Long listed for the 2023 Booker, The House of Doors is a novel that tries to do a lot of things, and mostly succeeds in doing them well. It is a tragic tale of colonial society in Malaysia, with a dash of true crime and a side helping of if literary fan fiction based on the life of Somerset Maugham. The Guardian calls it a “morality play,” but I think that phrase is too reductive. Morality plays tend to be flat and call for a particular conclusion. The House of Doors offers the reader many options and shades of gray among the morality or lack thereof in its characters.
The House of Doors asks a lot of difficult questions without directing the reader to answers. Tan’s cast arrive at different conclusions with varying degrees of success, but because they are ultimately human, with human frailties, the reader will empathize and identify with them, riding the wave of the story to see what happens.
The setting is historical, with a dual timeline, one in the 1910s, and another in 1921, with a frame in the 1940s. Told in alternating POV from Lesley and “Willie” (Maugham), Tan has shown great care in managing to portray the attitudes of the time period without alienating the modern reader. The members of colonial society are not to be forgiven so much as understood for their flaws. The reader is by turns horrified and fascinated by the lives of Tan’s characters.
The novel is, as one would expect in a Booker nominee, beautifully written. It will make the reader think about society, colonialism, and questions of identity long after they close the book. One thing it does not do is hit the reader between the eyes with Inequality! Unfairness! Colonialism! The story lets the reader peek behind the curtain and see inequality, unfairness, and colonialism for themselves. No preaching required.