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alleseter 's review for:
The Gift of Rain
by Tan Twan Eng
In Tan's debut novel an unexpected visitor revives Philip Hutton's memories if his youth in Penang, Malaysia, just before and during World War II, when Malaysia got occupied by Japanese forces. The whole book revolves around the relationship between Hutton, a man of Chinese-British descent and youngest child of a well-to-do family of merchants, and the enigmatic Endo-San, a Japanese who has rented an island on Hutton's father's property.
The first half of the book is rather slow, and introduces all protagonists and several background stories, and tell of Philip's teen years and his problems to give himself a place in the world. This part is heavily influenced by Tan's love for Japanese culture, martial arts and aikido in particular ( some scenes even read like kung fu films), and at times the book suffers from Tan's overenthusiastic zeal to transfer his own fascination to the reader.
In the second half of the book, on the other hand, war breaks out, and tragedy sets in immediately. Tan really tries to portray Hutton & Endo-San as sympathetic characters, but relentless pages of gruesome war crimes make this really difficult. Moreover, Tan tries to weave philosophical elements in his tale, exploring predestination vs. free will, love vs. duty, honor and courage, without resolving these issues very well.
'The Gift of Rain' is an entertaining read, especially the gripping second half, but falls short in its philosophical aims, and is all too easy in its forgiveness of a person, who is, essentially, a collaborator, working with the worst of war criminals, and for a large part of the novel, a coward.
The first half of the book is rather slow, and introduces all protagonists and several background stories, and tell of Philip's teen years and his problems to give himself a place in the world. This part is heavily influenced by Tan's love for Japanese culture, martial arts and aikido in particular ( some scenes even read like kung fu films), and at times the book suffers from Tan's overenthusiastic zeal to transfer his own fascination to the reader.
In the second half of the book, on the other hand, war breaks out, and tragedy sets in immediately.
Spoiler
Hutton makes some curious decisions, and can easily be regarded as a collaborator. He loses no less than all his friends and family members during the course of the war.'The Gift of Rain' is an entertaining read, especially the gripping second half, but falls short in its philosophical aims, and is all too easy in its forgiveness of a person, who is, essentially, a collaborator, working with the worst of war criminals, and for a large part of the novel, a coward.