Revisiting a book,

    "Memories--they are all the aged have.  The young have their hopes and dreams, while the old hold the remains of them in their hands and wonder what happened to their lives."  p. 11, The Gift of Rain, Tan Twan Eng.   I've read the book three times; when The Curmudgeonette gave it to me in 2008, again when a friend was reading it and again before our book club discussion.  Now I'm reviewing it again before a discussion with a book club member who missed the meeting.

   The book is set in Penang, Malaysia and some of my memories of Penang from when I visited a few years ago is the rain.  It poured rain one afternoon when I was there.  When the rain stopped I ventured out of my hotel...room for $10. but if I wanted single occupancy it was $20. :)...for dinner at a local restaurant I found it flooded.  No problem, though the water on the floor was about six inches deep, many people were seated at the tables eating while the wait staff sloshed through the water.

   Eng has a phenomenal gift of description and reading his prose is akin to hearing a great symphony orchestra. His descriptions are far superior to a photograph.   But, he also has an incisive  mind and imagination that allows illustration of  the terrible ironies and decisions that life forces on us made even more poignant by the exigencies of war. 

   Eagerly I anticipate the discussion with KDS and dabbling in the book again makes me think I just may re-read it soon...4th time!