Unlike fellow former British colonies India and Pakistan, Malaysia has
yet to produce a Vikram Seth or an Arundhati Roy. There has been no
writer of international stature, or even a literary canon—in Bahasa
or English—that one could call Malaysian. The Rice Mother, a
delicious fictional cocktail packed with Malaysian flavors, may finally
put the country on the global publishing map. Plainly, debut novelist
Rani Manicka has studied other Asia-themed best sellers such as Wild
Swans and The Joy Luck Club to produce a family saga centered
on the tempestuous relationships between mothers and their children. Her
central female character undergoes horrible suffering but triumphs in
such a way that professors will undoubtedly be including Rice
Mother on the reading list for Gender Empowerment 101. But Rice
Mother is more than a sarong saga. Its characters are original, its
canvas broad, and Manicka's radiant prose brings out all the dark
lushness of her ultimately tragic tale. Manicka's Malaysia is an
exotically magical land, where ghosts and gods walk together hand in
hand.
The Rice Mother is at its most poignant when Lakshmi loses power over her brood. Her granddaughter Dimple marries Luke, a rich Japanese-Chinese businessman in Kuala Lumpur. Their romance starts off passionately, but Luke's eye wanders and their union turns into a frosty farce. Luke pays a waiter to sleep with his wife and Dimple complies, hoping the assignation will lead to divorce. To her horror she finds she has stepped into her husband's new kinky obsession. Luke and Dimple's twisted relationship provides startling scenes that save the novel from reading like it's been cooked up from a best-seller recipe book. Some might feel uncomfortable with the way U.K.-based Manicka has exoticized Malaysia to woo Western readers, but if you have no hang-ups, you'll find The Rice Mother a beautiful read.