The Harmony Silk Factory

The novel is about Johnny Lim, textile merchant, petty crook and communist. His life is narrated in three parts by the people who knew him - his son Jasper, his wife Snow, and his best friend Peter Wormwood.

Jasper, who never knew his mother Snow, covered most of Johnny's life story with observations about his father and stories he's heard. He tells of how Johnny survived an assassination attempt on Merdeka Day 1957, elevating his status from mortal to god in the eyes of his community.

Snow found an unlikely match in the quiet textile merchant. She writes, in detail, about the events that unfold between herself, Johnny, Peter and Japanese professor Kunichika during a holiday to the Seven Maiden Islands. Snow eventually found herself torn between her loyalty to Johnny and her passion for Kunichika. She died giving birth to Jasper.

Peter's narrative is by far, the weakest, but it's where you draw the conclusion to the story. The man's already old and unfocused, so half the time you are not sure what he's going on about. But he brings his side (or Johnny's side) of the story to events already related by Jasper and Snow.

Taipei-born Tash Aw spent enough time in Malaysia get a feel of the country. He also spent enough time away to not feel the need to show off his English vocabulary, a deep hole that a few Malaysian novelists before him have fall into. What impresses me is the way he brought Malaya to life, claiming that he pretty much invented what he needed.

Yes, I'm a year behind in reading The Harmony Silk Factory, but I can explain. I passed it off as another piece of over-hyped pop culture and absolutely refused to spend RM35 on a book that none of my reading kaki would touch with a 10-foot pole for the same reason.

I finally got around to a borrowed copy, I found that I was wrong about this one. I'm so happy to be wrong that I'm willing to spend more than RM35 for a nice trade paperback edition of my own as soon as I get around to shopping from retail bookstores again.

(2006)