Three American women live as expatriates in the same small community in Hong Kong. Each is at a different time in her life, although they all share the same general exotic locale.

Mercy is a recent Columbia graduate who is coming to grips with a haunting situation from her past, unable to find a considered foundation to put her feet upon as she starts a new life. Hilary is the victim of a dying marriage and is unable to conceive, though she believes a baby could save her relationship. Margaret, a formerly happy housewife with three children, is trying hard to forget about a personal event that threatens to ruin her life, a loss that is beyond comprehension. Their stories unfold with alarming alacrity as each fights for her life on unfamiliar territory. 

Hong Kong creates a web of contradictions that the women must contend with, fight against, use for growth and find new purpose. This place is a fourth character, and it changes as they find their own personal alteration.

"There seems to be little doubt throughout the interconnecting stories that Mercy, Hilary and Margaret once again will find their footing, but just how is one of the many narrative surprises that shake the core of their worlds and give author Janice Y. K. Lee a chance to shine."

Class and family matter a great deal to Lee’s characters; these are the things that drive them to reorder their lives and make something new in this foreign land. There seems to be little doubt throughout the interconnecting stories that Mercy, Hilary and Margaret once again will find their footing, but just how is one of the many narrative surprises that shake the core of their worlds and give author Janice Y. K. Lee a chance to shine. 

Lee’s prose is elegant and warm. She is not playing any games with the language, although the women are trying to express themselves in a place where it is hard for them to find the right words, literally and figuratively. The author was raised in Hong Kong, and sometimes it’s hard to understand if she is on the side of old Hong Kong and its traditions or yearning for the multitudinous ways in which Hong Kong is growing and changing in this rapid world economy.

Although Hong Kong is a foreign land filled with interesting and unusual customs, costumes, food and music, Mercy, Hilary and Margaret seem to cling too tightly at first to the all-American ways that all the expats latch onto upon taking a place in this foreign country. There are glimpses of the ways in which Hong Kong is changing but never as distinctively as the ways in which its very being alters the way these ladies are affected by the circumstances life in general has thrown at them. There is a reason for each of them to be in Hong Kong, and yet this is a simple backdrop to the drama that unfolds in their lives. 

As a born traveler, I like to learn a little about the places where people find themselves. I wish Lee was less concerned with the first world issues of Mercy, Hilary and Margaret, and more interested in giving us a little bit of travelogue a la James Michener, who was always good at the stranger in a strange land tales. Still, the women Lee focuses on are so fascinating in their own ways that it doesn’t matter so much where they have found themselves. THE EXPATRIATES is about where they are going.