2 out of 4 stars
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Daisies and Dragon Slayers In The Equator by Penny Singham is a historical fantasy novel that describes Malaysian history as well as her current state. Set in Malaysia, the story links to China, England, Japan, Australia, India, and others through its characters. The book depicts different cultural practices brought about by characters from diverse cultural backgrounds. This aspect is what grants the book the unique lustre it carries.
Daisies and Dragon Slayers In The Equator revolve around the family of the main character, Dr. Ratnam an ex-surgeon nominated to be the Deputy Director of the Chief Medical Health office of Sembilang, Kuala Lumpur. Dr. Ratnam is a member of the immigrant families who arrived in Malaysia through legitimate employment by the British colonial government. Now that the British had gone granting independence to Malaysia, it became difficult for individuals who could not read and write in the Malay language to gain official employment and as a result, widespread racism prevailed in Malaysia. The story employs a ration of dark humour and depicts the predominant practice of witchcraft most of which surface when Dr. Ratnam's wife arranges for her daughter's marriage without her knowledge.
The themes discussed in the novel are culture, love, racism, murder and witchcraft. The theme of culture outshone all other themes since the author took substantial time to give an in-depth description of it. I suppose owing to the immigration of different races into Malaysia, the author had no choice but to paint a clear picture for the reader of the then "culture-infested" Malaysia which I believe he gave a good shot. Personally, I felt the book has two parts. The first part of the book has Dr. Ratnam as the protagonist whilst the protagonist in the second part is his daughter, Oormila. The book explains the effects of colonialism very well which includes but not limited to industrialization and cultural diversity. Malaysia (formerly Malaya) being the world's biggest producer of tin and rubber prompted the immigration of the Indians, Chinese, Japan and other races, many of whom came for business and employment in the rubber plantations.
The thing I disliked about the book is the poor editing that made it difficult to read. There were grammar and spelling errors, missing and wrongly used words. For instance, the author wrote: "that his mouth will be get glued," "with high slits on the both sides," "the saloon for their hair to be in styled in the latest trends," "saloon instead of salon," "Main instead of Mani (name of a person)"
Owing to the many errors I award the book 2 out of 4 stars. This is a great book and a good editing would have it scoring 4 stars. I recommend the book to scholars and historians.
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Daisies and Dragon Slayers In The Equator
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