"Faith Fox," and Other Fiction by Jane Gardam

Jane Gardam is the kind of author, somewhat well-known but not famous, at least in the United States (the Baltimore Sun opines that "Jane Gardam has been a secret too well kept from American readers"), that a reader who discovers her is knocked over by her originality, astringent tone, and incisiveness. Her most famous books are a trilogy of novels ("Old Filth," "The Man in the Wooden Hat," and "Last Friends") that is set in British colonial and then postcolonial locales, such as, in particular, Hong Kong. The stories travel back and forth in the history of the main characters. The books focus on the British expatriates who served in various capacities in the countries of the British Empire, including their individual histories before such service and their years of reminiscences afterward. The main characters are Edward Feathers, his wife Betty, and her secret lover Terry Veneering. Each of the three books focuses on one of these three characters, but all three circle around the same events from their various perspectives. The characters and plot are of great interest, and even more so in the context of this fraught colonial enterprise. (This latter is perhaps of particular personal interest to me, since my childhood was spent as an expat in the barely postcolonial period in India.) All of this is to say that after reading this trilogy some years ago, I read a few more of Gardam's novels (see my posts of 3/8/10, 6/3/12, 6/22/13, 9/19/14, 1/8/18), always with great interest and admiration. I have just read her 1996 novel, "Faith Fox" (Carroll and Graf), which its front flap calls a comedy of manners. I agree that it is, but it is more than that. The characters are expertly portrayed, and the story is full of humor, yes, but also pathos. I don't feel that this novel quite compares with the brilliance and depth of the (published slightly later) "Old Filth" trilogy, but the intentions of the author for the two books were clearly different. I highly recommend all of Gardam's books that I have read, including "Faith Fox," but the "Old Filth" novels are the pinnacle of her brilliant writing.