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A review by athirah_idrus
FLESH: A Southeast Asian Urban Anthology by Terence Toh, Simon Rowe, Angeline Woon, Cassandra Khaw
2.0
The book, aptly illustrated on the front cover, like durian, you either love it or hate it. The stories featured in Flesh were either hits or misses to me. I wanted to love the book badly because one; I was intrigued by the cover, two, the book featured Southeast Asian stories that revolved around “Flesh” which included taboo subjects in our culture.
I loved that the word Flesh was given different interpretations covering a huge range on what the word could mean, from the literal skin, organs, bodies to ethereal beings and the galaxies. Thanks to this, I felt like I was on a rollercoaster ride flying to different parks after a dozen pages or so. What was not so good about this however, perhaps due to the short length, the plot for some of the stories were perplexing or weren’t well developed.
Having said that, I did enjoy a select few. The more notable ones were Terence Toh’s The Whole Hog, Sokunthary Svay’s Flesh and Family in Phnom Penh, Shamala Hinrichsen’s Haven of Shadows and Joelyn Alexandra’s 9 Lives.
I loved that the word Flesh was given different interpretations covering a huge range on what the word could mean, from the literal skin, organs, bodies to ethereal beings and the galaxies. Thanks to this, I felt like I was on a rollercoaster ride flying to different parks after a dozen pages or so. What was not so good about this however, perhaps due to the short length, the plot for some of the stories were perplexing or weren’t well developed.
Having said that, I did enjoy a select few. The more notable ones were Terence Toh’s The Whole Hog, Sokunthary Svay’s Flesh and Family in Phnom Penh, Shamala Hinrichsen’s Haven of Shadows and Joelyn Alexandra’s 9 Lives.