Jack Flowers, saint or sinner, found a new lease on
life when he jumped off the Allegro in the Straits
of Malacca, caught a passing bumboat to Singapore
and got a job as a water-clerk to a Chinese ship
chandler. Soon he executed a brilliant idea, which
resulted in his fame throughout the Far East - -
work which Jack likens to that of an idealistic
missionary. He continues to offer girls (indeed
“anything, anything at all”) to tourists, sailors,
residents and expatriates. In due course, he starts
two establishments of his own -- ‘Dunroamin’ with
its Indian palm court orchestra, and Paradise
Gardens, a private hotel for American soldiers on
leave from Vietnam.
But Jack’s story is more than a detailed record
of pimping in the tropics. His 53 years weigh on him
and he dreams extravagantly of success. When Mr.
Leigh from Hong Kong shows up to do the accounts for
his employer, Jack sees many of his own yearnings in
the visiting Englishman. After a heady period of
hope, however, he is brought face to face with death
and a sense of his own failure. The shock persuades
him to agree to act as blackmailer for the faintly
sinister American, Edwin Shuck, in a plot against a
general from Vietnam. The outcome, which can hardly
be called a success, leaves Jack unscathed if not
entirely triumphant.
These outrageous confessions of an ingenious and
thoughtful con man admit the reader into the seedy
and unforgettable world of expatriates among
imperial ruins. |
