Fong and the Indians

By Paul Theroux

Book Overview

One of the earlier novels from the author of "The Mosquito Coast" and "Doctor Slaughter", this is a comic-moral tale about an innocent Chinese store-keeper in East Africa. Although cheated and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140148957
• ISBN13: 9780140148954
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.1" x 0.5" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Charming African Tale

"Fong and the Indians" is Paul Theroux's second novel and was written after spending several years of teaching at the University of Kampala in Uganda. The novel relates the story of the hapless Chinese immigrant Sam Fong and his family to an unnamed African country. Having immigrated before the cultural revolution in China, the Catholic Fong is blissfully unaware of Communism and Chairman Mao's new China. After the de-colonization of his new home-country, Fong, a carpenter by trade, is demoted and in disgust quits his job and opens a grocery store. Having never run a grocery store and unable to speak any English, Fong is "helped" by a wily Indian named Fakhru. The grocery store does not do well due to civil unrest in the country, but Fong has by necessity become an assiduous shopkeeper and manages to keep himself and his family alive by living extremely frugally. Upon realizing that Fong is actually managing to save some of his meager profits, Fakhru artfully convinces Fong to buy a huge shipment of canned milk. Fakhru persuades the wretched Fong by telling him that if the milk train from Mombasa were ever to derail, Fong would be a rich man. Foreseeing untold riches, Fong invests his life savings in several crates of canned milk. With a store filled to the rafters with canned milk, Fong sells not a single can as he waits for the milk train to derail. To add to Fong's woes, civil war erupts and Fong and his family are forced to close the shop. Just as things are at their bleakest, two Americans enter the scene. The Americans, Bert G. Newt, Jr. and Mel Francey, convinced that Fong is a Communist, try to sell him on the idea of capitalism and free enterprise. Nearly as out of their element in Africa as Fong, they compensate for their lack of diplomatic acumen with patriotic fervor, and wage a splendidly miscalculated campaign to put an end to Fong's nonexistent Communist sympathies. Unfortunately Fong speaks no English, and all communications are relayed to Fong via Fakhru, who has only his own enrichment in mind. Fong and the Indians is truly a charming tale and depicts Africa, it's cities and inhabitants to a tee. Fong is a lovable non-hero and the novel is a window into a typical African city in the early to late sixties.