Review by HANS STRAUB
I got the distinct impression the book was more of a soft satire on English colonials in Shanghai. All of the incidents were familiar from other works about Shanghai during the attacks by the Japanese and the city's description is as I remember it in real life.
Christopher's naivete, his English decency, his one-dimensionality, are of a man in denial of the reality of the war. As such, he seems to be there to make a point. Christopher's mother comes across as more realistic than the diabolical uncle, weak father, yet she ends up a sex slave to a war lord like someone in a pulp fiction. As for romantic Sarah, a kind of groupie to the rich and famous, she also is stereotypical which, overall, may have been the author's intent. He plays with English stereotypes, enjoying them as characters now part of what remains of British cuture.