Despite having wanting to see the movie version of this book for months, I really had little idea what the story was about. This was a book club pick, so is not on my list of bookshelf books, although it's there now, since I actually had to buy it, the waiting list at the library was too long.
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham would be a comedy of manners, except it is no comedy. In fact, everything that can go wrong, does. Kitty fails to make a good marriage, so marries a suitor who will marry her before her sister's marriage. She takes a lover, who ultimately does not stand up for her and her husband, as payback, takes her to the heart of a cholera epidemic in a Chinese village. Death and destruction abound, but while the book was easy to read (at just 250 pages, it is a two night read), I felt nothing for any of the characters and regarded them all as superficial people. And perhaps that was the intent. The book takes place at the height of British colonialism, and through one of the characters, Maugham makes a point of declaring that the British can live anywhere, and have no connection to their homeland. Each of the characters looks out for his or her own person, without regard for others and their physical location-- whether England, Hong Kong, a small village or the Bahamas, the location is incidental and once the "job is done" the location and people connected with it are useless.
I guess I was hoping for a little more romance, but when I look deeper, the book could be transposed to many situations in present day.
Netflix rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
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