Word: aw
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...Okay-lah. Yet the sleepy, soggy Kinta Valley comes alive in Aw's fluid prose, and the mythical Seven Maidens are as idyllic as any Malaysian isles. World War II and the cloud of collaboration hang over Johnny and his country, while the absurdities of British rule clearly shape his urge to become rich and cultured. Of course, these are concerns shared by people throughout Asia, Africa and other places who have known foreign domination and who have their own quiet valleys and lush islands to treasure in this age of onrushing development. Aw's triumph is to have produced...
...electronics assembly workers, but poor in novelists. That's an odd deficit, given the country's high levels of literacy, prosperity and anxiety, as well as an abundance of history, politics, ethnic tension and other delicate topics that can be used as material. All of which makes Tash Aw's debut novel worthy of close inspection...
...first major work of fiction written in English by a Malaysian about his country in recent memory, Aw's The Harmony Silk Factory has won enthusiastic reviews since its publication in March in the U.S. and the U.K. Foreign rights have been sold in nearly a dozen countries, and the book will appear in Asia in June. Malaysians looking for insights into their country's modern condition may be disappointed. Other readers may find themselves enjoyably lost in a land of magic and mayhem...
...Harmony Silk Factory doesn't strain to be The Great Malaysian Novel. That's a deliberate decision by Aw, 33, who considers himself "100% Malaysian," though born in Taipei (to Malaysian-Chinese parents), raised in Kuala Lumpur, educated at Cambridge and now resident in London. "I didn't set out to incorporate any particularly Malaysian themes," Aw said from New York City, where he was on a promotional tour. "My intention was to demolish the Malaysian historical novel of the 1930s and '40s, as influenced by Somerset Maugham. You know, the idea that there are only two versions of Malaysia...
...don’t misunderstand me—I love the song. Whenever I hear the lurching guitar progression and the aw-shucks lyrics (“Preppy girls never looked at me / Why should they? / I ain’t nobody, got nothing in my pocket,” etc.), I beam with old-school geek pride and want to get drunk off one beer and run across the Yard...