in the northeast for American. In 1942, many U.S. airlines' pilots and aircraft were absorbed into the Air Transport Command of the U.S. Army Air Forces to assist in the War Effort. Gann and many of his co-workers at American volunteered to join the group. He flew DC-3s, Douglas DC-4s and Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express transports (the cargo version of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber). His wartime trips took him across the North Atlantic to Europe, and then on to Africa, South America, India, and other exotic places. Some of his most harrowing experiences came while flying The Hump airlift across the Himalayas into China. In the years to come Gann's worldwide travels and various adventures would become the inspiration for many of his novels and screenplays.
At the end of World War II, the Air Transport Command released the civilian pilots and aircraft back to their airlines. Gann decided to leave American Airlines in search of new adventures. He was quickly hired as a pilot with a new company called Matson Airlines that was a venture of the Matson steamship line. He flew from the U.S. West Coast across the Pacific to Honolulu. This experience spawned ideas that were developed into one of his best-known works, 'The High and the Mighty.' Matson ultimately soon fell prey to the politically well-connected Pan American Airlines and failed. After a few more short-lived flying jobs, Gann became discouraged with aviation and he turned to writing as a full-time occupation.
Gann's major works include the novel The High and the Mighty and his aviation focused, near-autobiography Fate Is the Hunter. Notes and short stories scribbled down during long layovers on his pioneering trips across the North Atlantic became the source for his first serious fiction novel, Island in the Sky (1944), which was inspired by an actual Arctic rescue mission. It became an immediate best-seller as did Blaze of Noon (1946), a story about early air mail operations. In 1978, he published his comprehensive autobiography, entitled A Hostage to Fortune.
Although many of his 21 best-selling novels show Gann’s devotion to aviation, others, including Twilight for the Gods, and Fiddler's Green reflect his love of the sea. His experiences as a fisherman, skipper and sailor, all contributed storylines and depth to his nautical fiction. He later wrote an autobiography of his sailing life called Song of the Sirens.
Gann wrote, or adapted from his books, the stories and screenplays for several movies and television shows. For some of these productions he also served as a consultant and technical adviser during filming. Although it received positive reviews, Gann was displeased with the film version of Fate Is the Hunter, and removed his name from the credits. (He later lamented that this decision cost him a "fortune" in royalties, as the film played repeatedly on television for years afterward.) He wrote the story for the television miniseries Masada, based on 'The Antagonists.'
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 24, 2017
Ernest K. Gann was such a great writer that during his heyday the only peer with whom critics could compare him was Hemingway. After reading Soldier of Fortune, you might conclude that it should have been the other way around.
Gann’s robust and vibrant tale of adventure in post-war Hong Kong is painted on a massive canvas, yet because of its rich detail it becomes an intimate look at a place and time. Rarely does a reader get an energetic adventure tale laced with such colorful and memorable characters, and rarely does an adventure of this type take the time to make it more than simple entertainment. Gann paints Honk Kong and Kowloon as a bustle of exotic activity, with the Brits trying to hang on while just across the way millions of Chinese are struggling mightily against the brutal rise of Communism. And yet, this is a tale of people, characters rich and complex.
In essence, Gann paints Hong Kong and Kowloon — and later, Macao — as I believe another reviewer mentioned, the Asian Casablanca. But even likening it to Casablanca is doing Soldier of Fortune a great injustice, because there is so much more going on here than there was in that stellar film. Gann takes his time to fully paint even the most minor character in his colorful picture. There are no throwaway people or locations in this fabulous novel, each playing a part in some small way to what is certainly one of the most entertaining stories of great adventure and danger ever written.
American Jane Hoyt has arrived in Hong Kong in search of her husband, who may have been taken prisoner by the Chinese, or he may be dead. Though Susan Hayward portrayed Jane Hoyt in the film, the manner in which Gann describes her and brings her to life in the novel had me quickly picturing her as Greer Garson, and that image stuck for the entire read. Out of her element, Jane braves on, from Tweedie’s, the local hangout for every scoundrel around, to the lovely and charming Maxine Chan, a woman who may have seen her husband alive long after he was reported dead. The one constant Jane discovers are warnings regarding American, Hank Lee, who is known to smuggle goods in and out of Communist China on a Junk he has named Chicago. It is, however, to the surprisingly complicated Hank Lee that Jane turns in her effort to discover what happened to her husband, and rescue him, if she can.
But this is where emotions get complicated, as Hank Lee has an effect on Jane that she at first tries to deny, and finally realizes she can’t. Hank Lee is in essence hiding in Hong Kong, his unsavory reputation hardly in line with the children he has adopted. Eventually, however, a time will come when Jane will need Hank Lee to be the man everyone claims he is, including Merryweather and Rodman, members of a Hong Kong Police Force only seven years old. Both of these men will play important parts in this grand adventure.
Before a dangerous journey is made into Communist China to rescue Jane’s husband from a Canton Jesuit Mission, a great deal happens. There is a typhoon, the poignant death of an old Chinese man, and not one, but two emotionally complex love triangles develop. Much will have to be resolved after a thrilling escape from China, one which has both American and Union Jack flags hoisted up the mast of Chicago, as Hank Lee tries to outrun the Commies, and return a husband to the woman he himself loves.
Despite the colorful and exotic settings, and the rich and detailed evocation of a time and place so masterfully described by Gann, this is really a book about people, and Gann brings them to life. There are a lot of characters to like in this one, and even the most unsavory ones are of great interest. Funny, exciting, charming and thrilling, Soldier of Fortune seems to have a life all its own, one we are only aware of once we open the covers and begin to read.
Clark Gable’s persona makes it easy to understand why he was chosen to portray Hank Lee in the film scripted by Gann himself, who adapted his own novel. One of the few films from the era I haven’t seen, I think I will hold off a while; because the book was so enthralling, and because I will find it difficult to accept Susan Hayward in the role of Jane, no matter how splendid she might have been. For me, Jane will always be Greer Garson.
One of the most memorable reads I’ve encountered over the last few years, and easily in my top 5 reads of 2017, I give this my highest recommendation. Classic film fans especially might enjoy it. Like a lot of great authors, this one by Gann is out of print, but if you can track down a used copy, you’ll not be disappointed. Marvelous!
Gann’s robust and vibrant tale of adventure in post-war Hong Kong is painted on a massive canvas, yet because of its rich detail it becomes an intimate look at a place and time. Rarely does a reader get an energetic adventure tale laced with such colorful and memorable characters, and rarely does an adventure of this type take the time to make it more than simple entertainment. Gann paints Honk Kong and Kowloon as a bustle of exotic activity, with the Brits trying to hang on while just across the way millions of Chinese are struggling mightily against the brutal rise of Communism. And yet, this is a tale of people, characters rich and complex.
In essence, Gann paints Hong Kong and Kowloon — and later, Macao — as I believe another reviewer mentioned, the Asian Casablanca. But even likening it to Casablanca is doing Soldier of Fortune a great injustice, because there is so much more going on here than there was in that stellar film. Gann takes his time to fully paint even the most minor character in his colorful picture. There are no throwaway people or locations in this fabulous novel, each playing a part in some small way to what is certainly one of the most entertaining stories of great adventure and danger ever written.
American Jane Hoyt has arrived in Hong Kong in search of her husband, who may have been taken prisoner by the Chinese, or he may be dead. Though Susan Hayward portrayed Jane Hoyt in the film, the manner in which Gann describes her and brings her to life in the novel had me quickly picturing her as Greer Garson, and that image stuck for the entire read. Out of her element, Jane braves on, from Tweedie’s, the local hangout for every scoundrel around, to the lovely and charming Maxine Chan, a woman who may have seen her husband alive long after he was reported dead. The one constant Jane discovers are warnings regarding American, Hank Lee, who is known to smuggle goods in and out of Communist China on a Junk he has named Chicago. It is, however, to the surprisingly complicated Hank Lee that Jane turns in her effort to discover what happened to her husband, and rescue him, if she can.
But this is where emotions get complicated, as Hank Lee has an effect on Jane that she at first tries to deny, and finally realizes she can’t. Hank Lee is in essence hiding in Hong Kong, his unsavory reputation hardly in line with the children he has adopted. Eventually, however, a time will come when Jane will need Hank Lee to be the man everyone claims he is, including Merryweather and Rodman, members of a Hong Kong Police Force only seven years old. Both of these men will play important parts in this grand adventure.
Before a dangerous journey is made into Communist China to rescue Jane’s husband from a Canton Jesuit Mission, a great deal happens. There is a typhoon, the poignant death of an old Chinese man, and not one, but two emotionally complex love triangles develop. Much will have to be resolved after a thrilling escape from China, one which has both American and Union Jack flags hoisted up the mast of Chicago, as Hank Lee tries to outrun the Commies, and return a husband to the woman he himself loves.
Despite the colorful and exotic settings, and the rich and detailed evocation of a time and place so masterfully described by Gann, this is really a book about people, and Gann brings them to life. There are a lot of characters to like in this one, and even the most unsavory ones are of great interest. Funny, exciting, charming and thrilling, Soldier of Fortune seems to have a life all its own, one we are only aware of once we open the covers and begin to read.
Clark Gable’s persona makes it easy to understand why he was chosen to portray Hank Lee in the film scripted by Gann himself, who adapted his own novel. One of the few films from the era I haven’t seen, I think I will hold off a while; because the book was so enthralling, and because I will find it difficult to accept Susan Hayward in the role of Jane, no matter how splendid she might have been. For me, Jane will always be Greer Garson.
One of the most memorable reads I’ve encountered over the last few years, and easily in my top 5 reads of 2017, I give this my highest recommendation. Classic film fans especially might enjoy it. Like a lot of great authors, this one by Gann is out of print, but if you can track down a used copy, you’ll not be disappointed. Marvelous!
September 20, 2013
This is not the actioner I thought it would be. It's a very character-driven story that paints 1950's Hong Kong as a sort of Casablanca: a quasi-legal enclave in the shadow of a menacing world power, filled with desperate Caucasians hungry for what few opportunities the city still offers.
The start follows Jane Hoyt on her mission to rescue her husband from imprisonment by the mainland Chinese, but was disappointingly eager to hand off protagonist duties to the Strong-Jawed Conflicted Hero. The question of what Jane would do to regain her husband in this setting of moral compromise and shadowy figures is never really answered, and the love triangle it meticulously constructs peters out, with an unsatisfyingly amicable resolution.
Read it for the setting, the author's depiction of Hong Kong.
The start follows Jane Hoyt on her mission to rescue her husband from imprisonment by the mainland Chinese, but was disappointingly eager to hand off protagonist duties to the Strong-Jawed Conflicted Hero. The question of what Jane would do to regain her husband in this setting of moral compromise and shadowy figures is never really answered, and the love triangle it meticulously constructs peters out, with an unsatisfyingly amicable resolution.
Read it for the setting, the author's depiction of Hong Kong.
July 31, 2018
One of Gann's earlier works. It's an OK early 1950s Cold War adventure piece set in Hong Kong. The characters are somewhat cliched and the plot a Casablanca feel to it. There is the beautiful, brave, noble female protagonist and the world weary cynical hero with a heart of gold. Naturally there is also the cast of scurrilous, but ultimately loveable supporting characters. Being an early 1950s novel the natives (Chinese) are mainly cardboard cut-outs who don't interfere with the Occidentals and their work to deal the Reds a defeat. It isn't obnoxious and there are parts where it's interesting, but it does feel rather dated in the 21st Century. However that is true of all works of fiction as the decades roll on.
Gann does good work in describing the locale. He was known for doing real world research and it comes through in "Soldier of Fortune" that Gann spent some time in Hong Kong (not to mention the war years flying between India and China over the Himalayas). The authentic details are good and I felt like I was watching one of those old travel pieces from the Fifties in which the camera was set up to give wide shots and you can't really get a good look at the local inhabitants, but there is lots of wonderful vistas; all the while the soundtrack plays a rather bland instrumental piece that has a vaguely "Oriental" feel to it.
Not a bad novel. Just nothing really exceptional.
Gann does good work in describing the locale. He was known for doing real world research and it comes through in "Soldier of Fortune" that Gann spent some time in Hong Kong (not to mention the war years flying between India and China over the Himalayas). The authentic details are good and I felt like I was watching one of those old travel pieces from the Fifties in which the camera was set up to give wide shots and you can't really get a good look at the local inhabitants, but there is lots of wonderful vistas; all the while the soundtrack plays a rather bland instrumental piece that has a vaguely "Oriental" feel to it.
Not a bad novel. Just nothing really exceptional.
November 4, 2018
An effective romantic adventure set against the background of Hong Kong just after the Korean War and the intensifying Cold War with Communist China. Gann, a novelist, pilot, seaman, memoirist, and real life adventurer, brings part of his background in Hong Kong to this story. But Hank Lee, the hero of this tale, is not Ernest K. Gann. Lee is an expat, a man adrift, on the threshold, always on the threshold, until he is redeemed and eventually brought back to the United States at book's end. All thanks to the dangerous prison raid Jane Hoyt convinces him to undertake in Red China in order to free her husband.
Soldier of Fortune, essentially, is the backstory to the film version of the novel that would be produced one year after the book's publication. The Clark Gable film closely hews to Gann's novel, which is not so surprising, considering Gann also wrote the film's script. This is one case where the book cannot be separated from the film, because both were being incubated at the same time. And the film's is a good one, although the production code restricted it from pursuing a couple of scenes between Hank and Jane.
Soldier of Fortune, essentially, is the backstory to the film version of the novel that would be produced one year after the book's publication. The Clark Gable film closely hews to Gann's novel, which is not so surprising, considering Gann also wrote the film's script. This is one case where the book cannot be separated from the film, because both were being incubated at the same time. And the film's is a good one, although the production code restricted it from pursuing a couple of scenes between Hank and Jane.
June 7, 2021
This is an amazing book from a number of viewpoints. The China of today, 2021 or more specifically Hong Kong as it is today evolved from out of China and Hong Kong, as they were long ago and more specifically in the 1950s. This novel is notable for its historical snapshot like descriptions of Hong Kong; the city, the layout of the harbor and the neighboring islands. It delves into what the commercial and residential areas of Hong Kong looked like, felt like and the usual weather patterns of the area. There is great info on the how the Asian Pacific cruise ships came in with tourists and the inter-island/mainland ferries operating. And it is filled with the taut, tense relationships between the Chinese, British, Portuguese and the Americans. Though it is fictional in terms of the names of the ships, much of the information seems based on factual research either studied or gleaned out of Ernest Gann's travels in the area. He was an avid sailor and his nautical descriptions seem very exact and knowledgeable about the tides, currents and general sea state of Hong Kong harbor and the surrounding sea and river ingress into the Chinese mainland. Much of what he writes though factual, is extremely politically incorrect. But the tensions in the area have been long known and the latent fear that Hong Kong would be seized back by mainland Communists provides a gripping background to the story, which is part potboiler, part romantic thriller. But the not very well-known historical backstory provides a lot of context that goes a long way towards explaining both what is happening in Hong Kong today and China's aggressiveness all over the world. China seems to always have tried very hard to cleanse and hide its violent and suppressive side of the past with the "soft" PR cloak of a quasi capitalist thought still thoroughly communist economic system. Then there is Gann's pre-feminist heroine, Jane Hoyt, who is looking for her individualist husband, who apparently disappeared from Hong Kong into mainland China. Her pluck and steely determination amid the corruption of most of the male characters is refreshing. Gann's novel is extremely suspenseful and the dialogue many times, the tough, direct speech of film noir gangsters, good guys and molls and good women of the 40s and 50s. One of the most interesting passages in this story comes from the repugnant interior monologue of a morally-compromised character named "Tweedie". In these days of disturbing me-too horror stories of betrayal and bad acting, here is a clear statement of many men's most fundamental viewpoint towards women which explains how women often need to create their own environment, their own empires separate from older unreformed patriarchal entities that secretly uphold the old dated masculine attitudes.
"You take a creature God put on this earth and train her from the time she can think that her only chance for a decent life is to be as attractive as she can . . . Because she know that she's got maybe forty years at the most to get everything set for the rest of her days. She's got a body and it's only going to last so long before she finds people looking through her instead of at her."
Jane's relationship with her husband Louis (who she is trying to save from certain death) is also interesting as is her relationship with renegade capitalist Henry Lee. Henry Lee is an interesting hero because he doesn't look at Jane with the worst aspects of the "Tweedie" attitude. I wish the character of Jane had been further developed because this potboiler seems to sort of push the boundaries a little of the usual potboiler romance. Maybe it is not to everyone's liking but it is great indirect examination of China's socialist roots and the attitudes and viewpoints of 1940s and 1950s men and women towards one another that subtly forecast the gender based conflicts at higher level corporations in this me-too movement era.
"You take a creature God put on this earth and train her from the time she can think that her only chance for a decent life is to be as attractive as she can . . . Because she know that she's got maybe forty years at the most to get everything set for the rest of her days. She's got a body and it's only going to last so long before she finds people looking through her instead of at her."
Jane's relationship with her husband Louis (who she is trying to save from certain death) is also interesting as is her relationship with renegade capitalist Henry Lee. Henry Lee is an interesting hero because he doesn't look at Jane with the worst aspects of the "Tweedie" attitude. I wish the character of Jane had been further developed because this potboiler seems to sort of push the boundaries a little of the usual potboiler romance. Maybe it is not to everyone's liking but it is great indirect examination of China's socialist roots and the attitudes and viewpoints of 1940s and 1950s men and women towards one another that subtly forecast the gender based conflicts at higher level corporations in this me-too movement era.
April 13, 2025
Ernest K. Gann's 1954 Soldier of Fortune is an adventure of the early Cold War that combines personal danger amid geopolitical intrigue and posturing, tangled human relationships, and even a few choices beat-downs and a running naval gun battle, all in the exotic location of Hong Kong when still a British colony.
Louis Hoyt, by trade a freelance photographer and by temperament "a wild, wonderful, Irish leprechaun" who drinks "too much" and is "not interested in money" and makes adoring wife Jane feel as if they were "shooting rapids in a fragile boat" (1954 Sloane hardcover, pages 17-18), has disappeared from Hong Kong. According to the file at the American Consulate, " 'Hoyt is reported to have stated several times...that if he could attain pictures inside Red China, however innocuous, they would sell for a very high price to American news services and greatly enhance his chance of being hired on a regular status by one of the magazines' " (page 23). Well, perhaps. But the problem with Red China, as Westerners often called it back then, is that it is run by the Red Chinese--you know, the American-hating folks who had just fought against the United Nations forces in Korea, and who, "under the inspired leadership of Mao," continue to work against what they term "the so-called democracies, and their degenerate puppets" (page 109).
An American sneaking into China, therefore, is gonna be in a heap o' trouble. And it doesn't help that in this period the Communist victors over Chiang Kai-Shek in the Chinese Civil War that ended not even half a dozen years earlier are not recognized by the United States. There is no embassy, there is no diplomatic staff, there is no communication--except, as the Consulate report puts it a bit telegraphically, "inquir[ies] made through British Charge d'Affairs to Chinese government Peiping as to possible knowledge of whereabouts, one Louis Hoyt" (page 25)...which are completely ignored. And as the Consulate man tells Jane in response to her quaint suggestion that "[s]urely there's some sort of an underground" and that "bribe[s]" will be able to work, "Communism is a religion...and those who accept it are as fanatical as the early Christians" (page 26).
So-- No back-room deals, no old-fashioned gunboat diplomacy, no bribes--getting Louis Hoyt out sounds impossible. And the U.S. government doesn't even know where he is in China anyway. And yet there is a fellow in Hong Kong named Henry Lee...
As a washed-up drunk American schemer in an expatriate bar run by a worse American crook tells Jane, Hank Lee is "sort of a fallen[-]away American...like a Catholic who doesn't go to church anymore" (page 37; ellipsis Gann's). According to a British police officer, "[y]our Henry Lee is a brigand, a pirate, a smuggler and a traitor" (page 52); prior to the fall of Chiang, the smuggler "confined himself pretty much to drugs and gold," but now he covertly sells "strategic materials" and "electrical products and just plain arms" to the Communists (page 54).
Yeah, this doesn't sound good--either that or it sounds kinda cheesy--but once we meet him, Gann will give us backstory via Hank's interior thoughts, and indeed, as when presented with any literary or cinematic "hooker with a heart of gold," we will find that our perspective shifts. I mean, even the longhair cat with "only hostility in the yellow eyes" (page 66) comes out for a cuddle when he arrives, and both excited dogs, too, and he has some orphans, fer God's sake... And it doesn't hurt that Hank is, I guess you'd say, a great big beautiful dreamboat. Even the happily married Jane cannot help noticing it:
"He was tall, but the power in him did not come from his height. She thought of a well-built ship--there was an impression of sturdiness rather than mere muscular strength. There was true color in his cheeks, the first she had seen in a man since her arrival in Hong Kong, and his eyes were frank and entirely unafraid. She found herself unexplainably happy about his nose--it was large and had obviously once been badly smashed. His nose saved him from being a pretty man." (page 68)
And about that "intangible sensation [that] leapt from behind a guarding of years" and "came upon her like a swell rolling in from the ocean" (page 68) at Jane's first sight of Hank? Well, Louis "in one of his speculative, half-mischievous moods," after "just ey[ing] a little brunette with more than passing interest," had told Jane, "Let me tell you that I'm going to cast a lotta sheep's eyes in our life and you should be glad of it, because when I stop I'll be dead" (pages 114-15). With "a long pull at his rum," he had continued on with a rather open-minded lecture shrugging at the double standard of "all hell break[ing] loose" if a married woman happens to feel attraction to someone besides her husband (page 115). Maybe someday someone would come along, he had predicted, and even though she is "true blue," she is "going to be surprised in more ways than one," and "how far [she] go[es] will depend on the circumstances at the moment." Very understandingly indeed, he had concluded, "Just remember one thing...I never did want our marriage to become a prison...either for you or for me" (page 116; ellipses Gann's). Hmm.
In any event, Jane truly does want her husband back, and she has come to Hong Kong with traveler's checks for $7,000 (pages 26, 75), which per the Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator would be more like $77,000 in 2022 money. Despite her scarcely acknowledged feelings for Hank Lee, she has a seemingly impossible mission to accomplish, and despite his cynical exterior, Lee is not the type of man to gain a woman by simply pretending her husband cannot be found. It is an interesting interplay.
There are rogues and downright villains of all variety--including a shady importer-exporter with a heart o' gold, not to mention a motorized junk equipped with a hidden, very illegal yet very handy 40mm Bofors automatic cannon--along with somewhat stereotypical stiff-upper-lip British police, somewhat stereotypical hard-core Commie Chinese, and somewhat stereotypical "good" Chinese. Easy as it is to be flippant, though, Gann's Soldier of Fortune for its era actually is quite a decent 4-star read.
Louis Hoyt, by trade a freelance photographer and by temperament "a wild, wonderful, Irish leprechaun" who drinks "too much" and is "not interested in money" and makes adoring wife Jane feel as if they were "shooting rapids in a fragile boat" (1954 Sloane hardcover, pages 17-18), has disappeared from Hong Kong. According to the file at the American Consulate, " 'Hoyt is reported to have stated several times...that if he could attain pictures inside Red China, however innocuous, they would sell for a very high price to American news services and greatly enhance his chance of being hired on a regular status by one of the magazines' " (page 23). Well, perhaps. But the problem with Red China, as Westerners often called it back then, is that it is run by the Red Chinese--you know, the American-hating folks who had just fought against the United Nations forces in Korea, and who, "under the inspired leadership of Mao," continue to work against what they term "the so-called democracies, and their degenerate puppets" (page 109).
An American sneaking into China, therefore, is gonna be in a heap o' trouble. And it doesn't help that in this period the Communist victors over Chiang Kai-Shek in the Chinese Civil War that ended not even half a dozen years earlier are not recognized by the United States. There is no embassy, there is no diplomatic staff, there is no communication--except, as the Consulate report puts it a bit telegraphically, "inquir[ies] made through British Charge d'Affairs to Chinese government Peiping as to possible knowledge of whereabouts, one Louis Hoyt" (page 25)...which are completely ignored. And as the Consulate man tells Jane in response to her quaint suggestion that "[s]urely there's some sort of an underground" and that "bribe[s]" will be able to work, "Communism is a religion...and those who accept it are as fanatical as the early Christians" (page 26).
So-- No back-room deals, no old-fashioned gunboat diplomacy, no bribes--getting Louis Hoyt out sounds impossible. And the U.S. government doesn't even know where he is in China anyway. And yet there is a fellow in Hong Kong named Henry Lee...
As a washed-up drunk American schemer in an expatriate bar run by a worse American crook tells Jane, Hank Lee is "sort of a fallen[-]away American...like a Catholic who doesn't go to church anymore" (page 37; ellipsis Gann's). According to a British police officer, "[y]our Henry Lee is a brigand, a pirate, a smuggler and a traitor" (page 52); prior to the fall of Chiang, the smuggler "confined himself pretty much to drugs and gold," but now he covertly sells "strategic materials" and "electrical products and just plain arms" to the Communists (page 54).
Yeah, this doesn't sound good--either that or it sounds kinda cheesy--but once we meet him, Gann will give us backstory via Hank's interior thoughts, and indeed, as when presented with any literary or cinematic "hooker with a heart of gold," we will find that our perspective shifts. I mean, even the longhair cat with "only hostility in the yellow eyes" (page 66) comes out for a cuddle when he arrives, and both excited dogs, too, and he has some orphans, fer God's sake... And it doesn't hurt that Hank is, I guess you'd say, a great big beautiful dreamboat. Even the happily married Jane cannot help noticing it:
"He was tall, but the power in him did not come from his height. She thought of a well-built ship--there was an impression of sturdiness rather than mere muscular strength. There was true color in his cheeks, the first she had seen in a man since her arrival in Hong Kong, and his eyes were frank and entirely unafraid. She found herself unexplainably happy about his nose--it was large and had obviously once been badly smashed. His nose saved him from being a pretty man." (page 68)
And about that "intangible sensation [that] leapt from behind a guarding of years" and "came upon her like a swell rolling in from the ocean" (page 68) at Jane's first sight of Hank? Well, Louis "in one of his speculative, half-mischievous moods," after "just ey[ing] a little brunette with more than passing interest," had told Jane, "Let me tell you that I'm going to cast a lotta sheep's eyes in our life and you should be glad of it, because when I stop I'll be dead" (pages 114-15). With "a long pull at his rum," he had continued on with a rather open-minded lecture shrugging at the double standard of "all hell break[ing] loose" if a married woman happens to feel attraction to someone besides her husband (page 115). Maybe someday someone would come along, he had predicted, and even though she is "true blue," she is "going to be surprised in more ways than one," and "how far [she] go[es] will depend on the circumstances at the moment." Very understandingly indeed, he had concluded, "Just remember one thing...I never did want our marriage to become a prison...either for you or for me" (page 116; ellipses Gann's). Hmm.
In any event, Jane truly does want her husband back, and she has come to Hong Kong with traveler's checks for $7,000 (pages 26, 75), which per the Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator would be more like $77,000 in 2022 money. Despite her scarcely acknowledged feelings for Hank Lee, she has a seemingly impossible mission to accomplish, and despite his cynical exterior, Lee is not the type of man to gain a woman by simply pretending her husband cannot be found. It is an interesting interplay.
There are rogues and downright villains of all variety--including a shady importer-exporter with a heart o' gold, not to mention a motorized junk equipped with a hidden, very illegal yet very handy 40mm Bofors automatic cannon--along with somewhat stereotypical stiff-upper-lip British police, somewhat stereotypical hard-core Commie Chinese, and somewhat stereotypical "good" Chinese. Easy as it is to be flippant, though, Gann's Soldier of Fortune for its era actually is quite a decent 4-star read.
October 10, 2017
Read in the 70s
August 21, 2021
I must have picked this up at an estate sale. the pages are OLD. GOLLY this was VERY good & I'll be searching out more by this author.
March 4, 2023
Wonderful story. I first saw the Clark Gable Susan Hayward movie. Gann did the screenplay so it followed the book closely. Only a few differences, but it kept me reading to see what was next.
September 11, 2024
Interesting, but very, very tedious, too. Don't think I'd ever recommend it to anyone.
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