January 10, 2006
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So Tash Aw didn’t get a whiff closer to the
Booker Prize than a mention in the long list (Banvile won), but what a whiff
for someone who apparently appeared from nowhere. Never mind that. Aw’s sophomore effort The Harmony Silk Factory,
was recently announced the Whitbread First Novel 2005 winner which is sure to
move more books off the shelves. It’s a competent story if not a little uneven,
and Aw’s forays into exotica is a mite too self-conscious.
The Harmony Silk Factory has a
Rashomon-like narrative presenting the recollections of 4 protagonists in
colonial
Snow Soong who became Jasper’s mother; and Englishman, Wormwood. Johnny whose
shady dealings earn him bragging rights as the richest man in
across as a typical Chinese man who is as inscrutable as he is unrefined – at
least compared to the delicate and high born Snow Soong who ends up becoming
his wife. Snow is the languid beauty caught in some kind of love triangle, but
you wonder what the fuss is all about because she is also the least interesting
of the four. What is interesting to me, however, is the backdrop – the
geography and culture - which is immediately recognisable to one who lives in
and is familiar with its history.
The rising literary star is an engaging
storyteller and a genuine talent, and I predict, Aw could well be the next
Asian celeb writer. In time. 33 year-old Tash Aw was born in
his childhood in
in his late teens where he now lives. This explains why Malaysians are
embracing him as their own, as if Aw’s own achievement somehow redeems our
lowly station in a constellation of explosive Asian luminaries. It’s something
that embarrasses me no end and I don’t understand the media’s shameless complicity.
Review: Colonial fantasies put to rest
Interview: Tash for Cash
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