Enchanted Evening

The third volume of Kaye's autobiography is a coming-of-age story in which the author loses a beloved parent and launches her career as a writer.
In 1932, Mollie Kaye (born in 1908) took an Italian steamer from India to North China with her mother, her sister ("Bets"), and her father (Sir Cecil Kaye, affectionately nicknamed "Tacklow"). Tacklow was a distinguished civil servant and former member of the Indian Army who fell victim to petty political infighting and an apathetic British bureaucracy. He had always dreamed of retiring to China; and when invited by Indian officials to return to that country in an official capacity, he leapt at the chance—only to be callously fired, with the Foreign and Political Department unfairly deeming him a "troublemaker." Tacklow's will to live vanished, and he died not long after receiving his pink slip. Mollie and her mother (Bets eventually married a military man) then moved to England, and then back again to India, selling their artwork to make ends meet. Mollie began writing on a whim and turned out to have great talent for creating colorful plots and characters. (She is best known today for The Far Pavilions and Shadow of the Moon.) The title refers to the moment at story's end when Mollie met her soulmate and future husband, Goff Hamilton, a British officer in India. But it also of course alludes to the famous song from Broadway's South Pacific, and some of the best moments here are references to showbiz figures—among them Paulette Goddard, Charlie Chaplin, and George Arliss. Although there are plenty of beautifully crafted passages that evoke the breathtaking beauty of India in the dying days of the British Raj, this is a sloppy work in dire need of a red pencil: there are far too many remembrances of young British men and women who go to parties and carry on rather mundane conversations—episodes that could have been condensed or in some cases eliminated.
For devoted Kaye fans only. (16 pp. b&w photos)