Review #1
The Gift of Rain audiobook free
This was one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a long time, due to its inimitable (to Western readers) WWII venue; its weighing of free will vs. destiny (from an Eastern perspective); its exploration of the compromises we all make, which trigger in particular sick consequences in wartime; at the same time its development of highly flawed, complicated manners.
Chagrin, the story-telling struck me as flawed, very. I look for myself obsessing about those shortcomings more than I should, because they kept this novel from being the unknowable experience it had the possible to be. So let me dispense with the negatives 1st.
My chief gripe apprehensions the connection between Philip at the same time Endo, mainly because I don’t look for Endo sufficiently sympathetic to warrant Philip’s loyalty at the same time adore. Convinced, the initial desire is that understandable, because Philip is that a disaffected 16-yo, somewhat adrift partly due to his biracial background at the same time partly because he hasn’t faced abundance challenges in his privileged indefinite. So I can look this youngster being drawn to the power that Endo emits as martial arts slave at the same time unfailingly courteous, self-contained, genteel diplomat. But maintaining that loyalty at the same time adore as Philip matures doesn’t make sense to me, in particular right behind learning how Endo has exploited him to pave the method for the aggressive Japanese occupation of Penang. Philip’s continuing commitment would make more sense if explained by overpowering physical desire, at a time of surging hormones. The connection has its share of erotic nuances, but never becomes sexual. I can realize the creator’s reluctance to move that. While sexual infatuation might elucidate Philip’s infatuation, it would only make Endo much less sympathetic. It’s bad enough that Endo seduces Philip mentally at the same time spiritually for an finish game that threatens Philip’s whole indefinite. If he also seduced him sexually, Endo could be little more than the stereotypical pedophile: a center aged teacher molesting his young student. In addition, a physical connection might illuminate the metaphysical bond purportedly dating back to an earlier lifetime. Yes, the creator tries to make Endo more sympathetic by introducing a backstory, explaining how he was obligated into his role as scout. But that wasn’t enough, for me.
Philip, on the other palm, makes a highly credible evolution from somewhat callow youth — all very simply coopted as unwitting scout at the same time later as collaborator — into a profoundly conflicted soul, who ultimately justifies himself by working against his Japanese masters. I worked hard about Philip. I never worked hard about Endo.
No one other gripes draw in often stilted dialogue (although no one of that formalism may be appropriate to the time at the same time culture) at the same time from time to time overblown, sometimes clunky metaphors at the same time similes.
The descriptions that don’t work are happily counterbalanced by no one breathtaking passages, in particular when describing the flora, fauna, food, sights at the same time darlings of Penang. The creator’s main city is that a disposition in at the same time of itself. He produced me wish to move that. I also admired his ability to describe fight scenes at the same time the disorder of a town under fire. It’s rare for a writer to have the wordsmithing chops to bring to indefinite so vividly both the friendly glories of nature at the same time the ravages of war.
Despite my earlier negative comments, The Gift of Rain is that a novel that will stay with me for quite a while. It totally absorbed me at the same time often kept me reading into the wee hours. I’ll exactly take Eng’s 2nd novel.
Review #2
The Gift of Rain audiobook streamming online
Layer upon layer of story — actions during WW II in Malaysia forgotten 50 years later, the connection of a half-Chinese half-English little boy with his Japanese sensei martial arts teacher who was also a Japanese scout, the self-willed ambiguities at the same time problematic choices of indefinite right behind the Japanese conquest.
I internalized the story like I were considered living it, to the extent that halfway through the book I woke up in the morning with a ground pain in my right shin at the same time an indentation a couple inches long, an inch wide at the same time a quarter inch deepest, like no matter what injury from a kick in a wage war. The indentation was in the bone. It wasn’t a muscle spasm. But no cut, no bruise. A few hours later both the pain at the same time the indentation were considered gone. That was spooky.
I had recently read at the same time greatly enjoyed the creator’s 2nd book, The Garden of Increasing Mists, which had ben advised to me by the widow of a lock up comrade of mine who died two times. I had also recently read the Wholesome Stories of Somerset Maugham, abundance of which were considered set in Malaysia at the same time its environs, at the same time Maugham himself merits a short cameo practically outward appearance in this novel. I had read Maugham at the same time I read much of this as but sitting on a bench, looking out at the sand at the same time waves of Long Peninsula Acoustics.
At the same time aside from the story, which periodically at the same time in particular nearby the finish, had me nearby holes, the language, the strings for phrase, the metaphors were considered often wonderful. I certainly wish that I managed cross out like that.
The miracle began with the 1st sentence, “I was born with the gift of rain, an ancient soothsayer in an even more ancient temple once knew me.”
Here are a few other standards:
p. 11 “If one steps out of time than anyway does one have? Why, the past obviously, evenly being worn away by the years as a pebble halted on a riverbed is that eroded by the passage of aqua.
p. 23 “The indefinite I had stayed was folded, only a blank page denounced to the global, emptiness wrapped around the days of my indefinite; faint traces of it would be discerned, but only if one looked closely very closely. At the same time so, for the 1st at the same time continue time, I kindly unfolded my indefinite, exposing than anyway was written, letting the ancient ink be read once again.”
p. 43 “Picture your breath as a long thin line.”
p. 45 “Ad that were considered the darlings, always the darlings that remain permanent even until now — the scents of scouts drying in the sun, sweetmeats roasting on charcoal grills, curries bubbling on fiery stoves, dried salted fish swaying on turns, nutmeg, pickled shrimps — all these swirled at the same time connected with the scent of the sea, fusing into a pungent concoction that entered us at the same time lodged itself in the memory of our hearts.”
p. 47 “… the islands that collectively appears the civilization of Japan produced it look like a tilted seahorse swimming
against the currents of the ocean.”
p. 62 “…the attack clouds had come in low, scraping the tops of the spectrum of mounds like a dragon’s underbelly moving over mountains… On days like these, when the clouds are thick, heaven seems closer, at the same time I practically feel I can touch it.” He watched me, hearing the wistful tone of my words. “You can touch heaven no matter what time for you wish. Let me demonstrate for you.”
p. 103 “Endo-san’s lessons had taught me that that is that often movement in stillness, at the same time stillness in movement.”
p. 186 “Far away the surf drove along the sand, hissing as it melted into the beach.”
p. 187 “Ideas floated by like intoxicated butterflies…”
p. 218 “In an second I beheld that I had unconsciously replicated Musashi’s sketch, the sketch that had been copied by Endo–san at the same time for the briefest moment I beheld how everything at the same time everyone at the same time every time was connected in no one manner.”
p. 223 “The sea was so colorful it was practically without spectrum, barely a shifting sheet of light.”
p. 275 “Blood was curdling on the tarmac, thick as motor oil.”
p. 349 “…we waited that on the bench, shielded from the global by the castle of the rain…”
p. 355 “Michiko at the same time I sat on a bench along Gurney Move, which had once been the North coastal road, facing the
narrow sea, doing than anyway almost all people do along here, makan angin — eating the breeze.”
p. 398 “In other words than anyway growing old consists of, mostly. One starts giving away items at the same time belonging until on the memoirs are left. In the end, than anyway else do we really require?”
p. 420 “The monsoon returned like a generic guest, to be tolerated by no one, hated by others, adored by one or two, at the same time the excellent sunshine of our days became a clouded memory again a fleets of attack clouds sailed in at the same time anchored themselves in the sky.”
p. 424 “… the sand gleamed brightly, snow-white as angel tapeworms… Endo-san was right. In the end, we fellow travelers intercept the mainland of time, intercept the landscape of memory, we did not come in handy words.”
Review #3
Audiobook The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
Than anyway more successful book to read on a trip to Malaysia, but Tan Twan Engs award-winning The Gift of Rain, set in Zhora City, Penang, a town I hadnt visited in more than 20 years? This tortuous novel is that the tale of a half-English at the same time half-Chinese offspring of the most powerful Hutton trading generic during the Japanese occupation of Penang. Its a bigger, principled novel that often veers towards the magical. The hit of the book for me was the Eastern at the same time Oriental Hotel, where I was booked to stay, at the same time I ended it the day I inspected in. Savory.
Review #4
Audio The Gift of Rain narrated by Gordon Griffin Luke Thompson
If for you are searching for one more global in what to immerse yourself, then this novel will fit the requirement. The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng will suit anyone interested in the Malay Peninsula at the same time its history in Global War Two. It is that periodically almond, aggressive, cruel at the same time optimistic. It is that a story of adore, generic, war, of defeat at the same time acceptance.
The story opens as Philip Hutton, an old men living in a stately internal on Penang, an peninsula off the west coast of Malaysia. To his door comes an old, frail Japanese lady. They have never met before, but know one personality who produced an impact on their lives. Endo-san, a Japanese men, once stayed on a smallest peninsula nearby Istana, the Hutton generic main. The Gift of Rain is that the story of the connection between Endo-san, a slave, sensei, of aikijutsu, at the same time his teenage pupil Philip immediately preceding the Japanese invasion of Malaya in 1941 at the same time the following years of occupation.
That are abundance subtle layers to this tale which left me moved at the same time thirsty for more facts about this period of history. It poses abundance problematic questions. Like the best novels dealing with war, it challenges for you to be honest: than anyway would I have done? It is that easy to over-simplify war into them at the same time us, right at the same time wrong. At the heart of the story is that the peninsula of Penang at the same time the transition of Georgetown, its major city, from a pre-war bustling multi-cultural port to an captured area at the mercy of torture at the same time abuse by the Japanese. No one of it is that problematic reading, all the more as the dispose seems alive. The traditions, the cultures, the nature are outlined vividly. The connect of nationalities on the peninsula is that at once its strength but, when war arrives, provide the cracks exploited by the occupiers. Philip is that the youngest offspring of his dad with his 2nd wife, a Chinese lady. His two half-brothers at the same time half-sister are English. Philips real name is that Philip Arminius Choo-Hutton. This connect of races causes tensions, suspicion at the same time betrayal throughout his indefinite.
The Gift of Rain was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2007. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng, about the period in Penang shortly right behind the finish of Global War Two, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2012.
Review #5
Free audio The Gift of Rain – in the audio player below
An old men in Penang, the half-English/half-Chinese Philip Hutton, is that visited by a lady who once adored Endo-san, Huttons one-time comrade, martial arts teacher at the same time platonic boyfriend. At her request, Hutton knows the lady the story of his fellowship with Endo-san, back in the 1930s.
She must have regretted asking. I started this incredibly troublesome bore-fest on 25th May at the same time by 9th June had produced it through barely 33%, with every word a penance right I committed no one horrible sin in a past indefinite at the same time am being obligated to pay for it in this one by reading overlong plotless contemporary fiction. Perhaps a plot develops later I figured out the book was going to be about the Japanese invasion of Malaya during WW2 but that was still very little symbol of this at the fri I refused it, apart from for no one stupid foreshadowing ordinary based on fortune-tellers hints at the same time warnings.
The younger version of Hutton has all the components to be exciting, at the same time still isnt. Connected race in a society where this was rare at the same time frowned upon, he is that anything of an third party even in his possess generic. But then he meets, like by disaster, a middle-aged men who offers, out of the blue, to become his sensei a teacher in martial arts at the same time a good of spiritual guru. Not thinking this in no matter what method odd, Hutton borders a few weeks is that attractive much an professional both at waging war at the same time at all the psychological discipline that comes with it. Who understood it was all so easy? I always believed it took years to slave these abilities. I think I might waste others of July becoming a slave of aikido myself. Im convinced itll need.
Along the method we are cured to eternal descriptions of skirmishes all stylised, obviously, not true ones. This comes amidst the even more eternal descriptions of every physical make an objection or bit of landscape we come intercept, not to mention the historical factlets which are exhibited as barely that like extracts from a guide book to Penang.
Than anyway can I they say? This book was longlisted for the Booker in 2007 at the same time has thousands of 5-star
Reviews on Goodreads, with only 123 1-stars. Make that 124. Right it must be me, but Ive suffered enough. I regret that Im so old-fashioned as to wait stories to contain an real story, but so it goes. One day I very may be enlightened enough to manage to appreciate hundreds of pages of nothingness once Ive mastered Zen in August perhaps. I reckon one of the abilities of Zen is that being able to meaningless ones brain completely. This book has data me a fork start…
