stevehagos 's review for:

We, The Survivors by Tash Aw

4.0

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I enjoyed this book more than I thought it would, given that it was quite different from what I thought it was going to be about initially. Although the impetus for the story is the murder of another man by the main character, the actual motivation for the act isn't really the focal point in the story. Instead the book traces the story of the main character and his development throughout his life, with much more focus put here than on the actual murder. Somehow, however, this ends up working quite well and the author manages to craft a very complex main character in a surprisingly detailed and vivid environment that brings you fantastically close to imagining to this life in Malaysia characterized by the divide between rich and poor, those that are lucky and the ones that are unfortunate as well as themes of inequality, racism and xenophobia. Although the shifts in the different parts of the story, from present to different stages in the past, might have been somewhat confusing initially they also contributed greatly to the story-telling and helped build up the culmination of the story with its murderous act in the end. At the end of the story, the frustration of having no clear reasoning provided for the heinous act of the main character quickly fades when the reader themselves is put into the position of deciding why exactly and for what reasoning the main character acted.