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A review by namakurhea
Tale of the Dreamer's Son by Preeta Samarasan
3.0
Recenty completed read! This is my first book by a Malaysian author I think… and I quite enjoyed it!
The narrator is the eligitimate son of a cult leader based in Malaysia that started in the 70’s and 80’s. The cult isn’t anything weird by today’s standard.. It’s basically ackowledging that God is one and the same regardless of your beliefs and we can all live in harmony. But at that time of political, racial, and religious tensions in Malaysia, such statements are blasphemous. Despite the diverse and rich history of people who made up Malaysia, under Mahathir’s reign, it became obvious that one particular group is above all the others. Our narrator, in this sense, is a bit of an outlier as he was born in a cult where none of those racial and religious markers matter. But how long can this utopia last? Well, this is what the book is all about: a clash of ideals. A clash between the individual and the collective. Us vs them.
Despite its chunky size, this book reads easily. It kept me at the edge of my seat and I found myself carrying the book even for lunch at work.
One comment I have though it that the author seems to be quite ambitious. #PreetaSamarasan picked up a lot of topics from political, MY history, race, religion, family dynamics, terrorism, whodunnit story, employer-employee relationship, that sometimes the focus is a bit lost. Like trying to introduce a lot of topics but ended up closing only one or two and leaving the rest unresolved. There were also some shocking reveals at the end which is so shocking to the point that it felt like an afterthought.
But other than that, I still enjoyed the book immensely. Totally looking forward to the buddy read session on this. OH you can still DM me if you wanna join! 😜
The narrator is the eligitimate son of a cult leader based in Malaysia that started in the 70’s and 80’s. The cult isn’t anything weird by today’s standard.. It’s basically ackowledging that God is one and the same regardless of your beliefs and we can all live in harmony. But at that time of political, racial, and religious tensions in Malaysia, such statements are blasphemous. Despite the diverse and rich history of people who made up Malaysia, under Mahathir’s reign, it became obvious that one particular group is above all the others. Our narrator, in this sense, is a bit of an outlier as he was born in a cult where none of those racial and religious markers matter. But how long can this utopia last? Well, this is what the book is all about: a clash of ideals. A clash between the individual and the collective. Us vs them.
Despite its chunky size, this book reads easily. It kept me at the edge of my seat and I found myself carrying the book even for lunch at work.
One comment I have though it that the author seems to be quite ambitious. #PreetaSamarasan picked up a lot of topics from political, MY history, race, religion, family dynamics, terrorism, whodunnit story, employer-employee relationship, that sometimes the focus is a bit lost. Like trying to introduce a lot of topics but ended up closing only one or two and leaving the rest unresolved. There were also some shocking reveals at the end which is so shocking to the point that it felt like an afterthought.
But other than that, I still enjoyed the book immensely. Totally looking forward to the buddy read session on this. OH you can still DM me if you wanna join! 😜