And the Rain My Drink

I am a serious fan of Han Suyin, but this is not her best book.
Set in Malaya during the "emergency" of the early 1950s, she effectively portrays the self-defeating aims and actions of the British colonoial administration. But she does it with passages of highly florid (extremely florid!) prose, and with an inconsistent narrative style - its like the book changed shape and direction as she wrote it.
But having said all that, I enjoyed the book, and I'm glad I was able to read it. It is extremely difficult to access Han Suyin's works - very few of her works are available as ebooks, and even fewer are currently available in print. Secondhand paperback editions are selling online for $150 plus! Who owns the rights? Where is the publisher?? show more Why are they asleep??? show less

In this part autobiographical and part fictional narrative, Han Suyin gives the reader an extraordinary insight into the events and 'feel' of the war against the communist insurgency in British colonial Malaya in 1952-53. Han Suyin, a Chinese/Eurasian doctor worked in Malaya during this period, while married to senior British Police official. She had access to both the Chinese community, and the inner sanctums of the Colonial administration and was able to write about the impact of the war on the lives of the Chinese, the British, and - to some extent - on the Malays.

It is hard to gauge, from this distance, the degree of hostility that the book invoked. Not, I'd suggest, for the expression of ideas regarding independence for Malaya show more (and Singapore) as it was British policy to hold out the prospect of self-rule. What must have riled the establishment was her devastating dissection of the mechanics of the counter-insurgency, the use of concentration camps, torture and paid informers, and the material and political corruption (and corruptibility) of every level of society. Her husband left his job - it is said - in consequence of the publishing of the book, and significantly although a sequel was planned it was never produced. Most difficult of all to swallow must have been her impression that the Chinese community in Malaya held the British in contempt and played them for fools at almost every turn.

Han Suyin has been accused of being an apologist for Communist China, and hence communism generally. It might be said - to balance the ledger - that her description of arbitrary executions within the ranks of the insurgency over 'doctrinal disputes', or their willingness to betray each other was in no way flattering. Nor is her exposure of the methods of the British made without some reflection on how those methods were forced upon them by the secret shifting nature of loyalties in the Chinese and Malay communities. One of the major threads of the Han Suyin's story is the account of her own deception by those around her, and her disquiet at her own gullibility.

The details of Han Suyin's life can be read elsewhere (she was a prolific autobiographical writer), but it should be said here that she went on to help set up the first Chinese University in Singapore in the years following the publication of this book. The reader might get some sense of how fact and fiction are so intertwined in this book, realizing that the need for the creation of a Chinese University is put forward by one of the characters in the novel.

Highly recommended, as a novel, but more so for anyone with an interest in the 'Malayan Emergency' or the process of decolonisation or counter insurgency. The fictional aspects mean that it will never be treated as a text book, but sometimes fiction allows for more insight that facts alone can provide. show less

Gritty story of corruption and decay in the Straits. A doctor struggles to make sense of what is going on around her and a family struggles to survive under unbearable circumstances - burdened by the expectations of every side seemingly set against them. A bit of a slog for me since it was so bleak, but very well written.

I loved this book when I read it as a teenager, not only for the richness of the text, but for the political commentary. I have read other books by Han Suyin, including 'The Mountain is Young', 'Destination Chungking' and 'The Morning Deluge: Mao Tsetong and the Chinese Revolution 1893-1954'. I studied a little Chinese history while at university in the mid-seventies when Australia began to actively seek political understanding with China. At that time students were encouraged to regard Mat Tsetong as the saviour of the Chinese people so my reading of his activities and achievements were somewhat influenced by this. I did like the way Han Suyin skilfully wove personal and political stories together.