HOUSEBOY IN INDIA

The autobiography of half-Tibetan, half-Chinese Twan Yang, this has a certain charm of gravity, of , and is an unpretentious self-portrait. Early orphaned, Twan Yang fell to cruel adoptive parents, was sent out as a youngster as a houseboy (which always involved pots and pans, and baby care) to a variety of families, English, Sikh, Muslim, until he came to work for Dutch Mr. Van Manen. There he served with devotion the kindly Master who taught him to read and write, who supervised- in loco parentis- his marriage to a Tibetan girl from Darjeeling, who helped him write this book- but did not live to see its publication. As much sympathy as the humility, the simplicity here enlists, one still cannot but question an American audience.