Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
5th out of 6 books
—
9 voters
Fortune Cookie
It's the 1960s and the world of advertising is coming alive and it's an exciting world to be part of. Simon Wong, a Chinese-Australian and promising young advertising executive, is sent to Singapore to establish an office.
Audio CD, 0 pages
Published
February 1st 2011
by Bolinda Publishing
(first published January 1st 2011)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
664)
Ah Koo, the lone survivor of his ancient family and great-great-grandfather of the book’s protagonist, Simon Koo, flees his home in China during the Taiping Rebellion and begins a new life in the gold fields of 1850′s Australia. Through hard work and perseverance, Ah Koo eventually acquires a bit of land (10 acres of plundered cedar beside a permanently running creek), a Chinese wife named Little Sparrow (thanks to an arrangement with the headman of his village in China, of whom he requested tha...more
Jan 29, 2011
Sam
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people looking for a good read
Recommended to Sam by:
read other books by the same author
I think I need to start off this review by saying that this novel is quite different from the other books I’ve read by Bryce Courtenay (I haven’t read all of them though). He is most well-known for his Australian historical books (such as The Story of Danny Dunn, The Potato Factory) but this book is a departure from those.
Why? For starters, this book is set in the 1960s and very little of the action takes place in Australia. The majority is set in Singapore, just after Lee Kwan Yew came to power...more
Why? For starters, this book is set in the 1960s and very little of the action takes place in Australia. The majority is set in Singapore, just after Lee Kwan Yew came to power...more
1 like · like · see review
I'm intrigued enough to keep going, but I do find the main character - the narrator - annoying. Courtenay requires that the reader maintains the image of an extremely stocky chinese man, which is fine, but then he has to also continually ram in the fact of his (Simon's) Australian-ness. Fourth Generation. Yup I got it, thanks... Simon's as Aussie as they come, he just doesn't look like it and he just can't help but use every corny Aussie expression that ever was even though he just has to keep e...more
Feb 09, 2012
Katrina
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Courtenay Fans
Shelves:
adult,
historical-fiction
Ok, so not my favorite Courtenay of all time. Like others, I enjoyed learning about all the Chinese history, culture, and “face,” but I felt like it dragged as well as jumped around too much. Simon really wasn’t my favorite Courtenay protagonist either. Oh, and the whole “Mercy B Lord” (never abbreviated) really started getting on my nerves. Really? The love of his life and Simon never gives her a sorter nickname? Please.
Having said all that, Courtenay’s books are always enlightening and listeni...more
Having said all that, Courtenay’s books are always enlightening and listeni...more
This has taken me absolutely ages to get through, and I've read loads of journals etc recently because I just haven't been interested enough to go back to it, but I didn't want to give up on it so made a concerted effort and feel relieved it's over. The story wasn't terrible, just way too long and irritatingly repetitive. Why do we have to hear over and over how short Simon is, how beautiful Mercy B. Lord is (not to mention the stupid way he refuses to shorten her name) is, how much Dransford dr...more
Courtenay does it again! In this excellent historical novel, we enter the life of an Aussie with strong Chinese family ties, as he moves from his home in Oz to work in an advertising firm being created in Singapore. Courtenay draws on his years of experience in advertising and peppers it with his excellent desire to teach the reader about the history of the region. What seems like a book that takes you down one path leads you to many other outcomes as the forks in the road take you to another di...more
A good old Bryce Courtenay saga - and it is a saga! I enjoyed all the references to Singapore and the many detailed history lessons that popped up all the way through. One of the best - in the old british 'clubs' in Singapore, after tiffin the gents retired for a 'rest'. The attendant would write on the bottom of their shoe in chalk the time they wanted to be woken for 'tea'! Brilliant - quite ingenious! Can't say we ever saw that happen, but then I guess we did not frequent gents clubs.
This is a tricky one to review. On one side this was a great story with great characters. On the other hand the Courtenay clearly isn't a fan of brevity. In fact in this book he gave brevity a running kick to the nuts. This book could (should) have been a third shorter. Some of the descriptions were agonising, and yet I finished it in just over a week, so really I must have enjoyed it :)
1 like · like · see review
A good read, but not as good as some of Courtenay's other work. It shares several plot elements with the last Courtenay book I read (Brother Fish): a self consciously short male protagonist, good hearted though a bit macho; a beautiful and talented young orphan woman, caught up in a certain shady business, and a fascination with the Orient. Did Australians ever really talk like the protagonist, with his continuous stream of colourful Aussie phrases? As an Australian, I doubt it, but I wasn't aro...more
I was a bit disappointed in it really. It offered lots of promise but went flat and never recovered. It explains in detail the history of the opium trade and the impact of the Vietnam War, which I am sure many Bryce Courtney readers would relish, but it was much too much detail for me. I got bored.
Bryce Courtenay is without a doubt my favourite author but this book was a disappointment. I got tired of hearing about the fact that in spite of the main character being short and stocky he was considered a good lover. Tell us once...perhaps twice, but for goodness sake, don't insult the reader by telling us over and over! I actually found myself skipping over some pages which for me is most unusual. I think in this case Mr. Courtenay committed the dreaded sin against which Elmore Leonard cauti...more
Now, before I leave my comment, let me just say that I am a HUGE Bryce Courtenay fan and I have read all his book, bar two. I did not like this story very much at all. Reading the blurb on the back and the blurb on the inside jacket cover, I was expecting a lot more action earlier on the book, rather than it all just coming to a head with the last couple of chapters.
If I can be brutally honest I have to say I didn't enjoy Fortune Cookie as much as some of Bryce Courtenay's other books.
The blurb sounded great so I had high hopes.
If I was to divide the book into thirds, I would say the first and third part was outstanding, so rich in history but I found the middle third lacked.
It seemed to jump around a lot so was a little confusing.
But on saying that the book is wonderfully researched and goes into a lot of Chinese history.
The Gold rush in Australia, th...more
The blurb sounded great so I had high hopes.
If I was to divide the book into thirds, I would say the first and third part was outstanding, so rich in history but I found the middle third lacked.
It seemed to jump around a lot so was a little confusing.
But on saying that the book is wonderfully researched and goes into a lot of Chinese history.
The Gold rush in Australia, th...more
I'm sorry to say that I couldn't even finish this book - and that never happens. I enjoyed the Singaporean cultural references but the sex scenes were tacky and I felt no sentiment towards any of the characters at all. I'll stick to Bryce's more successful novels.
I was recommended Bryce Courtenay by my friends who adore the author. Because of all the praise for Courtenay, I was surprised at how awful this book was. Wow, was this a boring read. I couldn't even finish it. I know rating a book before it is finished isn't really best practice but reading it was basically torture. I'm okay with despising or loving a protagonist, or even sort of liking them or sort of hating them; but not feeling anything about the main character in a novel does not make for a...more
Bought two Courtenay books at the same time - bit of a mistake. This was not a bad story but I kept finding repeated statements and/or very similar sentences or phrases, which I found rather annoying.
I loved this book, and would have given it more stars if I could have! I wonder if I would have loved it as much if I had read a hard copy instead of listening to the excellent narration of Humphrey Bower. This narrator can bring a book to life like no other, with perhaps the exception of John Lee. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, the history, and the characters, whose images I could see plainly in my mind's eye as Humphrey Bower's amazing character renditions made them come alive for me. I'm on...more
I love to listen to anything read by Humphrey Bower. Although I have enjoyed this book, it doesn't just grab me like other wonderful books by my great favorite Bryce Courtenay.
Long time fan, was not disappointed. Somewhat clumsy plot twists, with the usual excellent attention to detail, vivid descriptions, and full characters.
As with many of his later books I find I want him to get on with it and not digress so much. I loved his first books and am still hooked after The Power of One and The Potato Factory, the first of his trilogy. There were many interesting details of Asian cultural ways and thinking in this book but the characters lacked somehow. This said, I am still always waiting for another of his books to appear.
1 like · like · see review
While sometimes this book seemed a little bit like it was rambling, I really liked the way Courtenay made us familiar with his characters so that by the end of the book, we felt like we knew them personally. The description was also very good, enabling the reader to see everything the characters saw.
While some find Courtney's historical dramas trite this one ain't bad.
Based in Singapore rather than Australia (mostly) for a change.
Based in Singapore rather than Australia (mostly) for a change.
Absolutely unputdownable!!!!! Such a good read and made me look to my iPad for lots of information about topics in the book. So interesting and written inthe typical easy going Australian lingo, as the main character is Aussie and it is written in the first person. My partner also read it and enjoyed it, but he thought the ending wrapped up a bit too quickly.
I'd really recommend this book!
I'd really recommend this book!
I appreciated the insight into early Chinese History in Australia namely the gold rush days.
Couldn't get through the first ten percent of the book. I didn't believe anything, not the dialogue, characters, plot.
As always another great Bryce Courtenay story. What I like about his books is that you'll always pick up some interesting history facts. In this case, it makes me want to go and visit Singapore.
I loved this book. It was a little slow going but it made it all the better. The characters are lively and engaging. You get caught in the story and find yourself relishing the exotic time travel experience offered.
There is a mix of plausible, incredible and totally possible that makes this book stand out...Maybe I am going to be hated when I say this but it's almost the feeling I get when I read a James Bond novel, except that I appreciate it a lot more because I don't spend a quarter of the r...more
There is a mix of plausible, incredible and totally possible that makes this book stand out...Maybe I am going to be hated when I say this but it's almost the feeling I get when I read a James Bond novel, except that I appreciate it a lot more because I don't spend a quarter of the r...more
It was an ok book took me a while to get into it...
Jul 19, 2011
Cheryl
added it
Another Courtenay classic
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Historical record or novel ? | 1 | 1 | Oct 19, 2012 01:18am | |
| Historical record or novel ? | 1 | 1 | Oct 19, 2012 01:18am |
![Fortune Cookie [With Earbuds] (Audiobook)](http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349014890s/14604448.jpg)
I was born illegitimately in 1933 in South Africa and spent my early childhood years in a small town deep in the heart of the Lebombo mountains.
It was a somewhat isolated community and I grew up among farm folk and the African people. At the age of five I was sent to a boarding school which might be better described as a combination orphanage and reform school, where I learned to box - though less...more
More about Bryce Courtenay...
It was a somewhat isolated community and I grew up among farm folk and the African people. At the age of five I was sent to a boarding school which might be better described as a combination orphanage and reform school, where I learned to box - though less...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
Jun 14, 2012 03:35pm