Exciting Times

by Naoise Dolan

For me, this was not an easy read. The millennial protagonist spends the first half of the novel disassociated from her feelings and herself, in an environment devoid of heart, let alone soul. Dolan uses the emotionally barren landscape of migrant, current day, Hong Kong to reflect the inner world of her ex-pat characters. Ava spends the first half of the book in love with an Eton-educated banker with ostensibly no feelings for her, while she seems barely able to recognize her own. In the second half, she falls for a Hong Kong lawyer, whose warmth and passion eventually break through Ava’s cynical self depreciation, and thank goodness she has the sense to eventually choose the lawyer. But despite its alienated character, the book is impressive. Dolan’s writing is smart, surprising, and dry. It is an excellently observed commentary and the dialogue is sharp. My problem is that it’s an excellently observed commentary on a way of being, and a place, that I wish were different.