The harmony silk factory - Tash AW

Winner of the 2005 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (South East Asia and South Pacific, best first book) and 2005 Whitbread first novel award

The harmony silk factory in Malaysia in the early 1940s - a period in which their invasion of the country started the Japanese is set. The book is divided into three parts, each tells the story of Johnny Lim, a textile merchant with shady past from a different perspective.

The book started really well. Writing was fantastic, and I was told quickly drawn, life, Johnny's account of his son Jasper.  Johnny was a fantastic character - I loved how he got out of different scratch and became one of the most important men in the field of view.

Some people are made with a strip of malice, born by you. It poisoned their blood for swimming in their veins as a mysterious virus. It can lurk silently for many years, only occasionally appear. Good times can temporarily suppress these instincts, and the person can also occur well intentioned and honest. Sooner or later, WINS but the cold hatred on. It is an incurable disease.

Unfortunately, the wonderful storytelling came to an abrupt end when we reached part 2 (p120). The Narrator on snow (Johnny's wife) and the prose took the form of a diary. The story as Johnny and snow came to marry nowhere near as interesting as part 1 and the diary was the pace was slower. Very little has happened in this section, and my mind wandered from the page at several points.

Part 3 was narrated by Englishman Peter wormwood, and many of the events which tells in the book, but from a slightly different perspective being reviewed. I never to Pernod heats and found difficult to read most of this section a real. I acknowledge that the point is to show how people can see the same person in a different light, but it meant that I fought to maintain an emotional connection in the entire story. I wish the whole book in the style of the first part was written had and not trying to get too clever.

Overall there to enjoy much in this book, but the frustrating last section left the book on a low note.

Have read Tash AW of latest book,Map of the invisible world?

Is is better than this?

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