SOURCE: Review of The Monkey King, in Guardian Weekly, Vol. 148, No. 20, May 23, 1993, p. 29.

In the following review, Messud provides a concise description of Mo’s first novel, The Monkey King.

Here is a welcome re-issue of Timothy Mo’s first, vastly entertaining and accomplished novel, first published in 1978 and the recipient of the Geoffrey Faber Prize. It concerns the adventures of Wallace Nolasco, a native of Macau who considers himself Portuguese—albeit “a courtesy title”—and deems the Chinese an “arrogant and devious” race. Never mind that after generations of inter-marriage he is himself virtually indistinguishable from the people he despises. He marries a Cantonese woman, daughter of her prosperous father’s second concubine; and in so doing, he takes on the whole Poon family. Mo paints a hilarious portrait of Wallace.