"Malaysian-British Aw makes an impressive contribution to a literature for which Conrad and Maugham are famous in the story of an audacious, successful Malaysian businessman during World War II. In 1940, Lim Seng Chin, 20-year-old descendant of poor, illiterate southern Chinese laborers transported as mine workers by the British in the late nineteenth century, renames himself Johnny Lim after the local film industry's Tarzan. He has an admirable aptitude for machinery but is blamed for mechanical failures, after which, as a shop clerk, he boldly unloads a lot of cheap Chinese gauze and unsellable batik onto a wealthy white customer by convincing her of its (dubious) value. Thereby he launches himself in the Tiger Brand Trading Company, which he buys in 1942 and renames the Harmony Silk Factory. Via Aw's fast-moving prose and shimmering dialogue, which has an odd, affecting noirish manner, three different accounts of Johnny Lim and varying views of historic and personal reality unfold while the Japanese invade, the Communist Party gathers momentum, and alliances are made and broken."

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

A RABCK travelling to Canada.
Hope it helps with the "6 books, 6 countries, 6 continents challenge"

This book was a complete surprise, included with another to fill up the package. Thanks so much, ApoloniaX! It looks like something I'll really like and it will help with the "6 books, 6 countries, 6 continents" challenge.

What kindness! You made my day.

The story of Johnny Lim is told from three different perspectives: that of his son, his wife, and his closest friend. It's interesting to see how each has a very different view of Johnny's character and motivation and of the events they go through together. At the end, you don't really know which is the most accurate or just exactly what happened.

This wasn't a straightforward story, but it was a good and interesting book. With this book, I have completed the Asian segement of the "6 books, 6 countries, 6 continents" challenge. Thanks again, ApoloniaX!

This book was chosen by j4shaw from the Contemporary Asian Literature VBB.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to j4shaw by surface mail today.

It arrived!
Sorry I have gotten a bit behind and had skipped doing a JE for this one, but its here, safe and sound.
Received as part of ApoloniaX's Asian VBB

Thanks for sending :)

I finally got around to reading this book, and used it as part of my 666 for 2011 challenge reads - which I see the BCer who had this book before me also did in 2009!
I am pleased to say that almost half way through the challenge (as well as 2011) this is the 1st book of the challenge (and year) that I have honestly enjoyed.

I am a fan of diary entry format books, although occasionally they do get a little too much, so the fact that only a segment of this book was written that way was thoroughly enjoyable. I found the characters and the scene setting by the author very clever, and the way each character's account comes to an abrupt end was both annoying yet intriguing. Looking back, all characters accounts are contradictory, and yet the reader still understands the events that took place. At first I thought that Jasper's account should be at the end, but now feel this would not work at all. Its great how even after the book has ended, the reader still thinks of and remembers the beginning clearly.
A very cleverly written book, and I look forward to reading Tash Aw's 2nd novel Map of the Invisible World (2009) in the future.

Thanks again for sharing the book with me Jumpingin

Releasing into the world
Left on the table in the staff kitchen