Psychiatry and Oriental psyches
I want to discuss three books. I'll start with the least substantial one. The Woman in Ward 9 made me think that I'd recently read it. I was thinking of Ward D by Freida McFadden. Easy mistake, look at the titles and covers:
Psychological thrillers like this are a staple. I devour them in a day or a night. They are addictive, and you never see all the twists coming. The narrator is a psychologist, Emma Best. Her latest patient is a young woman found alone in her house, covered in blood — someone else's. She was admitted to the hospital and referred to an institution. She has no memory of the events. She is herself a psychologist and specifically asked to speak with Dr Emma Best, someone who specializes in women’s trauma and whom she respects.
Emma has only one week to help Laura regain her memory and figure out what happened. For that purpose, she must spend a week in a high-security facility far removed from her spacious consulting room in London. The room where their sessions take place is windowless and overheated. She manages to get Laura to talk and recall. Laura speaks of the man she’s in love with, the perfect man: dangerously handsome, charming, romantic, and considerate. For regular readers of domestic noir, warning signs start to flicker.
This man swept her off her feet with charm and romantic gestures, but gradually it becomes clear there were cracks in the relationship: he increasingly isolated her from family and friends, and he became mean and petty when he didn't get his way. She began to feel trapped.
Dr Best grows somewhat uncomfortable. The man Laura describes shares many traits with her own husband, Connor. Appearance, consideration, even some of the romantic gestures are familiar. But her Connor is truly almost perfect, although she gradually lost contact with her family and friends.
There are other things that start to confuse Emma. She is treated more like a patient than a therapist. She is constantly accompanied, her cellphone has been taken away, and her access card doesn’t work. She calls her husband from the landline, but there is never any answer. She texts him from one of the staff members’ phones, but he doesn’t respond. He was devastated when she left the facility to go to work. Where is Connor?
It’s a nightmare ride, and the ending will catch you off guard — you will not see every hairpin bend approaching. Excellent entertainment and highly forgettable.
The Woman in Ward D by Naomi Williams is published by Headline Book Publishing and costs R343 at Amazon SA.
Maggie, or a man and a woman walk into a bar, initially captivated me. I don’t know if the reader ever finds out the narrator’s name. She is an American woman whose parents immigrated from China. She is happily married to an American man from a privileged background. He is romantic and funny, an excellent father to their two toddlers. Then he casually tells her one evening in a restaurant that he is having an affair.
I’m having an affair — like it’s something you possess and not something you’ve done. Like, I’m having highlights done next week. Like, I’m having lamb over rice.
He also reveals that his mistress’s name is Maggie and that he met her at work.
The reader expects outrage, anger, irrational behaviour, tantrums. No. Maybe we don’t know the Chinese psyche, or the psyche of an immigrant child who always tried to please and fit in. She doesn’t ask why or how. She and her loyal friend Darlene, who according to her also isn’t “white,” stalk Maggie online and she looks like your typical all-American girl: younger, blonde, cute. Tall and slender.
Of course, the narrator questions herself. She agrees with all her (soon to be ex-) husband’s decisions. He gradually moves out and into his own apartment. He picks up the children every second weekend. He wants her to meet Maggie.
At their meeting (in the same restaurant), the narrator feels as nervous as a schoolgirl and compulsively compliments Maggie. You smell nice, your shoes are pretty. She even wants to know how they met, and Maggie tells it with wonder, as if talking to an encouraging friend.
I found it strange and upsetting — a glimpse into a stranger’s psyche.
Maggie, or a man and a woman walk into a bar by Katie Yee is published by Brazen and costs R438 at Amazon SA.
The last book captivated me, also because of its strangeness. It takes place in Singapore. I looked online to see exactly where Singapore and Malaysia (another of the destinations) are located. They are islands near Thailand, separated only by a narrow waterway.
The narrator, Genevieve Yang (Gen), was an only child. She and her parents live in her grandmother’s cramped apartment where her parents sleep behind a screen. Unlike in our culture, elders hold quite a lot of power: they own the property and have authority over their adult children. The grandmother is proud and domineering. Her husband disappeared years ago and is presumed dead.
Then the grandmother reveals that she received a letter from a man in Malaysia. Her husband is not dead: he has started a new life on the next island, and the letter writer is his son with his new wife. So, Gen’s father’s half-brother. The half-brother informs her that his father recently passed away and that he and his wife are struggling financially, and he believes their daughter will have a better chance in life with Gen’s family.
The grandmother agrees, and Arin shows up. She is slightly younger than Gen, this daughter of her grandfather, and they resemble each other. Initially, Gen is distant towards her, but her grandmother’s cruelty makes her sympathetic to Arin, and the sort-of sisters become friends. They take revenge on the grandmother, who dies shortly afterwards. Gen’s father strikes off on his own, as his father did, and now Gen’s mother, who grows to love Arin dearly, sleeps behind the screen.
Gen, who excelled at school because of her good memory, can’t keep up at university. She goes back home and does menial work. Arin, who struggled in school, excels and becomes an international movie star, her face on buses.
Gen is consumed by jealousy and unfulfilled dreams. Her relationship with her mother is problematic. She feels trapped in her life. It's as if Arin has stolen her dreams and is living them out. Then her mother is diagnosed with cancer and doesn’t have long to live. She asks Gen to summon Arin. Gen agrees but makes no effort to let her sister know.
Sometimes, the reader just wants to shake Gen. It’s a frustrating reading experience. Complex emotions and relationships are well expressed, but it’s always the lower instincts that prevail. Forget about character growth or self-fulfillment. It probably resembles life.
The Original Daughter by Jemimah Weh is published by W&N and costs R496 at Amazon SA.
静夜思 (“Thoughts in the Silent Night”, by Li Bai)
床前明月光，
疑是地上霜。
举头望明月，
低头思故乡。
Vertaling:
Moonlight reflects off the front of my bed.
Could it actually be the frost on the ground?
I look up to view the bright moon,
And look down to reminisce about my hometown.