ejection is part of the writing process. Here's how it typically works: Writer is struck with a brilliant (always brilliant!) idea, sweats over each word for hours. polish es up the punctuation and grammar, and ships it off to a literary publication stamped \\1th the dream of S«eing her name on the printed page. Hopeful an ticipation is follo wed by no response or a response or•no.'
With the exception of select short stories sna tched up by shrewd editors. that's how it usually worked for Janice Lee '90- until she sold the rights to her first book nearly three years ago. In the aftermath of th e January 2009 publication of The Piano Teacher. Lee has found a new way to describe herS«If
' I feel less apologetic.' the author told Alumni Horae during an interview at her summer home in Water Mill. N.Y.• in July. 'I always felt apologetic about saying I had to work. After a while you stop telling people you're working on a novel becauS<l nobody knows what you're doing. Now they actually believe me:
In a big way
Lee's writing tal ent was revealed when The Pia riO Teacher - a romantic historical fiction sei in World War II Hong Kong - appeared noi only on bookshelves. but also camped out on the New York Times bestseller's list for weeks. Booksellers such as Borders recommend-ed lee's work atop suggested reading lists in electroni c news... letters to custo mers. The graceful back of the blond Englishwoman branded on the cover of the novel greeted r etail book shoppers at the front of the store all through the winter and ea rly spring
'I t was like my little private habit got outed and it became lhis thing that was actua lly real and people were going to read my bookt said Lee, a mother of four who lives with her husband and children i n Hong Kong fo r all but the summer mon ths.
A two- week Jan uary book tour rhat spa nned San Francisco to Boston to Milwaukee to Miami ('"ft's such a lit erate city!') kicked off Lee's entrance into the pub li shing spotlight. Tile Piano Tracllermade it s debut in the Netherlands and quick ly moved to th e States. sarnering reviews in publications from The New Yorker to E:lle, where Lee once worked - in her first job out of Harvard - as ,an assistant to the beauty editor. h has since been transl'aled into 23 1anguages - not bad for the product of an at>olo · get ic first ...time no\'elist. A second book tour is on tap for lhe novel's paperback release in January 20 10.
"The Piano Teacl•eris a beautifully IVJitten and gripping story that we are honored to be publishing; said a spokesperson from Penguin, Lee's publishing houS«. "It 's rare for a debut novel to hit the New l'ork Times bestseller's list. but Tile Piano Teacher did in hardcover and we have very high expectations that the paperback will bring it to a new level...
In writing The Piano Teacher. Lee educa ted herS«If and her readers about the under-reported impact of World War II on her home city The daughter of Korean parents who was educated at an American school in Hong Kong. Lee said that the impact of the war on the f01·mer British colony was not discussed in her formal education and is not generally taught in local Hong Kong schools. She spent countless hours engrosS«d in history books and r eviewing microfiche at the New York Publi c Ubrary, and. upon returning home in 2003 with her husband and children. took up residence in the Hong Kong University library.
The Piano Teacher did not begin as a war novel- or a novel at all, for that matter. It originated from an i mage Lee had of her own childhood piano teacher a British woman mu ch o lder than the novel's title character, Clai re.
"That 1osu al of the English piano teacher and an Asian student in Hong Kong s tu ck 11ith me and I started i magin · ing what kind of person this piano teacher could be.' she explained , noting that her image originall y produced a short story. "I started writing this story initial ly set in the 1970s because that's what I was fa milia r with . Then I started r eading about the war and realized there's not much out there about lhis period in Hong Kong that I had lived all my life and know anything about.'
In her research, which included everything from Hong Kong history books to memoirs to novels set in the 1940s. Lee uncover ed the lifestyle of a refined English high society that noated among the upper - crust circles of Hong Kong during the war. Her fascinat ion with the lime period led her to reset the story of th e upwardly mobi le Claire. her British l01•er Will, and his tragic former love. Trudy. "One of the most important books was Emily Hahn's China to Me." Lee said of the memoir by the American writer who lived in Ch ina and Hong Kong. '"She was a very smart. very wild. intelligent woman. To think that someonelikelhat had lil'ed at that lime was eye- opening to me. llh ink of the 40s and 50s as a very co nstrain ed time. Her book was great because it gave me a very specific part of society where! wanted my book to be Obviously the world in my book is notlhe world of 98
percent of Hong Kong, bu t she gave me insight into this party cultu r e and how they talked to each other, and Ihal was very valuable!'
The war. however. does not simply serve as a backdrop for a Jove story. but rather as a dominant historical setting tha t informs the characters' actions and illuminates their cou ntry's warti me plight. Lee explores the Japa neS<l occupation of Hong Kong and what thai meant for the thousands of British
including Mall Soule '77 and George Carli sle. ('I r eme mber Janice as a top writer. talen ted and conscie ntious: said Carlis le.) She contin ued to write short s tories infonmally t hroug.h Harvard and then more formally in graduate school at Hun ter College of New York.
The short st ory versi on of The Piano Tencl1er was well - re<:elved by jou rnal editors. who encouraged Lee by suggesting it 'seemed like part of something longer." more co mplete. (and other non - ChineS<l) expa tri ates usher ed Into internment camps.
-vou know In a vague sense that World War II happened and it affected Hong Kong. but I didn\ know lhe spedfics - Japan com ing in, the internment camps," she sald. •Jdidn't know what happened to the locals and how they moved back to Ch ina. It was edifying 10 me:
•Even local Chinese have told me they don't know a lot about the war," she con tinu ed. "Their pa r en ts don't talk to them. My parents don'l lalk about the Korean War, which they went through. I think ll's a thi ng or Asian parents that they don't really talk about the hardships. A lot of
It was like my
little private habit got outed and it became this t hing
that was actually real and people were going to read my book.
people have come up lome and said. 'I'm so glad yuuwrott about th is. My parents were in the wa r and I dldn1 know all lhey had gone through.'"
Her own Hong Kong Is much different. and she compares It to New York In terms of the differing versions of the city formed by locals and tourists. She admits that when friends come to visit. she onen has no Idea how to entertain them.
'A lot of the charm o( Hong Kong Is In the living oflt ." she explained. ' ! try to take people out of the city because most of Hong Kong Is not city and people don\ • eallze 11. !tis moun tains and hiking and the sea. People will come and li ve my life with me. That's what I want to show them about Hong Kong. ·
As a Sludent at St. Paul's. Lee was co-editor of the Sludentlllerary magazlne Horne Scholaslicac and received encouragemen t from her Engli sh teachers.
It look five years (during which lime she had fou r children and relocated fro m New York to Hong Kong) for Lee to pen the novel_ a character-driven tale wllh an ending tha t unfolded before her eyes only as she typed.
'"I'd been wanting to write a novel for a long lime and ! thought 'this is something I could actually lry.'' sa id Lee, who worked at an accelerated pace to finish the novel before t he birth of her twins. "The novel really developed through the characters. I knew they were al l part of the same Slory. bu t I did n't know how they were connected so as I wrote I was also discovering this stuff and i t was
revealed to me very slowly as well."
Lee dt!Scriood the suspensefu l process of her own writIng as 'tortu re" and said s he relied on sma ll epiphanies that sent her running for scrap paper (or Idea preservation. ' I a m jealous of people who have outli nes." she said. 'but I don\ think I cou ld ever write a novel that way. · N1>w that she Is no longer apologetic abou1 her day job, Lee Is time 1\ith her family, while tossing around •very" preliminary Ideas for her next wonc offlctlon She's also the movie rights to The Piano Teacher, which. through her vivid desctlpllon of the sweeping views of Hong Kong and the strlklng Eurasian woman. begs for conversion to the big screen. While Ihere's no need to apologize for forgoing socia l outings in favor of work. wllh the success of her debut novel a new word has lnse11ed Itself Into her vocabu lary
•There's a IOI of pressure !for Ihe next one! but I think you just have 10 put II out of your mind and just wrlle the boo k again; she said 'It's always there. hovering above you, but I'd rathe.· have that problem. I have been writing and I got so much rejection When you 're writing a book, you can '1ever write 11 to be a bestsell er. You write the book that's In yuu and people will like it. 11 S<lems like a very fo•1una te thing. ·