I chose this book because I loved the recent movie with Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. I was drawn by this story of a loveless marriage being transformed by the danger of cholera and the escape from claustrophobic English society. In the end, I actually preferred the movie but still enjoyed the book.

The story takes place in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s. Kitty is a young (at least by present day standards) woman who takes her time finding a husband and then, when her younger and plainer sister becomes engaged, panics and takes the next man who offers: Walter, a shy government bacteriologist who is hopelessly in love with Kitty. They wed in a rush because Walter is due to leave for Hong Kong for his work. Kitty accompanies him, and out of boredom and a lack of love for her husband, begins an affair with Charlie Townsend, an older married man who is on his way to the top of the Hong Kong bureaucracy, and who, she is convinced, loves her as she loves him. Eventually Walter sets out to a small rural village in the heart of the cholera epidemic, bringing Kitty with him. Over time, Kitty gains a deeper understanding of life beyond her small existence.

I found it interesting that throughout the book, Kitty was always concerned with what others thought, both in England and in China - it was just that different things were valued in each place. In England, she worried about her social status and marrying someone with a title; in China, she hoped that the nuns at the orphanage found her helpful. I had hoped that she would gain even more independence and live more in consistency with what she thought rather than what others thought, but considering her environment and the culture at the time, what changes she did experience are impressive. Another interesting parallel is that we see how Kitty loves Charlie despite his callousness and unkindness; this follows how Walter loves Kitty even though she shows little interest, to the point of unkindness, toward him.

Kitty is admirable as she fights to reconcile her new feelings of independence and charity with her socialite upbringing, although it remains unclear what her future holds. She maintains her belief that she does not love Walter, but I wonder if there was more to it. Perhaps she was feeling love for him but did not want to acknowledge it; the book is unclear. That lack of clarity may be intentional on the author's part, however; Kitty herself is quite unclear about what she wants and what she believes. This book was a moving portrait of one couple's experience in the midst of tragedy.