Book Review : Confessions Of An Old Boy

The 3rd book review on this blog and the 1st by a Malaysian author. Confessions of an Old Boy - The Dato' Hamid Adventures by Kam Raslan was a book which sparked a curious interest in me. I read reviews in the papers and was on the look out for it in the bookstores. In fact, I stumbled upon it on MPH Midvalley the other day and thought hard and long whether to buy it or not. It would have been an easier decision if I havent already bought 2 CDs by Malaysian artists - Poetic Ammo and Jason Lo. 3 "Malaysianised" items in a day would have been rather an overzealous show of patriotism on my part so I decided to put down the book for another day.

However, as fate would have it, the book made its way into my hands anyhow. The morning after that "patriotic day", my colleague waltzed into my room and handed the book to me. I had somehow forgotten that I've asked to borrow the book from him awhile ago. I was delighted yet torn as I was reading a murder mystery story at the moment and was dying to know whodunnit and wasnt quite ready to put it down. In the end I managed to speed read the last few chapters of that book and then quickly started flipping the pages of this purplish cover book.

Alrights, back to the book review. Im not a very good "reviewer" so bear with me. This is the first time I've read something "Malaysian". Ive even managed to avoid reading that "highly acclaimed" novel of Tash Aw, The Silk Factory or watever it's called. Although I had my expectations, I approached Confessions of an Old Boy with caution. I found that I was pleasantly surprised.

I like the style of writing. Simple but not too simple. The language used was like refined "Malaysian", not overly pretentious but of course nowhere near Manglish. The humour - oh the humour was interesting. It didn't have me in guffaws but at times, i'll find myself letting out a chuckle or a howl of laughter or a slight grin. The humour was there, but it was a rather subtle hidden kinda humour, understood only if you understand other things. It wasn't obvious and you wouldn't get it if you didn't know about certain things. I suspect there were a lot of other parts which would have been hilarious if i have more indepth knowledge.

The book had almost everything. Love, Murder, Politics. The chapter "Dato' in Love" was hilarious. And the chapter of Murder in Parit Chindai reads kinda like a Hercule Poirot mystery story. Its a good fun light reading book and at the same time its given me an insight to these "Anglophile Malays" and helped me imagined what it would be like to know someone like that. I would have found it all very interesting.

So the verdict? I like it. It feels real. It feels exactly like how it is depicted on the first page of the Preface which shows a picture of "Dato' Hamid" having tea with Kam Raslan. Reading the book makes you feel like you're sitting down having tea with "Dato" and he is telling you his life story and you are listening with your eyes wide open, laughing at the jokes, gasping at the right moments and reminiscing (and imagining) the past together with him . =)I now feel like I have a new and "real" friend in Dato' Hamid. I think i will go out and buy a copy of the book after all.