Word: reader
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Noelle Eckley, who is not a Crimson editor, is The Crimson's Reader Representative. She can be reached at eckley...
...certain degree, this is the problem which confronts the Westernized, tabloid-hardened reader of Catherine Lim's The Bondmaid, a novel which hits American bookstores this month. Lim, a best-selling author in Singapore for years, saw her latest manuscript rejected by every major publishing house at home before publishing it herself. Deemed objectionable and too "adult" by mainstream literary houses, the book promptly hit the top of Singapore's bestseller lists, leading to publication and distribution rights abroad...
...nothing else, Lim deserves credit for her perseverance in resisting a ridiculously over-conservative mainstream. But controversy is no synonym for quality, and the reader tends to waver between feeling admiration for Lim, and wondering what all the hoopla is about...
...Bondmaid's strengths lies in its exploration of the relationships between the servants. As Han realizes more and more the complexities of the life of a bondmaid (a kind of slave), so too does the reader: as Han makes friends and enemies among her fellow servants, so too are the portraits of these characters increasingly more intimate with the succession of the chapters...
Even this goddess is but a representation of the greater, untapped power within Han herself: in the epilogue of the book the reader discovers that numerous miracles have taken place near the pond where Han saw her demise. As further proof of her immortality, in a tiny shack on the property, the Master Wu awaits the day when the "Goddess with Eyes and Ears" will return...