My contribution to the 2007 Booker 'Shortlist' Challenge. All the shortlisted titles had already been allocated when I got around to joining the challenge, so I picked this one from the longlist.

I will read this then send it on a bookring to the other challenge participants. Other BookCrossers not doing the challenge are welcome to join (Australia only) - just PM me and I'll slot you in somewhere.

Posting order: (updated 2 June 2008)
DrCris (Melbourne)
livrecache (Melbourne)
frangipani08 (Brisbane)
Fleebo (Brisbane)
miss-jo (Sydney)
goodthinkingmax (Sydney)
tqd (Sydney)
jubby (Sydney)
FreePages (Canberra)
Carole888 (Perth)
Fleebo (Sydney) (didn't get to read book first time)
Back to me

Please PM me if there are any issues.

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Synopsis from the author's website http://www.tantwaneng.com/synopsis.html:

Old and sustained only by memories and regrets, Philip Hutton finds his ordered life disturbed by the unheralded arrival of a dying Japanese woman, who brings him a sword he has not seen for fifty years, and who is determined to find out the truth of his past, and of that of the man she loved. For the first time, he is able to tell his complex and painful story to someone who will both understand and forgive.

In 1939, 16-year-old Philip – the half-Chinese youngest child of Noel Hutton, head of one of Penang’s great trading families – feels alienated from both the British and Chinese communities. He discovers a sense of belonging in his unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat who rents an island from his father. Philip proudly shows his new friend around his adored island of Penang, and Endo teaches him about Japanese language and culture, and trains him in the art and discipline of aikido.

But such knowledge comes at a terrible price. The enigmatic Endo is bound by obligations of his own; and too late, as the Japanese invade Malaya, Philip realises that his sensei – to whom he owes absolute loyalty – is a Japanese spy.

Forced into collaborating with the Japanese to safeguard his family and their interests, Philip turns into the ultimate outsider, trusted by none and hated by many. Tormented by his part in events, by deaths he is powerless to prevent, he risks everything to redress his moral balance by working in secret to save as many people as he can from the savagery of the invaders, and in so doing finds out who and what he really is.

This was my best read so far this year. The writing was gorgeous and I was re-reading passages, trying to savour every word. Penang was described in such loving detail and I felt like I knew the island despite having never been there (really want to go now!). The first half of the book provided the background history and demanded concentration, but the information was woven into the story so well I never got bogged down in it. The second half covered the Japanese occupation of Malaya and made me all weepy. It made me wonder what I would have done had I been in Philip's situation, torn between two loyalties.

This book didn't make the Booker Shortlist, so I now have high expectations for the rest of the books in this year's challenge!

Posted to DrCris a few minutes ago. Happy reading!

Arrived yesterday. I am looking forward to this - the description is fabulous. There is a bit of a delay as I am about to leave on holidays for 10 days and don't want to take this book with me (I only take books on holiday that I don't have to schlep home). So I will get to this once I get back.

I had mixed feelings about this book. The story was wonderful and Penang was brought to life. However, i found the descriptiveness started to become very conscious to me. I noticed every metaphor and adjective. Towards the climax, I got caught up in the story and was able to relax into it. However, then there was the last chapter summary with its philosophical explanation, which made me all tense again. It was so close to being a novel I could love, but it needed to be a bit more restrained.

I have livrecache's address, so I will send this onto her as a surprise....

Yep! I was surprised, DrCris . . . it was the fourth bookring I got today. However, two of them were ones that had Come Home, and so it's only two to join my growing bookring pile. I hope to get a lot of reading done over the Christmas break, so hopefully I won't hold up the ring for long. I've just started a new job, which is demanding most of my attention at the moment, and that together with all the end-of-year stuff that's going on is making it quite hard to stay awake long enough to read.

Thanks for sharing star-light.

Well, I certainly learnt a lot from this book, as well as enjoying its writing style for the most part. As star-light says, one doesn't get bogged down in the wealth of information. The author invokes a wonderful sense of place. I do know what you mean about the use of language, DrCris. At times I felt it was like he was trying too hard to be a Good Writer - it didn't always seem to flow naturally. Now of course I can't find an example. But overall, despite my disparaging comments, it was really interesting, and I did enjoy it.

Thanks for sharing, star-light, and for sending it to me, DrCris.

I've pm'd the next participant, and the book will be on its way today.

Received today and it shouldn't be long till I read it.

This is the best book I have read so far from the list and it was not even shortlisted! I have been to Penang and found the descriptions very evocative of the people, the weather and the place. A cleverly written novel that kept me reading on. I loved the language and it flowed for me beautifully. It does however leave me with a sense of sadness, like it was all for nothing as there was no family to hand the company onto.
I have Fleebo's address so will get it in the mail promptly.

Received by mail. Thanks very much!

In order to get this book moving again, I have passed it directly to miss-jo. No, that's not according to bookring order, and I didn't ask star-light first (apologies), but she was visiting me and this gets the book to Sydney quickly. I hope that it will come my way again, maybe when I have nothing else waiting to be read.

I've had a period with not much time for reading lately, and I think that the book suffered in my eyes because of it. It was a great story and I loved the characters and relationships, but I never got into it enough to care too much what happened to any of them. Enjoyable, but not particularly memorable for me.

Since I'm off to Brisbane straight from work today, I'll shove this in my bag and hope to give it to goodthinkingmax at convention. If that doesn't work, I'll pm her next week.

An interesting period of history and certainly a tale I was compelled to stay with until the end. I am glad I am only reading the other journal entries for the first time now as I experienced similar reactions to the writing and language and also remained at a distance from the characters. I continued reading because I needed to know what happened and because the history intrigued me, not because I was swept away by the writing style or emotionally attached to any of the characters. Similar to DrCris I found myself very frustrated in the last chapter, especially at the trite description of "the gift of rain" on the second last page.

I am hoping to pass this to tqd at our Sydney Bookcrossers' brunch tomorrow.

Thanks, goodthinkingmax! And what a delightful brunch it was! Especially the free date scones with homemade jam that turned up and were scoffed in record time, just after we all made our "I can't eat another thing" comments. Hurrah for dessert stomachs!

I look forward to this one, one of my last Booker bookrings! And I understand the 2008 shortlist will be announced soon, so it's almost time to sign up for the 2008 bookrings, I'm guessing. :)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I have come to the realisation that I have too many books on the TBR mountain. I've been chipping away at it by ruthlessly removing books I may want to read, but haven't gotten around to in a reasonable amount of time. This book was handed over to Jubby over brunch at Lilliblack Cafe this morning.

Happy reading!

Received from TQD over a very delicious brunch.
Thank you.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Posted off to Free-pages.

I regret that after having this book so long I didn't make the time to read and appreciate it. I have heard some great things about this book, and while it sounds the sort of things I would enjoy, I'll just add the title to the list I will borrow from the public library.

Free-pages suggested that I ask to be added to the end of the list, but I can't see life easing up just yet...

Thank you, and I am sure that Free-pages will put this book through its paces.

Book's arrived and just in time to be The Easter Read. I finished a book last night so I'll probably start this tonight. Thanks Jubby for passing it along.

:-)

I finished this last week, in the wee hours of the morning, I got to a point where I couldn't put it down and had to keep reading to the end.
I quite simply loved this book. I didn't find the writing was too bad at all, but I think I was too caught up in the story to really feel analytical about the writing.
One of my favourites of the 2007 booker challenge, I think only "Mister Pip" beat it to being my favourite.
Only "Darkmans" to go in the challenge now and I've finished the 2007 bunch!


This is a book I'd highly recommend.

I have Carole888 address and it will be in the post to her soon.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:


Posted to WA today.

Happy Reading and Happy Travels.

It's arrived! Thank you so much for sending it across. I just love the postcard that came with it. What a gorgeous view of the foreshore! Thank you so much for the lovely bookmark too. I am looking forward to reading this. Will let you know how it goes ...............

I found this an engrossing read and like FreePages, I got to the point where I just couldn't put the book down. My original plan had been to read a few chapters every night .... but now my sleep has suffered .... all through my own fault, of course .... but never mind! :) I loved the descriptive passages in this book and loved the way the words flowed ..... I could see and feel everything. The book is set in a period of history that has always interested me, though when I joined the ring, I had no idea of how much I was going to experience, through reading this book.

Both my parents were children during the Japanese occupation of Malaya. Much of what was said rang true to what they have told me, over the years.... My father's family fled to the highlands for safety and moved again. My mother's family lost everything as their home was destroyed. Her father died on the Siam railway .... her brother killed in the war. Her older sisters were always told to run and hide when Japanese soldiers were around. She remembers the Japanese lessons learned at school.

Just last week, I was looking at pictures taken by a friend who visited the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion, La Maison Blue mentioned on p163 of the book. I have found the website which has a virtual tour and a picture gallery here I would love to see it one day.

I also found a picture of the home(120 Armenian st), next to Grandfather's house, mentioned on p 244 of the book as the "headquarters of the Chinese Nationalist Party". It is referred to on this website as "Dr Sun Yat Sen's Penang base" (Not the Sun Yat Sen museum which is also on the website but the Penang base).Perhaps we can now imagine the house next door as grandfather's house?!!

Thank you so much for including me on this ring, star-light and thank you so much to FreePages for sending the book this way. (FreePages, I will be on the look out for Mr Pip .... after those wonderful comments .... it must a good read!! I have 2 more book-rings looming over me first ........... )

I thought I'd look up the mann booker longlist for 2007 and put it here to refresh our memories .....

•Darkmans by Nicola Barker (4th Estate)
•Self Help by Edward Docx (Picador)
•The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
•The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
•The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (Sceptre)
•Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
•Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (Viking)
•On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
•What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn (Tindal Street)
•Consolation by Michael Redhill (William Heinemann)
•Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)
•Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (Myrmidon)
•Winnie & Wolf by A.N.Wilson (Hutchinson)

(I haven't read them all but I found the characters of "On Chesil Beach" terribly irritating..........)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

The book is travelling......... Hope the next reader enjoys it as much as I did!

(4/12/12: Adding a new journal entry as I was thinking of this book and meant to do it earlier)
In October 2011 we went to Penang and made it a point to visit La Masion Bleue - Check youtube for the Blue Mansion or Cheung Fatt Tze Mansion or even google for pictures. The Penang Heritage Counsel has done a lot of work to make it available for tourists to see. The tour was very interesting. It is also a hotel that takes in guests. I have uploaded the tiny picture collage above :)

Thank you very much for sending this book along, Carole888. I still have three bookrings ahead of it, so wish me luck...

A really great book. Very believable. The first half was so beautiful, and then the wartime story such a stark contrast - although I loved the writing throughout. I had just read "Persepolis" before this, another fabulous story with war at the heart of it... I think I need a break from big heavy stuff, it damages my faith in humanity, which was shaky to begin with.
Thank you for the chance to read this book.
Back to star-light.

Another bookring has made it safely home. Thanks to everyone for participating.