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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Some politician in America decides that they can’t buy Malaysian rubber gloves; suddenly 10 factories in the area have to shut down. The Europeans want to save the fucking world so they ban the use of palm oil in food; within a month, the entire port is on its knees.”
Tash Aw’s most recent novel, “We, the Survivors” is a bleak story about the complexity of the Malaysian society told through the personal account of one protagonist, Ah Hock, a relatively poor Chinese Malaysian. From the beginning the reader knows that Ah Hock spent three years in prison for murder. He describes his life to a postgraduate student who decided to write a book about him. In this story, as in life, everyone is a victim. A victim to modern slavery due to their background and nationality, like hundreds of unnamed and undocumented Bangladeshi, Burmese or Nepalese migrant workers and Rohingya refugees working in Malaysia, from whose labour Ah Hock and his childhood friend Keong benefit. A victim to childhood alliances and obligations. A victim to unscrupulous and unsympathetic bosses. A victim to your beliefs, convictions and values. A victim, finally, to foreign, stronger powers, who exploit Asian emerging economies and determine the fate of dozens of millions of people.
Aw slowly but steadily creates an atmosphere of oppression, to which we fall prey. The novel made me think about the extent of our freedom and control - how much do we really control our lives? It isn’t about spiritual or divine control though, but more about us being just links in a gigantic chain. There is so little true independence and free will and yet we live off the illusion of freedom.
“We, the Survivors” can be seen by ignorant Westerners as the behind-the-curtains of Western cushy existence, with infinite choices and small or not-so-small luxuries. For hundreds of millions of people though what Aw shows is the raw reality of their lives. Ordinary, boring, unspectacular, balancing between poverty and making ends meet but never anything more than that. I was moved much more than I had expected and got a really good lesson in empathy from Tash Aw.
Tash Aw’s most recent novel, “We, the Survivors” is a bleak story about the complexity of the Malaysian society told through the personal account of one protagonist, Ah Hock, a relatively poor Chinese Malaysian. From the beginning the reader knows that Ah Hock spent three years in prison for murder. He describes his life to a postgraduate student who decided to write a book about him. In this story, as in life, everyone is a victim. A victim to modern slavery due to their background and nationality, like hundreds of unnamed and undocumented Bangladeshi, Burmese or Nepalese migrant workers and Rohingya refugees working in Malaysia, from whose labour Ah Hock and his childhood friend Keong benefit. A victim to childhood alliances and obligations. A victim to unscrupulous and unsympathetic bosses. A victim to your beliefs, convictions and values. A victim, finally, to foreign, stronger powers, who exploit Asian emerging economies and determine the fate of dozens of millions of people.
Aw slowly but steadily creates an atmosphere of oppression, to which we fall prey. The novel made me think about the extent of our freedom and control - how much do we really control our lives? It isn’t about spiritual or divine control though, but more about us being just links in a gigantic chain. There is so little true independence and free will and yet we live off the illusion of freedom.
“We, the Survivors” can be seen by ignorant Westerners as the behind-the-curtains of Western cushy existence, with infinite choices and small or not-so-small luxuries. For hundreds of millions of people though what Aw shows is the raw reality of their lives. Ordinary, boring, unspectacular, balancing between poverty and making ends meet but never anything more than that. I was moved much more than I had expected and got a really good lesson in empathy from Tash Aw.
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was difficult to get into but I enjoyed looking at the social complexes of a world so different to what I know. Its essentially a tale of how those who come from nothing but dream big end up in different places in life with a bit of murder thrown in. It is more of an in depth study of how different classes are treated and valued in their society so takes a slow pace following the main character and his view on the world. Not sure I would read it again but it was something different to normal.
[b:We, the Survivors|43684720|We, the Survivors|Tash Aw|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562174941l/43684720._SX50_.jpg|63679677] tells the story of Ah Hock, a Malaysian man recently released from prison where he served time for murdering a Bangladeshi migrant worker. This poignant, quietly moving story is not a mystery or thriller: the identity of the victim and the circumstances of the crime are established early on. Instead, Tash Aw uses this novel to create a bleak and textured portrait of working-class Malaysia.
You can read the rest of my review HERE on BookBrowse, and you can read a piece I wrote about Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia HERE.
You can read the rest of my review HERE on BookBrowse, and you can read a piece I wrote about Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia HERE.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Look, any novel that engaged the plight of migrant workers, especially those from South Asia, in the modern age would catch my attention, but this one is special. Set in modern Malaysia (where a tiny piece of my heart lives) Aw makes this a story not about one group of people or person who is downtrodden, but about the web of oppression holding so many people down at the bottom of society. The neglected and hard-done-by populate this novel. The protagonist, not a migrant, but never really belonging, is the perfect middle stage to speak to the way the quest for upward mobility can turn into treading on those more precariously situated than yourself if you're not careful, and he's incredibly absorbing as a narrator. I'm not sure whether or not the student he's narrating to was necessary in the end, or at least not the way she was incorporated into the novel, but other than that, a book I like enough to buy after having borrowed it.
"We all have our own way of surviving, and telling stories was his."
This novel is like a memoir. A convicted murderer tells his life's story to a young woman who first wants to do a field study about him, but finally decides to write a novel.
Ah Hock lives in Malaysia, but he is a part of the Chinese minority. His story is given to us in audio files the young woman has recorded after Ah Hock has been released from prison. It is a story of immense poverty in a fast changing country where migrant workers are being smuggled in from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Indonesia. In his home village, Ah Hock meets Keong at a very young age - a boy a few years older than he is who is also living alone with his mother and who wants to flee poverty by all means, doing all kinds of illegal things from selling pills to finally dealing with workers.
Tash Aw tells the story of Ah Hock quietly, calm, describes the dreams of Ah Hock and his wife Jenny in a beautiful, poetic language and is able to bring a world close to readers all over the world that many people in Europe and North America have rarely heard of. However, the themes of poverty, racism, migration and the dream of a better future somewhere else are universal. A great writer has delivered yet another impressive novel.
This novel is like a memoir. A convicted murderer tells his life's story to a young woman who first wants to do a field study about him, but finally decides to write a novel.
Ah Hock lives in Malaysia, but he is a part of the Chinese minority. His story is given to us in audio files the young woman has recorded after Ah Hock has been released from prison. It is a story of immense poverty in a fast changing country where migrant workers are being smuggled in from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Indonesia. In his home village, Ah Hock meets Keong at a very young age - a boy a few years older than he is who is also living alone with his mother and who wants to flee poverty by all means, doing all kinds of illegal things from selling pills to finally dealing with workers.
Tash Aw tells the story of Ah Hock quietly, calm, describes the dreams of Ah Hock and his wife Jenny in a beautiful, poetic language and is able to bring a world close to readers all over the world that many people in Europe and North America have rarely heard of. However, the themes of poverty, racism, migration and the dream of a better future somewhere else are universal. A great writer has delivered yet another impressive novel.
damn. was not prepared for how good this was. especially especially relevant given all the shit that's been going down in Malaysia r.e migrants over the past few months!! tash aw's writing is always so detail oriented, so all encompassing that you're sometimes still lost in the details and reluctant to move forward in the story because there's so much to get lost in.
Ah Hock is een arme man, geboren in een klein vissersdorpje in Maleisië. Zonder opleiding ziet hij zich gedwongen om allerlei slechtbetaalde baantjes aan te pakken om het hoofd boven water te kunnen houden, en dat terwijl de wereld om hem heen veranderd. Op een dag wordt dit gevoel van uitzichtloosheid hem te veel en vermoord hij, schijnbaar uit het niets, een immigrant uit Bangladesh. Hoe is hij tot deze daad gekomen?
Met 'Wij, de overlevenden' geeft Tash Aw een stem aan de groep mensen die vaak ongewild in de armste en onderste laag van de bevolking terecht komen en maakt hij inzichtelijk voor welke enorme uitdagingen ze gesteld worden. Wat is ervoor nodig om onder deze omstandigheden te kunnen overleven? Want overleven is dan vaak het enige wat je kunt doen, waarmee de schrijnende situatie in stand gehouden wordt. Het vraagt in deze ook een bepaalde vorm van acceptatie, en deze berusting lees je terug in het verhaal zoals Ah Hock dit aan jou als lezer vertelt. Toch had ik soms ook wat moeite met de schrijfstijl, pareltjes van zinnen en prachtige passages werden afgewisseld met stukken die voor mij soms wat te passief en slepend lazen. Deels kwam dit voor mij door een wisseling in het vertelperspectief, maar tegelijkertijd vermoed ik dat een deel ook opzet is geweest waarmee Tash Aw de lezer deelgenoot maakt van juist ook deze kant van het leven van Ah Hock.
'Wij, de overlevenden' is een ontroerend verhaal over vriendschap, afkomst en klasse en zet je als lezer aan het denken over sociale ongelijkheid, het lot en de 'maakbaarheid' van het leven.
Met 'Wij, de overlevenden' geeft Tash Aw een stem aan de groep mensen die vaak ongewild in de armste en onderste laag van de bevolking terecht komen en maakt hij inzichtelijk voor welke enorme uitdagingen ze gesteld worden. Wat is ervoor nodig om onder deze omstandigheden te kunnen overleven? Want overleven is dan vaak het enige wat je kunt doen, waarmee de schrijnende situatie in stand gehouden wordt. Het vraagt in deze ook een bepaalde vorm van acceptatie, en deze berusting lees je terug in het verhaal zoals Ah Hock dit aan jou als lezer vertelt. Toch had ik soms ook wat moeite met de schrijfstijl, pareltjes van zinnen en prachtige passages werden afgewisseld met stukken die voor mij soms wat te passief en slepend lazen. Deels kwam dit voor mij door een wisseling in het vertelperspectief, maar tegelijkertijd vermoed ik dat een deel ook opzet is geweest waarmee Tash Aw de lezer deelgenoot maakt van juist ook deze kant van het leven van Ah Hock.
'Wij, de overlevenden' is een ontroerend verhaal over vriendschap, afkomst en klasse en zet je als lezer aan het denken over sociale ongelijkheid, het lot en de 'maakbaarheid' van het leven.