.....AND THE RAIN MY DRINK

by Suyin Han ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 23, 1956

This comes closer to Han Suyin's first book, Destintron Chungking in its blend of anecdote and reportage, than it does to her semi-autobiographical novel, Many Splendored Thing. Once again it has that authentic note -- as it must have happened. Here again is a poet and an artist conveying picture after picture. Here again the rhythm of the style has its own fascination. The impact of the book with its kaleidoscope of stories lies in the end impression of the amorphous tragedy of Malaya today. Han Suyin- who writes a large portion of the text in the first person- is a doctor in a hospital across the straits from Singapore, and through the hospital doors pour a vast segment of the population of a Malayan village- a village, in this instance, where natives and Chinese resettlement projects are under way. One gets a grim picture of British colonialism reenstated, operating again with bungling, stupidity, rapaciousness, while the thinking of the Asians is no longer the same. The murder of the district commissioner (good riddance) sets off the fuse. Suspicion, police state methods, reprisals, a far flung net intended to capture the guilty ends by snaring guilty and innocent. The stories emerge, sometimes through the telling of Han Suyin, sometimes at third hand with a wide range of characters. The battle is on between the ""red heads"" and the Chinese and the natives, both those who play up to the masters, and those who have gone to the jungles- the ""people inside"", aided and supported by an intricate chain linking villagers and internees, refugees, and guerrillas. One feels the hopelessness of the Western mind coping with a situation rife with danger, explosive with hate, and futile in any attempt at cooperation. One has sympathy with Luke, the earnest young detective, who sees the wrong- but can't get his understanding across; with Han Suylin, who loves the people, knows the impossibility of solution along colonial lines; and with a few others. But for most of the characters, one has dislike for their duplicity, impatience with their clumsy stupidity, and awareness that this way leads to wholesale acceptance of the Communism offered as a substitute.

Pub Date: Oct. 23, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1956

Categories: NONFICTION