[books 2012] Of Bees and Mist
Apr. 28th, 2012 03:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro23. Of Bees and Mist by Eric Setiawan
See? I do get out of my comfort zone. Occasionally. I never would have touched this book normally - it sounded too girly, and whimsical, to appeal to me, but when I read that the author is an American born in Indonesia, I was interested.
He combines magical realism as we understand it with an Oriental world-view where the supernatural is an accepted part of daily life (something Kermode writes about in his assessment of Asian horror films, see review above) in a really clever way.
At its core it's a story about three strong women and their struggles when they come up against each other, over 10 years in an un-named Indonesian town. Unfortunately this means that the men in the story are all quite pathetic and easily influenced. Except for the one who is outright evil.
Plus, it's domestic, family stuff. Aside from reading it as a warning against being a woman in a society where you're one step above property and have to go live with the in-laws when you get married (well, DUH!) I didn't take much away from this book.
This is a really well-written, good, culturally interesting book, but just not for me.
I bought this, but won't be keeping it - if anybody wants it, please shout and it's yours. Like I said, it's really good, just So Not Me.
See? I do get out of my comfort zone. Occasionally. I never would have touched this book normally - it sounded too girly, and whimsical, to appeal to me, but when I read that the author is an American born in Indonesia, I was interested.
He combines magical realism as we understand it with an Oriental world-view where the supernatural is an accepted part of daily life (something Kermode writes about in his assessment of Asian horror films, see review above) in a really clever way.
At its core it's a story about three strong women and their struggles when they come up against each other, over 10 years in an un-named Indonesian town. Unfortunately this means that the men in the story are all quite pathetic and easily influenced. Except for the one who is outright evil.
Plus, it's domestic, family stuff. Aside from reading it as a warning against being a woman in a society where you're one step above property and have to go live with the in-laws when you get married (well, DUH!) I didn't take much away from this book.
This is a really well-written, good, culturally interesting book, but just not for me.
I bought this, but won't be keeping it - if anybody wants it, please shout and it's yours. Like I said, it's really good, just So Not Me.
