Pao [ペーパーバック]

Pao by Kerry Young introduces Yang Pao, a 14 year-old who is beginning life anew in Jamaica with his mother and brother. It is 1938 and Pao's father has died fighting in the Chinese Civil War. Their benefactor is the father's best friend Zhang, the godfather of Kingston's Chinatown. Zhang, who never married, has a place in his organization for the family, but it is Pao who seems to have the knack for the small-time rackets and protection services, and fills the void in Zhang's personal life. But, Jamaica at this time is not without strife while still a British Colony, the people are becoming vocal over better working conditions, and self-government, and trying to determine what is their identity as Jamaicans. As the years pass, and the conflict grows, battles between keeping the status quo or moving ahead with changes will not only affect the country but personal lives. Pao will be tested many times over the years to prove where his loyalties lie and as often with compromise all sides lose.

Pao is an engaging novel that looks at the timeframe in Jamaican history not often told, from the pre-independence days of the 1930s to the independence in the 1960s to the political and economic unrest in the 1980s. With ease and captivating storytelling, the author takes us into the Jamaican Chinese world informing the reader of the vibrant community through the lives of the characters. Each chapter heading is a snippet from Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and while you would think this would be helpful in Pao's business practices, it is in his personal life that he employs the strategic advice. Pao is torn between his love for Gloria, a black Jamaican, and his need to earn respectability within the Chinese community and to honor Zhang. So Pao marries Fay, the privileged daughter of a wealthy Chinese businessman and his black wife, but she is repelled by his hoodlum life style. Gloria is now insulted that she is not good enough, but it is through her eyes that Pao gets his lessons on race, class and identity. Pao likes to think of himself as a gangster with a heart, and does do many deeds outside of the law because it is the right thing to do. But then heroism is in the eyes of the beholder and many will not see him as a hero.

Ms. Young provides some historical background about the political events happening in Jamaica as after all it is the political climate which allows for the tolerance of gangs and their retribution of justice or in many cases injustice. I would have liked a little more detail into the political events and the characters that were important to Pao, but with that said, the structure does not take away from the enjoyment of the story. And in total all of the elements add to the freshness of this storyline. The pacing is brisk in this story driven by murder, corruption, blackmail, greed and incest. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy historical fiction with a different view, and those who enjoy learning about Caribbean history.

Reviewed by Beverly
APOOO Literary Book Review

In her Costa Prize short-listed first novel, Kerry Young brings together a huge number of elements that make up a good story. Set in Jamaica, the time period covers 1938 to almost present day, it is the political backdrop of independence and control over Jamaica's assets that informs much of the story. But while the politics of Jamaica resound throughout the book, it's also a very personal story about the life of the eponymous Yang Pao. Issues of race, class, love, family, ambition and business philosophy - Pao's guiding light is Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" - are skillfully woven into the mix.

One of the first things that you notice is that because the story is narrated by Pao, it is all told in his own dialect form of English. To illustrate with a sentence at random: "Him no say nothing to me". She also interchanges "you" and "yu" - although quite what the difference is was lost on me. Some will undoubtedly find that irritating, and I confess that after longer periods of reading I did sort of yearn for a full, grammatical sentence, but in truth your mind quickly becomes attuned to the style and the meaning is always clear. I had more of a struggle with the dialogue in that there does not appear to be much difference between the style of language between those of Chinese and African-Jamaican origin. However, with the author's Chinese/Jamaican heritage, I can only assume that it's totally accurate.

Pao runs a protection business in Chinatown. He's sort of like a small time version of Tony Soprano. As so often with gangster-based literature, he has a moral element and is nice to his mother in a sort of Reggie Kray way, and sees himself almost as a Robin Hood figure. If I have one real gripe about the book it's that most of what you can euphemistically call the enforcement of his power happens off stage. There's always something alluring about having the voice of a bad man talking directly to you - at the risk of throwing yet another name into this paragraph, it's a trick that William Shakespeare understood well. However, without making the means of his power explicit, this weakened the image for me.

That's not to suggest that we are not presented with at least some issues that push your moral compass to the limit. Pao quickly gets involved with a prostitution business - inevitably he takes the side of an attacked prostitute to exact revenge before offering the business his "protection" and becomes romantically involved with one of the girls, Gloria. Even when he makes a culturally more acceptable match with Fay, a completely unsuitable, headstrong daughter of a rich Chinese businessman and gets married, he continues his relationship with Gloria.

In fact, it is Fay and Gloria who talk the most sense throughout the book, albeit in different ways. They come from different racial backgrounds, different classes and are chalk and cheese and yet, in their own ways it's often easier to empathize with their views, even though Fay is gloriously selfish at times.

I cannot say that I always had much of a sense of the setting beyond the politics, although in the final few pages there is an exquisitely described journey into the Jamaican country that completely evokes an image of the island. Ironically, it was only when I read this that I felt that I'd lacked that view up to that point.

The great strength of the book is that it is situated in the politics of the country, although it is not an overtly political story. The conclusion of the story though is poignant and thoughtful as Pao considers his socialist views against what has happened to Jamaica while he has seen his business rise and fall in fortunes. But most of all, it's a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Decades slip by in a flash in this delightfully crafted novel about a Chinese immigrant to Jamaica and his life, labors, and loves. Author Kerry Young does a great service to her home country and to her own ancestral history by bringing the world's attention to the often unknown world of the Chinese immigrant in Jamaica.

Young Pao is introduced to his new life in his new country by Zhang, the man who has paid for Pao's mother's passage to the West Indies after the death of Pao's father. Zhang is a combination godfather and wise man in the underworld of Jamaica's Chinatown. He raises Pao to follow his footsteps and Pao, who has little formal schooling, learns his lessons of life on the city streets.

As Pao narrates, the reader sees him as a rather serious, contemplative man for whom toughness does not seem to come naturally, but rather as a symptom of circumstance. Like all of Young's characters, Pao is strong, memorable, and easy for the reader to relate to. In just 270 pages, we follow most of Pao's life. We see him as a child, as a teenager, a young man, a middle-aged man, and as an elder. Although multigenerational novels are hard to do in short manuscripts, Young seems to succeed, and what we end up seeing in Pao is a totally "round" character, one who transforms and changes in many ways through the pages of the book.

Kerry Young creates memorable characters: Zhang as the wise man, Pao as the always musing good "bad" boy, Cecily, the African Jamaican married to a Chinese man who rules over her privileged household and holds insecurities to herself, and Gloria, the bright, loving, practical, and very vital prostitute who creates a balance in Pao's life.

For those interested in British Colonialism and West Indian history, particularly around the issues of independence in former British colonies, Pao offers interesting insights. With a flavor of historical fiction, Young brings her characters' lives in line with the years of British colonialsim through independence, taking us on a ride through the administrations of Bustamante, Manley, and Seaga. She does not burden the reader with too much information; there's just enough to set the stage and get the reader to thinking about the political scene going on around Pao's personal narrative.

Pao is an excellent book about a little-written-about group - the Jamaican Chinese, a group that some readers may be discovering for the first time. Young left her homeland of Jamaica when she was just ten years old, but she is able to conjure up the flavor and feel of the country and give us not only wonderful characters that we will hold in our mind for a long time but also a real view and sense of the country that is Jamaica. For both lovers of West Indian literature and those who have never been exposed to it, this book is highly recommended.