After trying books including To Kill a Mockingbird and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, I seemed to be able to accept literature quite ok and was quite interested in it. So I decided to buy Tash Aw’s The Harmony Silk Factory next. Since it’s a Whitbread First Novel Award Winner in 2005, the book should be a good read.
The book talks about Johnny Lim, who
appeared to be a prominent figure in Kinta Valley of Malaysia’s
Perak state, being described by three separate individuals: his son
Jasper, his wife Snow Soong and his English friend Peter Wormwood.
All three individuals, from their own perspectives, described Johnny
Lim quite differently, almost as if they were talking about different
people. To Jasper, his father was a businessman who sided with the
Japanese army during the invasion in Malaya, a traitor to his
country. To Snow Soong, he was a shy husband who was too timid, too
shy and incapable of giving her happiness. To Peter Wormwood, he was
an insecure man who loves his wife that would do anything to protect
his family.
Tash Aw was ingenious in his writing of
this book, describing the main character using perspectives of three
separate people. While Johnny Lim seemed to be the main focus, the
book also provided a clearer picture of the three persons closest to
him: his son, his wife and his closest and perhaps only friend.
Perhaps it’s a no-brainer that being
an award-winning book, it must be a great book to read. But what was
really amazing about this book was how the author was able to talk
about the same person that seemed so differently from three different
perspectives and how he was able to use different methods of
presentation to do so, like a diary from Snow Soong and an
autobiography-like manner by Peter Wormwood. It’s like reading
three different books in one. I especially like how Aw was able to
use those fancy words in Peter Wormwood’s part that truly reflect
his English gentleman attitude and mannerism, no doubt helped by his creative writing course at University of East Anglia.
A wonderful book to read! Five stars!!
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