A really nice read - beautifully written! Some sentences just stick in your mind.
I didn't particularly like the first third (the son's perspective), but it got a lot better after that. I'm not sure whether it's a book I'll remember for a long time, but it was definitely a worthy read.

I'm going to turn this book into a bookring as part of barnhelm's booker prize roundabout...

Participants:
1. elhamisabel
2. lesezeichen
3. humptydumpty
4. CaptainCarrot
5. pustefix
6. barnhelm
7. Sternschnuppe28
8. urfin

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to elhamisabel.

I hope you will all enjoy this book!

Recieved in today's mail. Thanks a lot. Have two other books in front of this but I'll try to be quick.

05.10.:
Finished it just now.

It was way better than The Accidental. ;-)
I liked the first two thirds very much. The last third started off rather slowly. I blame it on all those descriptive parts which are really not my cup of tea.
But it got better and in the end I think even the last third was good in itself.
I'm not sure if it should win the MBP, though.

I've already contacted lesezeichen for her address.

Sens to lesezeichen today.

The book has arrived. Thank's everybody. I'll try not to be too long!

Oh my god, what's wrong with me? An extremely well-written book, well-crafted characters, an interesting geographical and historical background, people raving about it (I've checked out amazon) ... and yet I feel strangely detached, at least emotionally... Shame on me! ;-)

Edit 17.10.: Sent to CC today

The book arrived today - thanks to all! But I'll read a few other ring books first.

This book is not for me - it is sitting on my desk since two weeks, and I can't force me to read on. I stopped on page 252 and could not be less interested in parantage etc.
Pustefix wants to wait so I contacted the next victim.

Good luck, barnhelm!

....vielen Dank für's Schicken, bitte um ein bisschen Geduld, ich hänge total hinterher!

edit 24.06.06
aufgegeben!

book review (October 4, 2006):
I was pretty compelled by Tash Aw´s debut: a tragic story on love and betrayal set at the end of the Bristish colonizing of the Malayan peninsula just before WWII.

The book is diveded into three parts, each accounting a different perspective, each one revealing its own truths about the life of infamous China-Malayan merchant Johnny Lim: First his son Jasper attempts to cover his father´s life, whom he hated so much. The second part consists of excerpts from Snow´s diary, Jasper´s mother (she had died at his birth), wherein she had put her true feelings about Johnny´s emerge and her relationship to Kunichika in 1941. Finally the old monk Peter Wormwood, an Englishman and close friend to Johnny, remembers his time with Johnny, Snow and Kunichika.

Cleverly constructed, Aw constantly offers different views and new perspectives on the real happenings, each narrator overturns inaccuracies presented in the previous version.

The only point I may critizise is that the last part is told boring and it is sometimes a bit difficult to keep along the story line. This is a pity, because at that time things fall together.

update on roundabout participants:

humptydumpty did on want to read the book at that time, when I asked her July 25. Maybe later on. The same case with urfin, because she had been still occupied with Rushie´s book. I finally sent the book off to pustefix in the beginning of September.

remaining possible readers: humptydumpty and urfin

arrived earlier in the week, thanks! its third on my pile of tbr booker prize books.

this was very enjoyable! although not the most exciting story, it was easy to read and kept me interested. I agree with sternschnuppe that the third part is the weakest, I did skim read the garden bits. I liked the historical background, it was not anything id ever heard of. I have just started reading 'the sea' and I have to say I much prefer this.
this will travel back to quantaga now I suppose

as quantaqa doesnt want it back, ive left the book with my parents