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The House of Doors

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The way Tan Twan Eng deftly weaves in some elements of Maugham's style so that it almost sounds like a pastiche and adds some elements from Maugham's books, some of the realia, is just extraordinary. Since I've started The Casuarina Tree, a collection of Maugham's short stories set mostly in Malaysia, which inspired The House of Doors, I appreciate Tan Twan Eng's talent even more. Not just talent. How much work, time and research must have gone into this novel and, at the same time, it seems so effortless, so understated, so smooth, so subtle. This is, indeed, a novel of many doors – perhaps a couple too many. The title refers to the literal kind: the ancient Chinese doors collected by the revolutionary Chinese lover of Lesley Hamlyn, Somerset Maugham’s fictional English host, and stored in the house in downtown Penang in which the couple meet. There's much to be said about Eng's ability to craft a scene, especially the vivid settings and descriptions of nature. Though the novel as a whole seems to fall into many of the tropes of historical fiction, he does excel in rendering a location or crafting a rich environment within which his characters reside.

From the bestselling, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Garden of Evening Mists, a spellbinding novel about love and betrayal, colonialism and revolution, storytelling and redemption.

The House Of Doors is the 2nd novel I’ve read by Tan Twan Eng in less than a year. It proved to be a disadvantage vis a vis my reaction toward this book since it followed the wonderful The Garden of Evening Mists. As a result, I only gave this novel 4 stars although it might have received more if I had not read his better novel first.

Conversations with Willie: Recollections of W. Somerset Maugham by Robin Maugham (W. H. Allen, 1978) The novel was inspired by the short story called Letter, which can be read in the Cassowary Tree collection. Also, if you read this novel, you will probably wonder how Maugham’s symbol looks like. The Gentleman in the Parlour: A Record of a Journey from Rangoon to Haiphong by W. Somerset Maugham (William Heinemann, 1930) Writing for NPR, Heller McAlpin described the work as "a paean to the art of transforming life experiences into literature". With McAlpin further commending Tan's ambitious creativity in interpreting Maugham's works in a new literary piece. [3] Writing for The Financial Times, Michael Arditti describes the novel as "expertly constructed, tightly plotted and richly atmospheric." [4] With three-dimensional memorable characters ….Eng’s depiction of their relationships— particularly between Lesley and Willie is masterly.The House of Doors is based on true events, and is partly drawn from a Malaysian murder case in 1911. What was it about the story that captivated you, and made you want to base a novel around it? The book tells of a fictionalized account of William Somerset Maugham's travels through the Federated Malay States in the 1920s. While in Penang, Maugham and Gerald Haxton, who is ostensibly his travelling secretary but is actually his lover, stay with Maugham's friend Robert Hamlyn. Robert and his wife Lesley are British expatriots living in the Federated Malay States. While staying with the Hamlyns, Maughan develops a friendship with Lesley. The year is 1921. Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, a lawyer and war veteran, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When “Willie” Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert's, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could alter more lives than one. The second point of view is the voice of W Somerset Maugham, the writer who spent most of his life away from Britain writing his own fiction about people he met on his travels. The novel was longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize and listed among notable fiction works in 2023 by The Washington Post and The Financial Times.

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