The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng

Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng’s debut novel is a tale about the bonds of friendship and family, set amidst Penang Island in the turbulent years leading up to and after the Second World War. The story is told from the point of view of the protagonist, Philip Khoo-Hutton, a man in his twilight years who seeks to understand the events of his youth and his role in bringing them about. As he reminisces to a friend, the story unfolds. This is a voluminous novel, spanning almost 500 pages and was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2007.

Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng’s debut novel The Gift of Rain is a tale about the bonds of friendship and family, set amidst Penang Island in the turbulent years leading up to and after the Second World War. The story is told from the point of view of the protagonist, Philip Khoo-Hutton, a man in his twilight years who seeks to understand the events of his youth and his role in bringing them about. As he reminisces to a friend, the story unfolds.

Philip’s prominent family, the Huttons, are the 3rd generation descendants of English settlers who have achieved fame and success in the running of their business concern, Hutton & Sons which was founded by Philip’s great-grandfather, Graham Hutton and now under the control of Philip’s father, Noel Hutton. Noel Hutton has 3 other children (William, Edward and Isabel) from a previous marriage to an Englishwoman. Upon her death, he had remarried a local Chinese lady, Khoo Yu Lian (Philip’s mother) from a well to do family. As a child of mixed-parentage, the young Philip feels torn between two worlds – his father’s and his mother’s. He is called a “half-breed” by the locals and “slant-eyed” by the European community.

This feeling of non-belonging leads Philip to stay behind one holiday as the Huttons take one of their regular sojourns home to Mother England. In the solitude of their palatial sea-side mansion called Istana (which means “palace” in the local Malay language), Philip comes to befriend his father’s “tenant”, a man who has rented the Hutton’s small island just a short distance out to sea from Istana. His name is Hayato Endo or Endo-san, as Philip calls him.

Endo-san is the Deputy Consul at the Japanese Consulate on Penang Island and is an avid photographer of the local scenery. As Philip begins to spend more time with Endo-san, each day rowing his boat to the island, Endo-san agrees to impart his skill in aikijutsu to Philip in return for Philip’s giving him a tour of Georgetown, Penang and later, the surrounding Malayan states. (From this point onwards, the book is littered with various aikijutsu jargon and its underlying philosophy of violence as an act of last resort)

The world is at war and there are references to the advances made by the Axis in Europe and the slaughter of innocent civilians in China by the invading Japanese military. Life in Malaya is relatively tranquil with both the colonials and locals in agreement that Japan would never invade or successfully mount such an attempt against the might of the British Empire. Malaya was protected by Fortress Singapore with its heavy guns all trained at the sea as military tacticians anticipate a Japanese assault to start from the South China Sea.

The Huttons return from England. Philip’s eldest half-brother William, wastes no time in joining the war effort and is assigned to HMS Prince of Wales to form the main British bulwark at sea near Singapore awaiting the Japanese landing. (Later, the HMS Prince of Wales would go down at sea together with the HMS Repulse, both sunk by Japanese aircraft)

Much to his father’s chagrin, Philip spends more and more time with Endo-san, showing him around Penang and its surroundings and travelling with him to Kuala Lumpur; sharing his knowledge of Malaya and its peoples. This would also later prove to have disastrous results as bits and pieces of information from Philip are gathered and passed back to the Japanese Government, enabling its war planners to alter the plans for the assault on Malaya by having Japanese invading troops enter from the South of Thailand and down towards Singapore from its unguarded rear. To overcome the difficult terrain, the troops transport themselves on bicycles – just like Philip did when exploring with Endo-san earlier.

The relationship between the Sensei (or Master) and student is further forged when the Japanese Imperial Army takes over and occupies Malaya. The ‘liberation’ of Malaya by the Japanese is anything but and soon violence, summary executions, rape and pillage are exacted on the local populace to ensure total submission. (The author asks the simple question of how a race that prides itself with so much cultural refinement and finesse such as the Japanese can resort to such brutal and barbaric behaviour during war. It is something that I myself find hard to understand about the Japanese psyche.) Endo-san works within the confines of his duties to protect Philip and on a few occasions cover up his actions against the Japanese. Throughout the book, there are instances of Endo-san’s inner struggle between what he perceives to be his duty to his country, that is, to obey and carry out the orders of his superiors, and to walk away from all the aggression and pursue that which his heart truly yearns for – his love for a woman he left behind in Japan and to practice the discipline and philosophy of peaceful co-existence advocated by aikijutsu.

To survive, Philip offers his service to the Japanese Occupying Forces and through Endo-san is recruited as a translator at the Consulate. Using his position, he passes information to his Chinese friends who are in the local resistance groups to be used in their acts of subterfuge and sabotage against the Japanese. In the capacity of translator, he is also brought along by the Japanese on raids of villages to flush out members of the Resistance. He witnesses (and is helpless to do anything) the capture and massacre of people he knew. Some locals regard him as a Japanese collaborator and some, a saviour. His own father is unable to accept his decision to work for the Japanese. His work with the Japanese also tears apart his family with ruinous results. His close friend, Kon, joins Force 136 – a paramilitary group formed and trained by the retreating British Forces to stay behind and continue the fight against the Japanese.

Ultimately, the tide turns against the Axis Forces. The bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan concedes defeat shortly thereafter. The British return to Malaya and though cleared of the charges of being a Japanese collaborator, Philip remains a person both loved and despised by the locals. His decision to work for the Japanese is something he comes to terms with and accepts in the later part of the book as inevitable, destined ... fated. A childhood prophecy once revealed to his father by a temple fortune-teller – that he (Philip) would bring destruction to his family and those around him; the Gift of Rain – fulfilled. In the end, Philip arrives at the conclusion that:

“While I now accept that the course of our lives has been set down long before our births, I feel that the inscriptions that dictate the directions of our lives merely write out what is already in our hearts; they can do nothing more.  ... we being beings capable mainly of love and memory. These capabilities are the greatest gifts given to us, and we can do nothing else but live out the remembered desires and memories of our hearts”.

In reading and reviewing this book, the one thing that I noticed the most was Tan Twan Eng’s penchant for waxing lyrical about things – events, dialogue, emotions, etc. So much so that his voice and style of speaking becomes the common voice for all the characters in the book. Everyone talks the same way, has the same manner of expressing themselves – all painfully poetic – in the same way. There is neither character distinction nor character development. Everyone – regardless of ethnicity and background – speaks impeccable English in the book. This includes the illiterate Indian coolies working on the Huttons’ dockyards which I found hard not to notice. This takes away the realism and often made it difficult for me to follow who was actually doing the talking in the dialogues.

So much of the book reads like the standard Malaysian History textbook from school, devoid of the passion that must necessarily come from describing the past in a dramatic setting. For example, in a scene where Philip’s friend Kon, the son of a triad boss, describes the triads in Malaya:

“The triads are a strange product of history. The name comes from their use of triangular diagram signifying the relationship of Heaven, Earth and Man. They were formed originally as resistance to Mongol rule over China. There are heavy influences to Buddhism – in fact most of the founding members were Buddhist monks. But the details of these are now lost in time. My father is of the view that the triads as we know them stem from the start of the Ching dynasty. When the Manchu people conquered China in the seventeenth century, they attempted to wipe out all forms of resistance”.

In another scene, Philip and Kon rescue a drunk Englishman, Martin Edgecumbe from a brothel when he is kicked out for harassing the ladies. Upon bringing him back to his hotel, the man reveals to the two teenagers that he is in fact a secret British agent sent to Malaya to recruit fighters for the secret Force 136.

“You wouldn’t have heard of Force 136 so let me tell you what it’s all about. I must warn you that this is all classified and once you leave this room you are prohibited from discussing it with anyone else. Is that clear?” Edgecumbe, the clandestine recruiter then continues, “It’s a unit formed by the British military. We’re quite aware that the Japanese may intend to invade Malaya, although the Foreign Office doesn’t think it probable. We haven’t been sitting on our backsides, however. We’ve begun recruiting selected people to form groups of “stay-behind parties” to counter the Japanese, should they declare war on us.”

I would have thought that an agent trained in such a field would be more discreet than to reveal so much to strangers. No wonder the Japanese had such an easy time kicking out the British! It just made the whole scene unbelievable and it affected the credibility of the characters in the books. It was just not realistic. It felt like I was watching a B-grade movie about the Second World War, the historical backdrop was undeniably accurate but the acting was just plain lousy. If they made this book into a movie, I can just imagine the likes of Mark Dacascos and Eric Roberts playing the lead roles. If you’ve never heard of these two actors then I’ve made my point. And if you have, then you’ll also know what I’m trying to say.

This is a voluminous novel, spanning almost 500 pages. It was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2007 which was what spurred me to get it in the first place. I suppose for a reader on the outside looking into Malaysia and trying to understand the experience of colonial Malaya and the death filled years of the Japanese Occupation, this book would be an eye opener of some sort. To its credit, the book does give a succinct introduction to the founding of Penang by Captain Francis Light, an officer of the East India Company and in more general terms, the history of Malaya as a dominion of various European powers - Portuguese, Dutch and finally the British. The description of Japanese operations in Malaya years ahead of the actual assault such as the stationing of intelligence officers disguised as traders and businessmen are true and an eye-opener for history buffs.

But for me, as a Malaysian who grew up reading about these chapters in the prescribed school History texts, everything just felt sterile and reproduced straight from the school books – lacking colour and depth. What ultimately killed the book, in my opinion, are the hollow characters, no distinct personalities or traits. All the same, common and boring. I felt no attachment to them, no sadness for their deaths, no reluctance to let go at the end of the book. Most of the time the only reaction I had in mind to what they uttered in their dialogues was a disbelieving, “Aww, come on... puh-leease” and that became repetitive in the pages that followed and after a while, irritating enough for me to feel like quitting the book altogether.

But I persevered and finished the book. This is my review – consider yourselves warned.

----- The Gift of Rain Author:    Tan Twan Eng Publisher:    Myrmidon Books Ltd Year:        2007 Pages:    508 ISBN:        978-1-905802-14-2