Kirkus Reviews QR Code
THE ADVENTURESS by Santha Rama Rau

THE ADVENTURESS

By

Pub Date: June 24th, 1970
Publisher: Harper & Row

An entertainment (meant by no means as seriously as Miss Rama Rau's only other much earlier novel--Remember the House), The Adventuress succeeds on her own decorously false terms, sidestepping the detritus of the war and only once shaken by the possibility of extinction in her determination to survive. The lady with no discernible past (and the ones she invents are outrageous) or future is Kay, first met in Japan enlisting the sympathies of an American who is willing to give her more than she wants. When next seen she's secured her repatriation to Manila where for a time she attaches herself to an elderly woman and then--via a passport marriage to a pilot--reaches Shanghai. He also takes her more seriously than he should, and having fabricated here, falsified there, the arriviste finally arrives--in a sable coat. One likes her nonetheless and Miss Rama Rau tells her story in a guarded, insinuating and ingratiating fashion. It will be enjoyed.