Lim, Catherine "The Teardrop Story Woman"

Lim, Catherine "The Teardrop Story Woman" - 1998

I read this book in November 1999 with my British book club.

For some reason, I never published my review but because I always keep my notes and lists of everything, I stumbled upon them by some coincidence.

I have always remembered this book as one I really liked and my notes tell me the same. Mei Kwei is a Chinese Woman who lives in Malaya (now Malaysia) during the Japanese occupation. She is beautiful but has a mole under her eye that resembles a teardrop and therefore is considered unlucky. She gets engaged but then falls in love with a Catholic priest.

A sad story not only about what women had to endure (and still have in many parts of the world) when they were not considered equal to men.

The book contained lots of details about life at the time, the difference between our cultures, I think that is my main reason for liking it.

From the back cover:

"The Teardrop Story Woman is Mei Kwei, born in Malaya in 1934 and doubly cursed - not only is she female, but she also has a tiny teardrop mole in the corner of one eye: a sign of bad luck that presages disaster. Fate proves kinder to Mei Kwei who inherits her grandmother's extraordinary good looks and gift for storytelling. As she grows up, Mei Kwei must cope with the attention of the men who begin to encircle her, attracted by the intensity of her beauty and by her spirit. She runs from these men to a man who cannot love her back - the charismatic Father Martin, a French Catholic missionary - and the demands of the flesh and the spirit come into fearful collision. Set in Malaya in turbulent 1950s, this is an irresistible story of passion and obligation where no one is safe, least of all those watched by jealous men or exacting gods."

Shute, Nevil "A Town Like Alice"

Shute, Nevil "A Town Like Alice" (US Title: The Legacy) - 1950

A young English woman works in Malaya (now Malaysia) during World War II and becomes a prisoner of war of the Japanese. Since they don't know where to put the group of women and children, they march them from one place to the next. A young Australian POW tries to help them and gets in trouble himself like that.

This is roughly the description of the book when you read the dust jacket. But that is only a small summary of a very small part of the story.

The author says that the march has taken place, not in Malaya but in Sumatra, and the women were not English but Dutch.

There are a lot of words, actions and thoughts that would definitely not be politically correct nowadays but if one considers when this novel was written, it is difficult to imagine it without those racist remarks.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book that takes place in three continents during several different years. You get to know a lot of different people and areas and historical facts. You can imagine how people have started to live in the middle of nowhere and how small settlements have become big towns - or not.

Great book.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Nevil Shute's most beloved novel, a tale of love and war, follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback.

Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman living in Malaya, is captured by the invading Japanese and forced on a brutal seven-month death march with dozens of other women and children. A few years after the war, Jean is back in England, the nightmare behind her. However, an unexpected inheritance inspires her to return to Malaya to give something back to the villagers who saved her life. Jean's travels leads her to a desolate Australian outpost called Willstown, where she finds a challenge that will draw on all the resourcefulness and spirit that carried her through her war-time ordeals."

Ghosh, Amitav "The Glass Palace"

Ghosh, Amitav "The Glass Palace" - 2000 

This was a great book club read, very popular with the members.

The story of Burma and its neighbours, so if you are a fan of India or Indian novels, this is also a book for you because it features quite a few Indian characters, as well. I love historic novels and this is one that's really worth reading. Of course, like all novels telling about history, there are a lot of sad sides to this book but it definitely is worth reading. It's worth writing down a "family tree" while reading, it helps remembering the connections between the characters - there are a lot.

We discussed this in our international book club in February 2005.

Amitav Ghosh is a promising new author for me. I read several of his books later, you can find the reviews here.

From the back cover:

"Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her. The struggles that have made Burma, India, and Malaya the places they are today are illuminated in this wonderful novel by the writer Chitra Divakaruni calls 'a master storyteller.'"

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.