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17th out of 130 books
—
44 voters
The Gift of Rain
by
Tan Twan Eng
"The Gift of Rain spans decades as it takes readers from the final days of the Chinese emperors to the dying era of the British Empire, and through the mystical temples, bustling cities,and forbidding rain forests of Malaya." In 1939, sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton - the half-Chinese, half-English youngest child of the head of one of Penang's great trading families - feels...more
Paperback, 447 pages
Published
by Myrmidon
(first published March 8th 2007)
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When I realized that this book was set in South East Asia I had to plunge into it. SE Asia is one of my favorite areas in the world. Whenever it is mentioned, memories from my visits and from having lived there are immediately summoned back in my mind.
Memories of books, which I hold responsible for first igniting my imagination and fascination with the place, inevitably also spring back. The most memorable are Lord Jim and Somerset Maugham’s Casuarina Tree and Other Stories but perhaps the latt...more
Memories of books, which I hold responsible for first igniting my imagination and fascination with the place, inevitably also spring back. The most memorable are Lord Jim and Somerset Maugham’s Casuarina Tree and Other Stories but perhaps the latt...more
NO SPOILERS
This book is clearly a mixed bag for me. It is in short about Philip, the son of a British father and Chinese mother, and his relationship with his Japanese sensei. It takes place in Malaya during WW2 when the Japanese occupied the country, sending the British running for their lives. The friendship between Philip and his older Japanese teacher, his sensei, begins before the occupation, before Philip ever became aware of the conflict of interests that will arise between the Malayan in...more
This book is clearly a mixed bag for me. It is in short about Philip, the son of a British father and Chinese mother, and his relationship with his Japanese sensei. It takes place in Malaya during WW2 when the Japanese occupied the country, sending the British running for their lives. The friendship between Philip and his older Japanese teacher, his sensei, begins before the occupation, before Philip ever became aware of the conflict of interests that will arise between the Malayan in...more
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This is my new favorite book! I was taken in by the first sentence; by the second chapter, I knew I had a winner on my hands. This is a beautiful, sad story told in the most exquisite language. Each sentence is a jewel. It is a book I'll read over and over again. It is a book to recommend to my best friends.
In 1939 sixteen-year-old Philip Hatton, who is half Chinese and half British, doesn't feel that he fits in anywhere. He becomes friends with another outsider Hayato Endo, who is a Japanese d...more
In 1939 sixteen-year-old Philip Hatton, who is half Chinese and half British, doesn't feel that he fits in anywhere. He becomes friends with another outsider Hayato Endo, who is a Japanese d...more
Like another reviewer here, I think there's something about this book that bespeaks a neophyte author -- but a skilled one, and one whose next work I'll anticipate eagerly.
Lots of description, but it's lush and luminous and evokes a sensuous sense of place. I enjoyed the characterizations (especially of the narrator). Philip Hutton is a sympathetic character, as he is torn between two ways of looking at, and living, life: accepting our non-control, and recognizing that we make choices. I was gl...more
Lots of description, but it's lush and luminous and evokes a sensuous sense of place. I enjoyed the characterizations (especially of the narrator). Philip Hutton is a sympathetic character, as he is torn between two ways of looking at, and living, life: accepting our non-control, and recognizing that we make choices. I was gl...more
The setting is the island of Penang, off the coast of Malaya. The population is a complex mix of races, ideologies, and income levels. Chinese, Japanese, Malays, British, Indians, and many people of mixed race share this tiny island and have a history of tensions and race/class divisions. However, they've managed to find ways to live together in relative harmony.
When the Japanese occupy the island during World War II, concerns for personal and family safety lead to treachery and betrayal among t...more
When the Japanese occupy the island during World War II, concerns for personal and family safety lead to treachery and betrayal among t...more
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When I come across books such as this one, I'm blown away at the amount of people I know who choose not to read. I'm also blown away that a book like this doesn't get as much attention as the Twilight Saga. Twilight makes me want to throw-up on the mere thought of the book being the phenomenon that it is. Books like The Gift of Rain put me in awe, and I think, even though atheist, I hope if there is a heaven, it's as good as this writing. I'm shocked that this was the author's first novel. This...more
I know this book got some rave reviews, but about halfway thru I almost abandoned it. Which is odd because when I started it, I was fully engrossed and had that happy feeling of finding a book that I looked forward to nestling with and entering. I found the writing to be too flowery, and I also got bored. I did skim the rest of the book, which says alot since once I decide I'm bored I usually completely abandon it. I wanted to know what happened, and historically it's fascinating. But the heart...more
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In a glib mood, I would summarize this as "The Karate Kid meets The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles," but that doesn't really do justice to the emotional power of this story about a half-British, half-Chinese teen in 1940s Malaya who befriends a newly arrived Japanese diplomat and begins to study aikido from him, then gradually learns that he's being used as a pawn in the buildup to a military invasion. It's a drama about family, about friendship, about war, about karmic cycles, and about coming to term...more
This book probably deserves something more than 3 stars, but less than 4. The historical background of WWII in Penang, Malaysia, and Singapore was fascinating. But I wonder if the book would have been as interesting without this background...rather than being character-driven, it was event-driven. There are plenty of precedents for authors using actual historical events to create a great story, but in this case, I felt the characters just needed a little more substance. Nonetheless, still an abs...more
Fabulous book! This is one of my favorite books. I will edit this review to include a better description - but, in the meantime, please read this book.
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This is one of the best books I've read in years. At it's core it's about doing the right thing in a very gray world -- a world where the right thing and the wrong thing are hardly distinguishable. It's about moving forward after you've made a choice.
I wept for the staggering grief in Phillip Hutton's life, and I applauded the young man who set forth to do the right thing, no matter how murky that might be.
In addition to the great story, the author did a stellar job with invoking the setting a...more
I wept for the staggering grief in Phillip Hutton's life, and I applauded the young man who set forth to do the right thing, no matter how murky that might be.
In addition to the great story, the author did a stellar job with invoking the setting a...more
This unforgettable story is set during the time when the Japanese invaded Malaysia. It is a work of fiction and contains an enormous amount of interesting historical fact but never gets bogged down by the detail. On the contrary, it left me with a hunger to find out more. It is primarily a book about moral ambiguity, courage, loyalty, love, sorrow, honour, duty and redemption. The story starts off with an aging Phillip Hutton meeting a mysterious Japanese woman, whose great love for a deceased m...more
This novel is wonderful! The story unfolds quietly in late 1995 when a mysterious Japanese woman knocks at the door of Phillip Hutton (a man of mixed parentage - English father and Chinese mother) and asks about the great love of her life Hayato Endo (Endo-san). As they reminisce the story returns to the city of 1939 Penang before the invasion of the Japanese in 1941. This is Phillip's life - an extremely wealthy and privileged young man not yet graduated from high school who doesn't know where...more
Having been accused of never reading non-fiction, I selected this book partly to correct that impression, but also chose it carefully for its historical landscape and background (Malaysia just before and during the Second World War)--a period and geography I know something about but hoped to learn more.
On the content side, it fulfilled that wish. Set in Penang 1939, all its streets, peoples and history seemed authentic as I have walked many of these streets and seen many of the sites mentioned....more
On the content side, it fulfilled that wish. Set in Penang 1939, all its streets, peoples and history seemed authentic as I have walked many of these streets and seen many of the sites mentioned....more
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Apr 13, 2012
Henrietta
marked it as to-read
reco by Evie Peisner.
"The Gift of Rain spans decades as it takes readers from the final days of the Chinese emperors to the dying era of the British Empire, and through the mystical temples, bustling cities,and forbidding rain forests of Malaya." In 1939, sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton - the half-Chinese, half-English youngest child of the head of one of Penang's great trading families - feels alienated from both the Chinese and British communities. He discovers a sense of belonging in his unexp...more
"The Gift of Rain spans decades as it takes readers from the final days of the Chinese emperors to the dying era of the British Empire, and through the mystical temples, bustling cities,and forbidding rain forests of Malaya." In 1939, sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton - the half-Chinese, half-English youngest child of the head of one of Penang's great trading families - feels alienated from both the Chinese and British communities. He discovers a sense of belonging in his unexp...more
Eng writes with an amazing ability to place vivid images in my mind. His prose is lyrical and I couldn’t stop reading, feasting on these pictures. What is loyalty? How do you show love for your family? Set among the atrocities of World War 2 in Malaya, Eng creates beauty even as you try to avert your eyes. I will re-read this book!
Favortie Quotes:
“…the great human capacity for choosing not to see.”
“Do not let your ties to the past – or fear of the future – direct the course of your life, becaus...more
Favortie Quotes:
“…the great human capacity for choosing not to see.”
“Do not let your ties to the past – or fear of the future – direct the course of your life, becaus...more
In 1939 life in Malaya (now called Malaysia) changed forever. The haze of British colonialism, class structures, calm and everyday life disappeared with the invasion of the Japanese. Author Tan Twan Eng uses this dramatic backdrop for his novel The Gift of Rain, a vivid coming of age story. And. A 2007 Man Booker nominee.
When the novel opens a surprise visit from a stranger forces Philip Hutton to look back on the changes that over took his life fifty years earlier when he was a young man. It w...more
When the novel opens a surprise visit from a stranger forces Philip Hutton to look back on the changes that over took his life fifty years earlier when he was a young man. It w...more
I felt that this book promised more than it delivered. The first part of the book tells of the life of Philip Hutton, child of an English father and a Chinese mother, growing up in Penang, where his father owns and runs one of the biggest export companies, Hutton and Sons. Philip doesn't really know where he fits in and what his place is in the world until he meets Endo-san, a Japanese man who has come to Penang to work for the Japanese consulate and who becomes Philip's sensai, teaching him aik...more
Perhaps because as a teenager I took martial arts (GoJo Ryu karate) and, more recently, I have become a student of yoga (in particular Jnana yoga), I found “The Gift of Rain” by Tan Twan Eng to be a beautiful book. Longlisted for the 2007 Booker Prize, this is not a perfect book by any means, but it's an enigmatic one that will give the reader much to consider on each subsequent read.
Penang in 1939 is home to young Philip Hutton. A loner, the half-Chinese, half-English Philip feels he belongs to...more
Penang in 1939 is home to young Philip Hutton. A loner, the half-Chinese, half-English Philip feels he belongs to...more
Very lyrical. A moving story about the mixing of cultures and the fate of a boy becoming a man.
Page 1
"I was born with the gift of rain, an ancient soothsayer in an even more ancient temple once told me.
This was back ina time when I did not believe in fortune-tellers, when the world was not yet filled with wonder and mystery. I cannot recall her appearance now, the woman who read my face and touched the lines on my palms. She said what she was put into this world to say, to those for whom he prop...more
Page 1
"I was born with the gift of rain, an ancient soothsayer in an even more ancient temple once told me.
This was back ina time when I did not believe in fortune-tellers, when the world was not yet filled with wonder and mystery. I cannot recall her appearance now, the woman who read my face and touched the lines on my palms. She said what she was put into this world to say, to those for whom he prop...more
The Gift of Rain is difficult to classify. Phillip Hutton, the 16 year old narrator, tells of the intersections between Malayan and British colonial culture in the last moments before the Japanese attack of WWII. Phillip, a late child born to an English father and a Chinese mother has never fit in with his three older siblings- children of his father's first marriage to an English woman. Phillip's outcast status makes him ripe for a protege relationship with an older Japanese sensei who comes to...more
I agree with other readers of this book that 'The Gift of Rain' is good movie-material. There's the lush exotic setting in a time of change and conflict, the coming-of-age theme, the mysticism of the east, the story of divided ethnic groups and loyalties...While I would give the author high-marks on story-telling and for making credible the extreme and tragic plot elements, he is less successful at constructing unique and interesting characters; in a novel with this kind of historical sweep, I g...more
I am not quite sure why, but I really do not know what to make out of this novel. On one hand, I love the fact that author Tan Twan Eng’s vivid, descriptive style of writing makes magnificent work of bringing the lovely landscapes (and seascapes) of Malaya, as well as his numerous multi-faceted characters to life. I love that I am reading about events and places that I have historical connections to; I love that, despite the constraints of historical accuracy, Tan’s marvellous tinkering with his...more
May 09, 2012
Stephanie Patil
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
third-tuesday-s-bookclub
I appreciated the detailed descriptions the author used to make real a place (Malaya) and time (Japanese invasion of China and Malaya during WW II--and some antecedents) that I was not familiar with. Some examples: (p 75) Stark, skeletal flower arrangements stood on low tables, (p. 80) What set it apart was its color. The entire house had been given a coat of light yellow, the sort of color no European would ever use to paint his walls. (p.95) ..eunuchs panicked and many escaped into the night,...more
I bought this book because it’s about Penang. I liked it for 3 reasons mainly: I know Penang, and the places described in the book are familiar to me; Penang is a fascinating place; and it has a fascinating history. This is a good story too, the one of Phil Hutton who, full of memories and regrets, tells the whole thing to a Japanese visitor.
But I do not like the "saga" style – you have to read the story of the whole family, in this case, from the final days of the Chinese Emperors till the end...more
But I do not like the "saga" style – you have to read the story of the whole family, in this case, from the final days of the Chinese Emperors till the end...more
Apr 27, 2013
Susan
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
bright-young-things-british-empire
This beautiful, lyrical and descriptive novel is set in Penang before,during and after WWII. The main character is Philip Hutton, the half Chinese, half English son of businessman Noel Hutton. Fifty years after the war, Philip is visited by a Japanese woman, named Michiko. She was once in love with Hayato Endo-san, the Japanese man who became Philip's teacher and mentor. Her visit evokes memories and feelings and results in his telling her the story of his life.
Throughout his childhood, Philip f...more
Throughout his childhood, Philip f...more
That Tan Twan Eng's first book raised enough eyebrows in Britain to be considered for a Booker Prize should indicate the author's budding talent. Indeed, reviews were strong across the board, and even the critics who took issue with aspects of Eng's style that may occasionally come across as overdone
This was so beautifully written. One of the themes explored was the sense of duty - to one's country, to one's tutor, to one's parents - that is much stronger in Asian cultures than in western ones and is sometimes difficult to understand. It asks the questions, what would you do for the people you love? Does it make it any less wrong if you murder someone/lie/cheat, etc., if you are doing it to save someone you love?
Destiny or free will. Duty or honor. Family or country. Loyalty or betrayal. A thousand thousand lifetimes to seek balance and harmony. And for whom? Early in the story, a fortune teller in a snake temple tells the half British-half Chinese Philip Hutton that he has the gift of rain. The long painful history of China and Japan, and both countries' experience of the British is melded with the sanctity of the sensei/student bond in aikijutsu, and the piercing pain of loving another country's daugh...more
The Gift of Rain is a memoir, the journal of a young boy's coming of age amid the turmoil of WWII in Malaya, a lest-we-forget memorial to the victims of war crimes, a melancholy blues sung to a disappearing world : the exotic cauldron of races and cultures in colonial Penang that is being swallowed up by modern, impersonal highrise developments. I was ready to be enchanted right from the opening stanza, a quote from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby :
I am fading away....more
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| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Young Things: The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng | 12 | 34 | May 03, 2013 11:25pm | |
| Their love was romantic. | 2 | 28 | Oct 10, 2012 02:37pm |
Tan Twan Eng was born in 1972 in Penang, but lived in various places in Malaysia as a child. He studied law at the University of London and later worked as lawyer in one of Kuala Lumpur’s most reputable law firms. He also has a first-dan ranking in aikido and is a strong proponent for the conservation of heritage buildings.
Tan Twan Eng talked about his background, his second novel, and his writing...more
More about Tan Twan Eng...
Tan Twan Eng talked about his background, his second novel, and his writing...more
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“To have memories, happy or sorrowful, is a blessing, for it shows we have lived our lives without reservation.”
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“Accept that there are things in this world we can never explain and life will be understandable. That is the irony of life. It is also the beauty of it.”
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May 04, 2013 10:24am
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