TAM HUE PING

Tam’s memoir offers a detailed, contemplative journey through his decades of work as a Catholic priest around the world.

The narrative spans the entirety of the author’s life up from his birth in Trinidad in 1927—into one of the three Chinese families in his village at that time—to his current semiretirement in his 90s. Tam is judicious about how much space he devotes to each era in his career, so the book is well under 200 pages in length. Still, he allows himself enough space to give readers a strong sense of the environment and culture of each place he lived; readers learn about his childhood in Trinidad, his time spent at a seminary in Quebec, his missionary assignment in Owerri, Nigeria, and his work with orphans in Cali, Colombia, to name but a few. Throughout his accounts of his time as a missionary and at various educational facilities (both as pupil and teacher), he details the connections he made with many friends and students over the course of his life, some of whom went on to impressive achievements in a wide range of fields, including athletics, medicine, and education. However, the author tends to mention every notable person he encountered, as well as each accolade they received. These mentions are sometimes quite impressive: “Another student started his musical career, taking part in the college’s well-known Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Later, he founded a musical band, Boomtown Rats, that became world famous, planning the concerts, Band Aid and Live Aid….His name: Bob Geldof.” That said, it’s a narrative device that becomes repetitive, as most of these people are not recurring figures in the text, and not all are very well known. Nonetheless, Tam’s recollections proceed effectively despite this, and his overall message of care and his focus on helping others are worthy and important.

A meditative, if sometimes overcrowded, remembrance with an appealing emphasis on compassion.