Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Headmaster's Wager: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Headmaster's Wager: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Headmaster's Wager: A Novel
    Audiobook15 hours

    The Headmaster's Wager: A Novel

    Written by Vincent Lam

    Narrated by Feodor Chin

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From Giller Prize winner, internationally acclaimed, and bestselling author Vincent Lam comes a superbly crafted, highly suspenseful, and deeply affecting novel set against the turmoil of the Vietnam War.

    Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon. He is also a bon vivant, a compulsive gambler and an incorrigible womanizer. He is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of the Chen Academy. He is fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, and quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, choosing instead to read the faces of his opponents at high-stakes mahjong tables. But when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage, and Laing Jai, a son born to them on the eve of the Tet offensive. Percival's new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further and further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see.

    Blessed with intriguingly flawed characters moving through a richly drawn historical and physical landscape, The Headmaster's Wager is a riveting story of love, betrayal and sacrifice.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 14, 2012
    ISBN9780449808283
    Unavailable
    The Headmaster's Wager: A Novel
    Author

    Vincent Lam

    Dr. Vincent Lam was born in London, Ontario, and studied medicine in Toronto where he is now an emergency physician. Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures was awarded the 2006 Giller Prize for fiction, making him the youngest writer ever to have won the prize. His work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Carve. Lam’s family is from the expatriate Chinese community of Vietnam, and his first novel, a multigenerational family saga set in Saigon during the Vietnam War, is forthcoming from Weinstein Books. Lam lives with his family in Toronto.

    Related to The Headmaster's Wager

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Rattling The Cage

      Oct 10, 2021

      Rattling The Cage
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Roush Review

      Mar 12, 2020

      The Roush Review
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Place To Grow

      Feb 7, 2021

      A Place To Grow
      1 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Feb 17, 2020

      It’s been a while since I’ve been completely blown away by a novel. Ocean Vuong’s devastatingly beautiful first offering is the coming-of-age story of Little Dog, a Vietnamese immigrant in the US. Framed as a letter from a writer in his 20s to his il

      5 min read

    • Article

      Best Of Bing E TV

      Mar 29, 2020

      Starring Steve Buscemi and featuring a jazzy soundtrack, this gritty Prohibition-era drama follows a politician who meddles in local affairs, bootlegging and other criminal activities. Julia Roberts stars in this psychological thriller about a woma

      5 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Dec 15, 2023

      Books
      4 min read

    • Article

      Red Dragon Rising

      Mar 28, 2022

      Seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994. She knows no word of English, but she knows that the Chinese word for America is “Mei Guo,” which means “beautiful country.” However, the America she sees is far from the imagined idea: her parent

      3 min read

    • Article

      Book Reviews

      Oct 11, 2016

      by Eowyn Ivey Published by Headline Publishing ISBN 9781472208613 $32.99 Eowyn Ivey’s latest novel is set in the harsh, life-threatening landscape of Alaska during the late nineteenth century. The desolate country that follows the Wolverine River nor

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Villain Of The Piece

      Dec 30, 2020

      HAVING unleashed a much-debated list of heroes out into the world (December 16/23), we come to the really juicy competition: the 50 greatest film villains of all time. The same rules apply—animated characters and super-villains can quibble over who’s

      6 min read

    • Article

      Haunted History

      Oct 10, 2021

      In Violet Kupersmith’s immersive debut novel, Build Your House Around My Body, snakes and ghosts form an integral part of the plot. Serpents stir in rubber-tree plantations in the countryside, spirits possess the bodies of fluffy dogs, and both are i

      2 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Oct 6, 2022

      Growing up in 1973, Eleanor's home was strained by sorrow and the echoes of war that silenced her parents. And always her mother, Kitty's, bitterness, twisting and poisoning everything she touched. She thought she knew what made her parents this way…

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Favourite

      Dec 28, 2018

      The Favourite
      5 min read

    • Article

      THE Books You Should Have On Your To-read List.

      Dec 11, 2019

      ★★★★★ ELTON JOHN has had an incredible career. Earlier this year his life story made its way to the big screen in the form of Hollywood blockbuster Rocketman, but fans can get an even more detailed account of the rocker’s fabulous (and sometimes not-

      1 min read

    • Article

      'What We Were Promised' Depicts Post-Mao China In A Deft Debut Novel Set In Shanghai

      Jul 13, 2018

      Set against a contemporary global backdrop, Tan explores the timeless servant-master class conflict.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Truth, Forgiveness, And Exploration: 10 Best September Reads

      Sep 26, 2023

      1 The Fraudby Zadie Smith Zadie Smith’s historical novel about the notorious Victorian-era case of an Australian butcher claiming to be a long-missing heir to an English fortune raises ever-relevant questions about identity, class, bias, and how we s

      2 min read

    • Article

      Strained Relations

      Feb 11, 2022

      Strained Relations
      3 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Jun 10, 2022

      Inspired by real events, the New York Times bestselling author of The Warsaw Orphan returns with an unputdownable novel of a community torn apart when a former Nazi family moves into town to work on NASA’s space program For fans of the compulsive ps

      2 min read

    • Article

      ‘Absolution’ Asks If ‘Doing Good’ Can Cover For Lack Of Empathy

      Nov 1, 2023

      Alice McDermott is known for fiction that probes the lives of working- and middle-class Irish Catholic families in New York’s outer boroughs and Long Island. Her exquisitely observed stories of weddings, wakes, marriages, births, sorrows, and joys ar

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Best Fiction Books of 2019

      Nov 23, 2019

      The Best Fiction Books of 2019
      7 min read

    Reviews for The Headmaster's Wager

    4/5

    119 ratings19 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I thought this book was very well written and very interesting. I liked the setting of Vietnam before the war and after. The characters were intriguinf and well developed. Highly recommended
    • 5/5
      Vincent Lam’s masterful story about the Chinese experience in Vietnam from 1966 to 1975 is both an exploration of the dangers of nationalism and a testimony to the power of love. It captures how difficult it is to know how political/world events are going to end and what we can do to protect ourselves and those we love. I found it to be both captivating and heartbreaking.
    • 3/5
      A lot happened in this book, where to start? It took place over a few decades and even if a lot did not always happened to the character, then the world around him was re-shaped.

      Percival is the principal of an English school. Is he a good guy? Well what is a good guy? He is kind (sort of), he cares about his family and tries to make their lives better. But at the same time he spends a lot of time gambling and whoring. But I would call him a good guy, a naive stupid man who is neither good or bad. Just human.

      He leaves China when the Japanese comes. Then they come to Vietnam too (damn war is evil!). He marries, he has a son. He finds his father. The French, the Americans and later the Northern Army all fight over Vietnam (arghh I do not get communists! Fair, fair? There is nothing such as equal rights with them.) Yes this is a country that sees war, but it's not always present. He manages to stay away from much of it. But we do get a taste of the brutalities too.

      Other people we get to know is his son, his ex-wife, who was a sort of a harpy but I liked her. Teacher Mak, Percival's mistress and many more. It's not a happy book so all of these wont be happy in the end. I felt sorry of the country, and of the people, and all the metisse children. But war and shaping a new country is never easy. It's bloody, horrible and disgusting.

      I did come to realize that I know way too little of this era. Mostly cos what I know has been shaped through US eyes. And here we get the view of a Chinese man, who does not have it easy either as he is not liked either.

      An interesting story
    • 3/5
      Set during Vietnam War, which is interesting. Main character, Percival Chen is Chinese who follows his father to Saigon/ Cholon. Both come to Vietnam as to the Golden Mountain, Percival's goal to make money but not integrate into Vietnamese society or politics. Noted as a flawed character loosely based on the author's grandfather, he remained for me largely unsympathetic as he tries so hard to remain focused solely on his own immediate family & concerns & not the war or the Vietnamese themselves, toward whom he feels superior. My main quibble with the novel, however, is not so much that but more that the author goes over the top in his laying on of one horrific or tragic event after another. All that happens surely happened in Vietnam/ Saigon during the war & China during the Cultural Revolution (going on at same time in China) but in terms of the novel, it creates unnecessary & depleting melodrama when concentrated within one small family circle.
    • 4/5
      Percival Chan sets up an English language school in Saigon during the Vietnam war. His assistant turns out to be a Viet Cong operative who sets up graduates of the school as spies for the Americans that they translate for. Percival is naive about Mak's scheme and just stays in the business to milk as much tuition from his students as he can. Some interesting plot twists involve his son's Vietnamese love interest, and his sending his son back to China during the Cultural Revolution to avoid the South Vietnamese draft. Oops! Percival somehow comes out, although not without ample pain and suffering. But he is so interested in amassing wealth that he doesn't consider the volatile political situation going on around him.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book very much. The story moves along well and gave me a sense of what was is like from the perspectives of different segments of the population. There are many layers of history and culture here, showing what it can take to survive in a war zone. It gave me a context for the arrival of the "boat people" in Canada; an understaning of the "wagers" they had to make over and over again to secure the safety of themselves and their families.Vincent Lam writes well, and displays a deep understanding of human nature. Percival Chen was greedy, arrogant, but also fiercel loyal to his children. I developed sympathy for this character through his back story, and seeing the impact the father's actions had on him.
    • 5/5
      In this magnificently ambition tale a politically naïve Percival Chen, the headmaster of a successful English academy in 1960s Saigon believes in the superiority of his Chinese heritage and the value bribes are the keys to his success. After all this has worked with past conquerors, the Japanese, the French and the Americans–no matter how temporary their stay but being oblivious to the newest player for control will challenge Percival beyond his nightmares. I was captivated by this book from the beginning and held spellbound to the last paragraph by the Lam’s storytelling ability to intertwine the history/connection of Vietnam, China, Hong Kong and the foreigners. This was an audio book for me and the narrator effectively conveyed the tension, arrogance, love, and betrayals.I believe part of the appeal of this book for me can also be contributed to my recent trip to China and Hong Kong and reading the wonderful book, “Ghost Month” by Ed Lin helping me to appreciate the complexly layered history of this region.Lam has crafted a gripping masterpiece that captures a street-level view of the complexity of a world where one misstep can lead to an unraveling of all that you hold dear. I recommend this book to readers of historical fiction.
    • 4/5
      Canadian author Vincent Lam is the son of ex-pats Chinese from Vietnam.This book, set in an ex-pat Chinese community just outside of what was then Saigon, South Vietnam, in 1968, is beautifully written and engaged me from the first page onward. The author skillfully conveyed the tension and uncertainty of living in a country at war, and invaded by hordes of outsiders (French, American, Communist North Vietnamese.) Even the ending of the book, which at first dismayed me, vividly depicted the uncertainty of the situation for those of non-pure Vietnamese origin after the collapse of the South Vietnamese government.Warnings: a couple of (really, unnecessary) sex scenesRead this if: you’ve ever wanted to understand just what made the Vietnamese “boat people” desperate enough to flee into certain danger throughout the late 60s and during the 1970s; or you’d like a better understanding of the Vietnam War, from the point of view of South Vietnamese civilians. 4 stars
    • 5/5
      Vincent Lam’s masterful story about the Chinese experience in Vietnam from 1966 to 1975 is both an exploration of the dangers of nationalism and a testimony to the power of love. It captures how difficult it is to know how political/world events are going to end and what we can do to protect ourselves and those we love. I found it to be both captivating and heartbreaking.
    • 4/5
      3.5 starsPercival is a Chinese man living in Vietnam during the war. He runs an English school, and he longs to go home to China. When his son is arrested and later released, Percival arranges to have his son sent to China so that he’ll be safe. As Percival moves on with his life with Vietnemese-French woman Jacqueline, he worries about his son.This one started really slowly for me. It went back and forth in time, and with a few characters having both Chinese and English names, I was slightly confused, initially. Once we got about a third of the way into the book (and mostly, those characters with multiple names were known by their English names), it picked up for me. This was about the time Percival’s son was son was sent away – or maybe when he was arrested. Anyway, it really picked up for me. There were some parts that were more political that I wasn’t as interested in. I know next-to-nothing about the Vietnam War, so initially I felt like that also made it a bit harder to follow the story, but again, it seemed to get clearer as the book went along. Overall, I’m rating it “good”.
    • 5/5
      You may remember Vincent Lam from his well-reviewed collection a few years back called Bloodletting and Other Miraculous Cures.

      His debut novel, THE HEADMASTER’S WAGER, is a quietly astounding work of fiction that deserves as wide a readership as it can get.

      The majority of the novel takes place in Saigon as the war raging in the countryside comes closer to the city. This rich backdrop is revealed through the eyes and actions of a Chinese businessman living in a predominantly Chinese neighborhood. Percival Chen’s English school is successful thanks to backroom dealings he doesn’t fully understand. His family is fractured and troubled. He is a gambler and a philanderer, but despite (or maybe because of) his flaws he is a perfect –if sometimes hapless- mirror for this troubled and complex setting. I love this novel.
    • 5/5
      The Headmaster's Wager by Vincent Lam is a great page turner. The story of Percival Chen, an expatriate Chinese, the headmaster of the best English academy in Viet Name, is fascinating. The protagonist is well developed with many characteristics, a dutiful son and loving father, an educator who believes in fate and worships ancestral spirits, and a lucky gambler. The plot intrigues the reader. Percival's life is full of dramatic moments: a student in Hong Kong flees the Sino-Japanese war to Vietnam with his newlywed wife; an expat wants to return to China, but never gets a chance; a risk taker saves his son arrested by the "quite" police; as a target of the Viet Cong, the headmaster narrowly escapes from being murdered because of the birth of his son/grandson; he loves Jacqueline, a métisse, but can't marry her; he eagerly has his teenaged son smuggler into China at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution to avoid him from being enlisted in the Southern Vietnamese army, but wants him to return home badly. His loyal friend has to torture him in order to help him. A lot of suspense and surprises are built in the storyline and makes the reader want to know: Does his son return from China? Can Jacqueline and her son flee the Viet Gong's takeover?Percival's refusal of learning the Vietnamese language and teaching the language in his school after living in Vietnam for a long time rings true sadly. The novel covers the Vietnam War era, but from an inside angle. Percival's life is damaged by the Viet Cong and has to find a way out of there. The open ending does not only gives the reader room to imagine, but also hints for another interesting novel.:-) I'm looking forward to it.
    • 4/5
      Actually, the headmaster made quite a few wagers, most of them not especially wise. This story of a Chinese headmaster of an English school in Vietnam, set mainly during the 60's turmoil, took awhile to engage me, but once I was hooked, I found it quite powerful.It continues to horrify me how barbarically we can treat one another, and the years of the Vietnam war were especially brutal. This novel doesn't pull punches, but it is not about the soldiers out in the jungle, it's about everyday life for a stubborn expatriate when everything in his world is changing.Headmaster Chen isn't much interested in politics other than how those in charge can be bribed, how the “red envelopes” that he gives so freely can grease the tracks for his sumptuous life, how he can improve his status. He isn't especially likeable, isn't as clever as he seems to think he is, and initially, it is a little hard to care about him. But I did. Despite his shortcomings, he is loyal. He would do anything for his son, although he doesn't show much affection.Mak, his wiser companion, does his best to keep him on the right track.As with any good novel, there are multiple twists and turns. The writing is string, straightforward, not florid. The matter-of-fact telling of the story gives strength to it. While I thought, after the first 25 or so pages, that I wouldn't like this book, in the end I found it to be one of those that will stay with me.I was given an advance reader's copy of the book for review.
    • 4/5
      Very few people have to gamble over and over again in their lives for personal survival but also for the survival of their families but that is exactly what Percival Chen the main character of this book has to do. He is a Chinese national living in Viet Nam during the war of the same name. He has to walk a fine line between the capitalist, American backed government and the Communist insurgents who threaten violence to those not sympathetic to then. Mr Chen has to make a series of decisions (wagers) and if he doesn't play his cards right disaster will be a sure outcome. There are quite a few interesting plot twists and the book is well written.
    • 5/5
      "From then on, Percival took the hoard of metal out of the safe at night and slept with it under his mattress. This required two trips up the stairs, lugging one valise each time. He kept the pistol under his pillow. Two weeks after the meeting in the hut, the night before an ancestor worship day, Percival dreamt of his father. It was an old dream from his childhood, one of flying. They soared high over a cold, jagged peak. It was the Gold Mountain for which Chen Kai had abandoned his home, a mass of sharp glittering angles and dagger crags of lustrous wealth. Percival congratulated his father on his success, but bragged that he himself would become yet more wealthy. Even as Chen Kai nodded with approval, saying that a son must surpass the father, Percival began to fall from the sky. His power of flight was gone. He hurtled towards the ground, calling out in terror to his father, but falling alone to be impaled by gold shards." — Chapter 7"The big Peugeot floated through the streets, and Percival reflected on his luck at winning it back. The Americans were close to giving them the special certification, Mak had recently reported, and good luck came in threes. The Sun Wah Hotel was just a few blocks away. The proceeds of the money circle sat in an envelope next to Percival. It was due at the Teochow Clan Association by the end of the next day. In the glancing headlights, a girl's smile flashed, plucked out of darkness. Others walked nearby. Through his fluid cognac haze, he saw their light steps, their slender thighs quick in darkness. If nothing else, this war had brought miniskirts to Saigon". — Chapter 9 This is one of those books that connected with me on such a deep level, that it is difficult for me to explain why I loved it so much. It is not by any means a happy story with likeable characters. In fact, it takes place at a time and place plagued by bitter conflict and brutality: Vietnam during the 60s and 70s. The novel's protagonist is a deeply flawed man who prefers to hold on to his old, outdated mode of thinking and his unrealistic ideals rather than allowing even a glimpse of reality to sink in, so that I was sometimes tempted to shake him by the neck to snap him out of his stupor. He has the arrogance to believe he is the master of the little world he inhabits, while willingly ignoring the forces that have the power to take it all away. He is a man who can love deeply, but who's attempts at filling a great void might impel him to quite literally gamble everything away. Yet there is also charm here, with glimpses of a beautiful place; Vincent Lam paints sceneries with his words that are so vivid, I sometimes had the impression I was watching it all happen before my eyes. And not least of all, there is the presence of a woman who beguiles us, who cannot do otherwise than make the reader fall a little bit in love with her.Percival Chen would probably define himself first and foremost by his Chinese heritage, which identity informs his every decision. He is also a businessman, a father, a gambler and womanizer, and the owner of the Percival Chen English Academy, located in Cholon, Vietnam. Born in China, he has always fervently held on to his Chinese values and culture, which he has scrupulously handed down to his son, Dai Jai. Percival's own father established what became a thriving business in Cholon, and built a large and well appointed residence, Chen Hap Sing, which also accommodated storerooms for the rice he made his fortune on. Now in Percival's hands, Chen Hap Sing houses his English Academy, which is run with the help of one of the teachers he employs, his friend Mak. Through a network of mysterious contacts Mak maintains and the discreet bribes he hands out to the authorities, Mak is instrumental in ensuring that the academy keeps it's elite status, making it a highly profitable enterprise.The story takes off in 1966, when an official new directive is given that every school must include Vietnamese language in it’s curriculum. The Vietnam war is raging and tensions are high, and Percival's refusal to make this concession will have far-reaching consequence. When Dai Jai, wanting to make his father proud gets in trouble with the local authorities and is put in detention, Percival rightfully fears for his son's life when it is suspected he is being kept at the National Police Headquarters, where prisoners are routinely tortured and put to death. As usual relying on Mak and his connections, Percival is willing to pay any price to free his son. An anonymous contact is found; he may be able to rescue the young man, a nearly impossible mission, but demands an extortionary fee. With no other options and time being of essence Percival empties his coffers and borrows heavily against the value of his property to ensure Dai Jai's safety. But following his rescue, the authorities are still hell-bent on making an example of Dai Jai, and Percival sees no other choice than to send him away, once again having to rely on highly costly contacts and incurring yet more debt. Dai Jai is to go to China, where Percival is absolutely certain he belongs, against his ex-wife's better judgment. He has always focused solely on making money in order to finance his taste for gambling and whores, choosing to ignore the political turmoil that surrounds him. Therefore, Percival has no notion that in the re-baptized People's Republic of China, sons of businessmen and landowners are prime targets for punishing measures, once again firmly holding on to his romanticized memory of a homeland he left long ago and where he likes to think he will join Dai Jai eventually. With his son gone and Mak taking over the administration of the school, the lure of gambling as a means to pay off his debts proves impossible to resist, and before long Percival is spending all his spare time playing high-stakes mah-jong tournaments, where alcohol and beautiful women add fuel to his obsession. When he first sees the exquisite Jacqueline at a casino, he is willing to risk all his gains for one night of pleasure with the splendid creature, never imagining for a moment the consequences such an encounter will have for him and everyone he holds dearest. All the while, as the war gets fiercer day by day and the fall of Saigon becomes imminent, Percival is far from suspecting the harsh realities he will eventually be forced to face.Might there be hope for a sequel? Probably unlikely, but I will certainly look forward to Vincent Lam's next literary effort.
    • 5/5
      Percival Chen is the Chinese headmaster of an English school in Saigon. He was forced to leave his beloved China when the Japanese invaded in the 1930's and he chose to flee to Vietnam where there were rumors of abundance despite the wartime austerity elsewhere in Asia and because his own father had long since gone to Vietnam to find his fortune. With him, Chen Pie Sou, renamed Percival by the English teachers in Hong Kong, took his new wife Cecelia, a woman with whom he had long been in love but who resents the fact that this lower class man is her only means of escape from the very real threat of atrocities. Many years later, in Cholon, the Chinese section just outside of Saigon, Percival is thriving as the headmaster of the school he and his closest friend, Teacher Mak, founded in the former rice warehouse of his father; he and Cecelia are divorced; and he is raising their only son Dai Jai very strictly in accordance with his Chinese heritage. Percival has amassed quite a lot of money and he never hesitates to use it to his and the school's advantage. His political affiliations are fluid and flexible depending on just who holds the power in the rapidly changing city. He ignores the civil war raging in the country and focuses instead on catering to those who can most help him line his own pockets. He is a gambler, both in mah jong and other games of chance but also with his life and livelihood. When sixteen year old Dai Jai makes a show of resistance, refusing to take Vietnamese language classes as the new educational edict requires (and despite the fact that Dai Jai as a Vietnam-born Chinese is fluent in the language, even having a Vietnamese girlfriend), Percival's life starts to change and his blithe indolence comes face to face with the reality of what we in the West call the Vietnam War and the brutal personalities created and elevated by war. Percival adores his son and with the help of Teacher Mak, he spirits Dai Jai out of Vietnam, sending him back to China just in time to suffer the excesses of Mao's Cultural Revolution, not that Percival knows this. Once Dai Jai is gone, Percival must settle the enormous debts he accrued in rescuing his boy and in one of the riskiest bets he's made so far, he wins an enormous amount of money and an introduction to a beautiful metisse (half Vietnamese half French) woman whom he makes his mistress. As the war gets ever closer to Saigon, Percival finds solace in the arms of the beautiful Jacqueline, he trusts in his colleague Mak, and he continues to use the school to further his own desires without regard to the worsening political climate and ever advancing war. Readers with even a passing familiarity with the timeline of the Vietnam War will know by the dates heading each section of the book just how dangerous Percival's deliberate obtuseness about the war is growing and they will tense in anticipation of the blows that must historically come. This is a very different look at the Vietnam War though, neither from the Vietnamese perspective or the American perspective but from an ex-pat Chinese man who, despite having lived in the country for so long, feels no unity with the local people, feels that this war is not his and that he and his family can stay outside the conflict, spending money to maintain their neutrality and without understanding the complete and total loyalty to them that the prevailing regime expects. In fact, the reader has to sympathize with Percival, who despite being a gambler, does not recognize that the stakes have changed and that his hand is no longer high. This is a multi-layered, pleasingly complex tale with fantastic characterizations, unexpected but believable plot twists, and a firm grounding in the attitudes of the foreign-born people populating the Saigon of the time. Race, divided loyalties, the covert nature of war, calculated and foolish risk, and love are all woven masterfully throughout the narrative. Thoroughly engrossing, this is a novel the reader will find hard to put down and even harder to walk away from even after closing the back cover of the novel, continuing to speculate on Percival Chen's biggest wager of all. What you can bet on with this novel is that you'll be glad to have read it and will definitely recommend it to other thoughtful readers who appreciate a well-crafted, riveting tale.
    • 5/5
      Almost exactly five years ago, I was introduced to Victor Lam’s writing through his short story collection, Bloodletting and Other Miraculous Cures. That twelve-story collection, featuring four Canadian medical students in various combinations, reads very much like a novel in itself. Now, however, Lam has written a very different book, The Headmaster’s Wager, a remarkable family saga that officially marks his transition from short story writer to novelist. (Vincent Lam is also an emergency room doctor and a University of Toronto lecturer.)In the novel, Lam uses his own family history as inspiration to explore the experiences of Vietnam’s Chinese expatriate community over the course of recent Vietnamese history. The reader will, through the eyes of Headmaster Percival Chen, live through the 1940 Japanese invasion of Vietnam, the French colonial period, and the long war against the United States that would split the country in two. Percival will also know firsthand the Japanese occupation of China, his home country, and will feel the pain of responsibility for what his only son endures there during Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution.Percival Chen is owner and headmaster of the Percival Chen English Academy housed in his former family home in Cholon, a largely Chinese-populated section of Saigon. Percival, now divorced, lives above the school with his only son where a staff of servants attends to their daily needs. Percival’s father earned the family fortune in the lucrative rice trade, but due to the vagaries of war (and the suggestion of a close friend), Percival now dedicates himself to qualifying students for translation jobs with the American government and military. His is the most respected English-language school in the country, and it easily supports the headmaster’s reckless lifestyle.Percival Chen is a gambling man. Little bets, big bets, bets that might cost him his business or his life; it is all the same to him. A man of large appetites, he is well known at the city’s high-stakes mahjong tables and to the high-end prostitutes introduced by Mrs. Ling. Despite his recklessness, the school thrives, but Percival would never admit even to himself that his success is largely due to the connections of a teacher who is also his best friend, Mr. Mak. Mr. Mak is an organizer, a Vietnamese with the business contacts, government contacts, and contacts within the structure of the Vietnamese secret police to ensure the success of the Percival Chen English Academy. And he uses those contacts to make good things happen.Finally, hardly realizing it, Percival makes the biggest wager of his life. Win or lose, his family’s survival now depends on one final spin of the wheel by the headmaster.The Headmaster’s Wager is a memorable debut novel, a piece of historical fiction within which the reader will become completely immersed. Like Percival Chen, pity him, or despise him, this story of the love between a father and his son will not be soon forgotten. Rated at: 5.0
    • 4/5
      This was an amazing and original take on a historical novel because it is told from the viewpoint of a Chinese schoolteacher in Vietnam. Percival is a gambler, a womanizer, oblivious and frustratingly obtuse, yet I could not quite dislike him because he was also loyal. He seems to think that as long as he makes money that he can pay out for bribes the changing sides in Vietnam, the tension from the war do not matter and that business just can go on a usual no matter who is in charge. The cultural revolution is changing the face of China and when he is forced to send his son there he is rather oblivious to that as well. Things do come to a head and he is forced, rather brutally to wake up before it is too late, although for some it was and he almost looses everything. All this is told against a backdrop of a rapidly changing history, but it is also a novel featuring some unique characters. I really liked this novel and look forward to reading more from this author.
    • 5/5
      The above review by CozyLittleBookJournal echoes my thoughts exactly. Vincent Lam has written a powerful, vivid, heartbreaking and haunting novel that I can't recommend enough.