Aug. 14, 2009
BOOK REVIEW: Genre-Bending Debut Novel 'Of Bees and Mist' Creates a World of Wonder, Evil, Love
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
When I finished Erick Setiawan's debut novel "Of Bees and Mist" (Simon & Schuster, 416 pages, $25.00) I asked myself -- I talk to myself all the time, as do all writers -- 'Is this a fantasy novel, a science fiction novel, a realistic novel, a romance novel or a horror novel?'
'Yes,' I replied. 'It's all of the above and then some.' Spanning 30 years and three generations, from the birth of the protagonist Meridia, to the end of the novel, "Of Bees and Mist" is set in a magical, unnamed city that seems far away from the author's native Jakarta, Indonesia, but still resonates with elements of a tropical place. A tropical place with multicolored mists obscuring people and their thoughts and swarms of bees signifying evil. A tropical place with distinct seasons. An imaginary place with ghosts and spirits that seems all too real.
Meridia's parents, Gabriel and Ravenna, are cold and distant to their only child and don't seem to love each other anymore. The house is always cold and filled with mist. It reminded me a house in H.P. Lovecraft's fictional Arkham, even though I've always pictured Arkham as a place of night.
When 16-year-old Meridia meets and falls in love with Daniel, the son of a jewelry store owner, Elias, and his wife Eva, she jumps at the chance to marry the charming young man and move out of her cold house and into Daniel's house. They marry, have a boy, Noah, and for a while everything appears to be be fine.
But, as we learn as the novel progresses, appearances are deceiving. Eva is manipulative and deceitful -- the mother-in-law from hell. She uses bees to cloud her supernatural powers and controls her daughters Malin and Permony, favoring the older Malin over young Permony, who's the favorite of Elias. There are servants in the house, shabbily treated by Eva. Are they servants or something more?
The author was born to Chinese parents in Jakarta in 1975 and grew up with both Indonesian and Chinese myths and stories, which are incorporated in "Of Bees and Mists," along with details of his extended family. He left his native land, which he says discriminates against those of Chinese ethnicity, at the age of 16, moving to the U.S. where he earned a degree in computer science at Stanford University. He lives in San Francisco, a city of wondrous mists and fogs, that always enchanted me whenever I had the good fortune to visit it.
Long hidden secrets are revealed in both Meridia's and Daniel's families as the plot unfolds. The writing is remarkable considering that English is not Setiawan's native language. I thought of Joseph Conrad, one of the greatest stylists of the English language, who was a native of Poland. And Vladimir Nabokov, born in Russia and another master of our wonderful language. The English language -- in all its variants -- seems to bring out the best in writers of all genres and it does so in Setiawan's novel.
I won't go further into the plot: Readers should experience this novel without too much being revealed by a reviewer who wants to show he or she read the book. I'll be as secretive as Eva, but I'll tell you that "Of Bees and Mists" is one of the outstanding novels of the year. It passed my test of re-readability. You'll enjoy it on the second outing, even though you know how it ends.
Publisher's website: www.simonandschuster.com
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BOOK REVIEW: Genre-Bending Debut Novel 'Of Bees and Mist' Creates a World of Wonder, Evil, Love
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
When I finished Erick Setiawan's debut novel "Of Bees and Mist" (Simon & Schuster, 416 pages, $25.00) I asked myself -- I talk to myself all the time, as do all writers -- 'Is this a fantasy novel, a science fiction novel, a realistic novel, a romance novel or a horror novel?'
'Yes,' I replied. 'It's all of the above and then some.' Spanning 30 years and three generations, from the birth of the protagonist Meridia, to the end of the novel, "Of Bees and Mist" is set in a magical, unnamed city that seems far away from the author's native Jakarta, Indonesia, but still resonates with elements of a tropical place. A tropical place with multicolored mists obscuring people and their thoughts and swarms of bees signifying evil. A tropical place with distinct seasons. An imaginary place with ghosts and spirits that seems all too real.
Meridia's parents, Gabriel and Ravenna, are cold and distant to their only child and don't seem to love each other anymore. The house is always cold and filled with mist. It reminded me a house in H.P. Lovecraft's fictional Arkham, even though I've always pictured Arkham as a place of night.
When 16-year-old Meridia meets and falls in love with Daniel, the son of a jewelry store owner, Elias, and his wife Eva, she jumps at the chance to marry the charming young man and move out of her cold house and into Daniel's house. They marry, have a boy, Noah, and for a while everything appears to be be fine.
But, as we learn as the novel progresses, appearances are deceiving. Eva is manipulative and deceitful -- the mother-in-law from hell. She uses bees to cloud her supernatural powers and controls her daughters Malin and Permony, favoring the older Malin over young Permony, who's the favorite of Elias. There are servants in the house, shabbily treated by Eva. Are they servants or something more?
The author was born to Chinese parents in Jakarta in 1975 and grew up with both Indonesian and Chinese myths and stories, which are incorporated in "Of Bees and Mists," along with details of his extended family. He left his native land, which he says discriminates against those of Chinese ethnicity, at the age of 16, moving to the U.S. where he earned a degree in computer science at Stanford University. He lives in San Francisco, a city of wondrous mists and fogs, that always enchanted me whenever I had the good fortune to visit it.
Long hidden secrets are revealed in both Meridia's and Daniel's families as the plot unfolds. The writing is remarkable considering that English is not Setiawan's native language. I thought of Joseph Conrad, one of the greatest stylists of the English language, who was a native of Poland. And Vladimir Nabokov, born in Russia and another master of our wonderful language. The English language -- in all its variants -- seems to bring out the best in writers of all genres and it does so in Setiawan's novel.
I won't go further into the plot: Readers should experience this novel without too much being revealed by a reviewer who wants to show he or she read the book. I'll be as secretive as Eva, but I'll tell you that "Of Bees and Mists" is one of the outstanding novels of the year. It passed my test of re-readability. You'll enjoy it on the second outing, even though you know how it ends.
Publisher's website: www.simonandschuster.com
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Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
