The Rice Mother
Oct. 27th, 2022 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI picked up The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka from a bookshelf honesty-box shop in a theatre lobby a few weeks ago, as the blub described a grand, sweeping, multi-generational saga, set in Malaysia, starting in 1916.
I thought it might tell an interesting story of a young woman creating a life for herself and her children out of difficult circumstances. And it does to a certain extent.
But it's so unrelentingly grim - with a prophecy and clunky 'if I had only known...' statements that foretell much more tragedy and trauma to come - that I had to give up after less than a third of the way through.
I thought it might tell an interesting story of a young woman creating a life for herself and her children out of difficult circumstances. And it does to a certain extent.
But it's so unrelentingly grim - with a prophecy and clunky 'if I had only known...' statements that foretell much more tragedy and trauma to come - that I had to give up after less than a third of the way through.
