The Pavilion in the Clouds
1938: not quite nine-year-old Bella Ferguson lives on a remote tea plantation in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) with her parents Henry and Virginia and her governess, Miss White. Bella is happy enough in her imaginative world with her dolls Li Po and Po Chu-i (named after two Chinese poets her mother reads to her in translation), but book-loving Virginia can’t help feeling vaguely threatened by the more intellectual Miss White. Those feelings are exacerbated by remarks she elicits from Bella about her father and her governess, especially after an accident that might not have been as accidental as it appears…
This is a very calm, pleasant read, despite the distant rumblings of unease at the rise of Fascism in Europe and Virginia’s sense that she and the other white plantation owners are interlopers who will be forced to leave, if they do not go voluntarily. Most of the historical novels I review are so unrelentingly dark or dramatic that it makes a nice change to read one with so many touches of gentle humour, particularly in Bella’s interactions with incomprehensible adults—what do they want her to do or say? —and the conversations she has with her dolls, both of whom have very distinct personalities.
The pace is gentle, too, though there is the frisson of possible dark undercurrents in the planters’ privileged lives, and Bella’s life is not untouched by tragedy. The characters are so well observed that I had to remind myself that the book is written by a man from a mostly female perspective, because he captures the nuances of female interactions so well. A pleasant, light read with a twist at the end designed to send you back to the beginning to spot what you missed on the first reading. Recommended.
