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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Richly descriptive writing that vividly evokes the exotic setting of the British Straits Settlement of Penang in the early decades of the 1900s. The story reimagines author William Somerset Maugham’s visit to Malaya in 1921 where he was hosted by old school chum Robert Hamlyn and his wife Lesley. Events are retold by Lesley and Willie in alternating chapters. And as Lesley warms to her guest, she spends many an evening with him sharing a number of significant incidents she was connected with ten years earlier. Eng brilliantly weaves actual historic events into Lesley’s story such as an involvement with Chinese revolutionary Dr. Sun Yat Sen while he was based in Penang garnering support for his cause. Lesley also relates her friendship with, as well as the trial and sentencing of real-life convicted murderess Ethel Proudlock, a British woman and wife of local school teacher. She reveals more intimate aspects of marital problems between herself and Robert as well. Maugham subsequently uses Lesley’s outpourings as the basis for his popular collection of short stories, The Casuarina Tree. The publication of this book helped Maugham recover from a disastrous business decision that ruined him financially. So many threads cleverly intertwined in a fusion of fact and fiction, including colonialism, Chinese revolution, fidelity, homosexuality, cultural difference and societal expectations.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fantastically written and utterly engaging. Its great to see Malaysian literature garnering deserved praise and recognition. Though the inclusion of Sun Yat Sen feels imposed, I still feel on the whole other elements make up for it. The inclusion of historical events and figures is excellently woven into a historical fiction narrative, and the liberal inclusion of viewpoints on love, sexuality, colonialism and the plight of 1900’s China is done well.
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Author throws in foreign phrases and terms, and never an indication of what they mean, almost twice per page. Sometimes he explains the term pages later, not in introduction, and sometimes he doesn’t. I don’t want to be on my phone googling terms every second paragraph—it becomes wholly inaccessible and impossible to maintain flow in reading. Having just finished a James McBride book which handles foreign terms and phrases beautifully in a way that never breaks the flow, I couldn’t stand Tan Twan Eng’s choice.