My Rating: 4 stars
First of all, let me just say that this book definitely did not read like a debut to me. The writing flowed beautifully, the characters were fully fleshed out and developed, and the historical as well as cultural details were meticulously rendered to the point that I felt completely immersed and transported to the time and place of the story (Japanese-occupied Malaya during WWII). One of the things I love about historical fiction is its ability to bring awareness to events / people / situations, etc., in history through the means of an engaging story, with the best ones often triggering a desire to read up on the subject matter more after finishing the book itself. In this case, even though I was already familiar with the Japanese occupation of various Asian countries during WWII (given my Chinese background, I grew up hearing endless stories about the antagonism between China and Japan during that time), I still felt compelled to read more about the events mentioned in the book (specifically, the Japanese invasion and occupation of Malaysia from 1941 to 1945). In her author letter, Vanessa Chan mentions her inspiration for the book being from her grandparents, who were initially reluctant to talk about those Occupation years, but ultimately relented and provided her with the many insights into how they survived that time period, many details of which she eventually incorporated into her story.
The angle that Chan ended up taking with this story — having it revolve around a wife and mother in British-colonized Malaya who provides intelligence to a Japanese general that ultimately ushers in a brutal occupation — was an interesting and unique one. When the story opens in February 1945, Cecily's family is in a bad spot: her husband Gordon, formerly a high-ranking bureaucrat in the British-run colonial government, has been reduced to doing physical labor at a sheet-metal factory; her teenage son Abel has just disappeared, following the fate of other boys in the town who were kidnapped to a camp guarded by Japanese soldiers; her youngest daughter Jasmin has to hide in the basement all day to avoid being recruited into service at the comfort stations; and her eldest daughter Jujube is pushed to the brink of madness trying to protect her little sister while also attempting to maintain order in the household. Seeing her family coming apart at the seams, Cecily understands that this is all her doing — we are then taken back to 10 years earlier, where we get Cecily's backstory and how she came to meet the man who would change her life forever: Shigeru Fujiwara, a charismatic Japanese general who convinces Cecily to work with him to achieve the goal of "Asia for Asians" by overthrowing the British colonial government in Malaya. Their efforts prove successful and the Japanese invade a few years later. Unfortunately, the Japanese occupiers turn out to be cruel and callous, killing "more people in three years than the British colonizers had in fifty." The rest of the story alternates between these two time periods as well as between the perspectives of Cecily and her three children, with the timelines eventually merging as the war comes to an end and we see the impact of Cecily's actions on both her family as well as on the community at large.
This was one of those books that I almost finished in one sitting, as the story was so compelling that I found myself unable to stop turning the pages. With that said however, this was also a difficult and exhausting read due to the heavy subject matter — while this was expected given the premise going into it, what I didn't expect was the emotional depth of the characters, who were each written in ways that made it hard not to feel for them in some capacity, despite their actions. As I was reading, I was honestly preparing myself to hate both Fujiwara and Cecily, but when I got to the end, well, let's just say that I had to rethink my feelings about them (and I'm still thinking about it, even now).
One of the things that also struck me about this book was how much I resonated with certain aspects of it — not the parts about espionage or the war of course, but rather the complexity of the feelings and circumstances that inform some of the characters' decisions. I think this complexity is best described by Chan herself in her author's note where she states: "I wrote about inherited pain, womanhood, mothers, daughters, and sisters, and how the choices we make reverberate through the generations of our families and communities in ways we often can't predict. I wrote about carrying the legacy of colonization in your body, about being drawn to a toxic man, about complicated friendships, about living a life in fragments, about the ambiguity of right and wrong when survival is at stake." Indeed, I can relate to nearly all of these things due to having encountered them in some form in my own life. Perhaps this is also why I was able to empathize with many of the characters, even the unlikable ones who made the worst of decisions — with Cecily specifically, her actions were inexcusable and unforgivable of course, but she also paid the ultimate price for what she did…whether what she endured was punishment enough, that will be for each reader to determine.
Received ARC from Marysue Rucci Books via NetGalley.
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