This is not a book review

As wonderful as Tash Aw is for giving up his day job to write full-time and putting contemporary Malaysian writing in the limelight for a while, I am finding The Harmony Silk Factory to be a little disappointing. The first chapter is amazing which is why I snapped it up. But after that...

Harmony is peppered with all sorts of people and places that are mysterious and magical. Sometimes, though, you get tired of hearing how goddamn mysterious everything is. Like Mat Hitam, "No one was certain where he came from." And Tiger Tan, "The reasons behind Tiger's name were a mystery." Yeah yeah, we get it, the locals are mysterious, as are Kellie's Castle, pontianaks and the Seven Maidens.

So much mystery surrounds the main character Johnny, especially: "No one knows about the small odyssey which led Johnny to Kampar." "Why she should have picked him instead of any other person in the shop no one will ever know." I know Johnny is supposed to be a dark horse, but Tash does rub it in sometimes, especially at the beginning. So I didn't find it believable, or the myth of Johnny to be compelling. Perhaps Tash could take a page from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's book (pun intended),

I detest solemnness, and I am capable of saying the most atrocious things, the most fantastic things, with a completely straight face. This is a talent I inherited from my grandmother--my mother's mother--Doña Tranquilina. She was a fabulous storyteller who told wild tales of the supernatural with a most solemn expression on her face. As I was growing up, I often wondered whether or not her stories were truthful. Usually, I tended to believe her because of her serious, deadpan facial expression. Now, as a writer, I do the same thing; I say extraordinary things in a serious tone. It's possible to get away with anything as long as you make it believable. (Marquez)

In a nutshell, I don't think Tash Aw is a compelling storyteller. Many passages contain tired sentence structures. But on the back cover, Doris Lessing proclaims him "unputdownable" so maybe you shouldn't listen to me.

That said, Tash's powers of description are remarkable especially when evoking the atmosphere of the Malayan countryside. There is a fine line between exoticising and romanticising, and Tash does mostly the latter in Harmony. When he romanticises the countryside, it is effectively sensual and evocative. He lets you smell the ash and ore of the valley, feel the dampness of the air and experience the serenity of the limestone caves. For that, I am thankful to Tash, and I wish more people would write about Malaysia this way. I think Malaysians romanticise their country out of nostalgia and love, perhaps sometimes desperation.

I also appreciate the real-like dialogue between the locals and how Tash captures our unique way of talking and responding. It is tricky to do which is why I suspect dialogue is scarce in this book. The humourous bits of dialogue, however, mostly come from British Peter Wormwood - whom I found to be the only engaging character worth caring about.

I shall look forward to Tash's next offering. I hear it is set during the Emergency in Indonesia. Hopefully the characters will be more engaging (with the readers as well as each other).

Anybody want my copy of Harmony?

Related link: www.tash-aw.com

Footnotes

For the most part of last year I worked on conceptualising and curating a show titled Footnotes for Off The Edge magazine's Gallery Without Walls project. It's basically an exhibition within the pages of the magazine.

It is featured in this month's issue of Off The Edge, sold in Malaysia and Singapore for a ridiculous $6, so get your copy now, you fool!

I remember when I first discovered OTE, the only stationer I knew who sold it was in Taman Tun. The day it hit the shelves, my car had been sent in for repairs, so I taxi'd all the way from SS2 to Taman Tun and back to get my copy. Even now that it has achieved wider distribution, it sells out fast. Then when I moved country, I became their first non-Malaysian/Singaporean subscriber! So, I'm very happy to be a part of it when I can.

We built a beautiful website for the Footnotes show which I will advertise here next month.

Edit: Click here for our Footnotes website!