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A review by ovenbird_reads
The Headmaster's Wager by Vincent Lam
5.0
I, embarassingly, knew nothing about the political struggles and wars in Vietnam during the 60s and 70s or anything about its history of foreign occupation. Not knowing much of anything made this book a bit challenging as it is set against the backdrop of Vietnam's troubled past as well as the rise of Mao in China.
Despite some confusion caused by my political ignorance this was an extraordinary book that traces the life of Percival Chen from his childhood in China where he is abandoned by his fortune seeking father, through his doomed marriage to a wealthy classmate, on to his new life in Vietnam where he makes his own fortunes but suffers immensely in his personal life. This is a story about gambling everything away for love. It's about what the heart will wager to cling that which is more important than any sum of money in the world--family. It is a book with political intrigue, betrayals, and torture of the mind and body. It is about love so deep that anything might be sacrificed on its altar.
Don't expect to come out of this book unscathed. The amount of suffering packed into this book (fairly long as it is) begins to wear the reader down. There were times when I thought I couldn't go on as the tragedies piled up so high I thought I might drown in them myself. But I developed such an attachment to the protagonist that I was compelled to see him through, and know his eventual fate. Along the way I learned some things about the history of Vietnam and China as I silently begged for an ending that would include some redemption and peace.
Despite some confusion caused by my political ignorance this was an extraordinary book that traces the life of Percival Chen from his childhood in China where he is abandoned by his fortune seeking father, through his doomed marriage to a wealthy classmate, on to his new life in Vietnam where he makes his own fortunes but suffers immensely in his personal life. This is a story about gambling everything away for love. It's about what the heart will wager to cling that which is more important than any sum of money in the world--family. It is a book with political intrigue, betrayals, and torture of the mind and body. It is about love so deep that anything might be sacrificed on its altar.
Don't expect to come out of this book unscathed. The amount of suffering packed into this book (fairly long as it is) begins to wear the reader down. There were times when I thought I couldn't go on as the tragedies piled up so high I thought I might drown in them myself. But I developed such an attachment to the protagonist that I was compelled to see him through, and know his eventual fate. Along the way I learned some things about the history of Vietnam and China as I silently begged for an ending that would include some redemption and peace.