Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine

 

THE PIANO TEACHER

by Janice Y.K. Lee

ISBN: 978-0670020485

Author Janice Y.K. Lee was born in Hong Kong to Korean parents and lived there until she was 15 years old. She moved to New Hampshire for high school and attended Harvard College where she met her husband. Many know Lee as a former editor for Elle magazine, and they respect her writing and editing process.

Lee’s historical novel, The Piano Teacher, began as a short story about a Chinese girl and her English piano teacher. She expanded the story to include two wars and the story evolved from there.

The story is set in WWII Hong Kong and describes the lives of Claire Pendleton and Trudy Liang, who are in love with the same man, Will Truesdale, but they know him at completely different times in his life.

Trudy is a Eurasian beauty, the daughter of a Chinese father and a Portuguese mother. Her lover, Will, is inside the prison walls and she is on the outside trying to figure out how to live during war. The reader is immediately drawn to Trudy’s spirit for life and her story as it unfolds. Claire is a British girl who moved to Hong Kong in the 1950s with her civil engineer husband Martin. Claire takes a job as a piano teacher for the daughter of Victor and Melody Chen. Locket Chen is the daughter of wealthy and well-known parents who employ Will Truesdale as their driver. 

The story goes back and forth between 1941/1942 (WWII) and 1952 (Korean War). It is difficult to put the book down because each chapter leaves you wanting for more. The exotic setting of the novel is also the homeland of Lee, so her descriptions transport the reader to another place. I really enjoyed the back and forth telling of the story, first Claire and her dealings with the Chen family, and then the interesting tale of Trudy.

Lee’s publishing story is what many moms hope for. First, Lee completed the MFA program at Hunter College. Next, Lee received a summer residency from Yaddo, an artists’ colony, and found out that she was pregnant with her first child. Yaddo gave her the chance to organize her thoughts for The Piano Teacher. After she had her first child, she put away the book for a year, adjusting to her new life as a mother. Then she had another child and picked it up again. She next moved to Hong Kong where she became pregnant with twins, and knew she had to finish her manuscript. She sold it two months before she gave birth. She started the book when she had no children and by the end of it she had four children. But her dedication to writing should be a message to all moms – we can accomplish our dreams and still be mothers too. We may need to become more disciplined and write something down when we have a good idea, but writing is still possible.

 

 

Kathy Schlaeger is the Reviews Editor for Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine. She lives with her husband and three daughters near Cincinnati, Ohio. She writes for Cincinnati Parent, Cincinnati Woman and Senior Life publications.