Nuraliah Norasid

[Prefacing this review to say that my honest review is 4 stars but putting it as 5 stars to make up for the trolls deliberately rating this book low with racially-charged comments like there's too much malay flavour or bullshit like that.]

In writing about the experience of the marginalised, in entering into that often tumultuous discourse, so much is put up for debate. The form is often one of the ways the author can gain control over how the discussion is set. In this case, writing it in this form of some kind of contemporary fantasy mixed with classical mythical tropes is brilliant in more ways than one.

The story is set in Manticura, but of course we know that Manticura is based on Singapore. Malay words pepper the language of sce'dal, spoken by those in the book who are not considered fully 'Human' and references are made to Jawi (which was the script Malays used before we adopted the English alphabet), sanskrit (I think), and various cultural practices that are now gone. Things like chewing betel leaves which I can only ever see again in a P. Ramlee film.

Some things are very blatant like how the marginalised in Manticura are literally dehumanised. The scereans, the medusa sisters, the cayanese.. they literally have physical traits that visibly set them apart from their Human counterparts (in our world of course it's the colour of your skin, if we're talking about physical difference). The furtive efforts they make into concealing difference is something you can sort of understand if you've lived a life going through it. Ria & Barani constantly pull at the shawl above their heads to conceal their snakes, Eedric takes great pains not to reveal he's a changer, those whose difference are less apparent are considered 'luckier' because they get to assimilate easier with Humans. (sort of like how you're considered 'prettier' in Singapore if you're fairer and if your hair is straight, or whatever it is that gives you that backhanded compliment "You're pretty for a Malay/Indian girl".).

A population of them literally live away from acceptable society, literally in the dark, underground in Nelroote. For those who live "above" in Manticura, they are demographically poor, and subjected to prejudicial attitudes and discrimination, of course. The way the state deals with them is also blatantly clear in terms of finding it acceptable to subject them to violence and treating them as something that ought to be 'controlled' the moment it has failed to be properly concealed from wider society.

The strongest, most moving parts of the book, I think, was writing about the conflict people often feel when it comes to confronting difference. Racism is what this book is about, of course (in case it isn't clear to anyone by now) but I think racism is largely about the failure to embrace and confront difference. I felt the conflict that lan faced was particularly moving. For the marginalised and especially the poor, there can be a lot of guilt and shame associated with moving up and away from the environment & circumstances that you grew up in. Lan hears the same refrain we hear all the time -- you think you're better than us, you want to leave us behind, you're a traitor, you would forget your family to prove that you're one of them now. There is also some discussion about the issue of being bi-racial.. Eedric is literally told by his father that is 'tainted' because he is his mother's son and his mother is not human. His father is obsessed with appearing "acceptable" at the expense of allowing Eedric to healthily accept the fact of his identity. It would take long to go through it all.

Ok this is meant to be a short review I would want to write a proper one later. But one last thing -- The stark divide between the narrative of the past with Ria & Barani back when they lived in a village & then to the present with Eedric's narrative has been mentioned in a review to be too stark. But for me, this starkness is actually a reality of how a Malay person is often so detached from our history. It is still surreal sometimes to think that our history on this land is very long one, stretching centuries. Yet our historical consciousness as Singaporeans is utterly cut off from that because Singapore's historical memory is one that does not include that. To acknowledge that is to mix our historical memory with another nation's & that's not good for nationalism, perhaps. In any case, I found this stylistic 'lapse' not to be a lapse, but in fact a true reflection of reality.… (más)