The Orientalist and the Ghost

by Susan Barker

Epic literary novel following three generations of one family from the chaotic upheaval of post-war Malaysia to Britain in the 1990s, by the talented young author of Sayonara Bar

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 2008

About the author

Susan Barker (born 1978) is a British novelist. She has an English father and a Chinese-Malaysian mother and grew up in East London. She is the author of the novel Sayonara Bar, which Time magazine called "a cocktail of astringent cultural observations, genres stirred and shaken, subplots served with a twist" and The Orientalist and the Ghost, both published by Doubleday (UK) and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.

Her third novel The Incarnations (Doubleday UK, July 2014) is about a taxi driver in contemporary Beijing and interwoven with tales from the Tang dynasty, the invasion of Genghis Khan, the Ming dynasty, the Opium War, and the Cultural Revolution. While writing The Incarnations she spent several years living in Beijing, researching modern and imperial China.

Reviews

[Michelle Olsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd love to rate this higher, as the book screamed for a higher review. As I read it however, the back and forth between time frames and characters became a little confusing at times. Had the author separated them more clearly, this book probably would have scored higher.

As far as the characters go, I believed each and every one. I scrambled for more information about each character. It was interesting to see how one persons' actions could effect a family so much, even after that person wasn't a focal point in the lives of his descendants anymore. The actions of Christopher and Evangeline; had Evangeline not done what she had done and suffered the consequences of such, their family line might have turned out much differently. What would have happened to Frances? Would she have been the vivacious, rebellious young woman she later became? Would she have later been diagnosed with mental illness? What would have happened to Adam and Julie? Better yet, what would have happened to Christopher? Would he have been the same old man surrounded by nothing but ghosts of his past?

The ending itself was a little disappointing. For Adam to clearly dismiss Sally as a waste of time, it really showed the reader how many issues he clearly had, dating back to growing up with his mother, and her subsequent undiagnosed mental illness. Mental illness, can and will affect not only the victim, but the families of the victim, and the people around him/her (seen in this novel as the people in the furniture store). I have to wonder why no one sought to get her help- was it merely the time and place of the setting? Ignorance?

[Trishna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I HATE Deliah! I mean, OK, so she wanted revenge. But she didn't have to send Frances to a whore house!!! What an evil, wretched, little .... arrrrrrrgh!!!! I absolutely ABHOR her! That little miss perfect can go and die in a hole for all I care!


The book was good though. Really truthful and insightful on human nature. If u look at it form the right perspective. Otherwise its just a war story with a lot of misunderstandings.

It was a good change for me after doing a marathon of murder-mystery novels.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent book by Barker, who is becoming one of my favourites. This had "Poisonwood Bible" vibes about it, which is a great thing.

The story follows a family through three generations, with Malaysian politics as the backdrop. The characters are, as ever, rounded and interesting.

I was a little disappointed that the ending took the focus away from what I considered to be the "main" story, but that can often happen in books that move around between different characters and points in time.

I'm looking forward to reading another Susan Barker soon, she is a very accomplished writer, capable of working across genres.

[Ute van Wyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe I took a little too long to finish Susan's second book, maybe.
The adventure she created was so wonderful that I didn't want it to end. Lapping up every detail, building sympathy, love, fear, and a strong loathing for her characters.
She has such a beautiful manner of developing them into 'real people' that you can not help but get attached to their struggles and triumphs.
The characters are set generations apart but yet it feels like their lives are so interlocked, that any decisions made by the older generations has an almost immediate impact on the current generation.
This feeling is amplified by the ghosts who make their random and sometimes hilarious appearance to one of the more important characters, Mr. Milnar. Love Love Loved The Orientalist and the Ghost!

[Bindu · Rating 4 out of 5]

characters... set apart by generations... but lost to each other by the war... internal and external! When can we end this, so that we don't have to live with the ghosts of our misdoings anymore.

[Sujata Biswas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterful craftmanship of peculiarities of that period from the eyes of a sensitive Englishman. As he grows old, the old ghosts from that period and beyond haunt him. I have seen my mother dying during Covid and while she was only in her 60s, the bad treatment and Covid caused her innumerable problems, she lived in hell in those few months. She, like the English protagonist in the book, did not deserve such a fate.

[J.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this some years ago and had forgotten the title. It was really thought provoking and touching. Chick-lit to be sure, but more brutal and confronting than sentimental.

[Alyse Webster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jumps around all over the place. Never really get any answers to major questions, you're pretty much left hanging. Unsatisfying and anticlimactic ending.

[Nicole]

Would've liked more character development for Christopher and more time invested in the development of his romance. The events that occur make you wonder why Christopher fell prey in the way he did. The romance isn't convincing because barely any time was spent on it. Thoroughly enjoyed the other characters especially Frances and Sally

This was still an enjoyable read, but Barker's other two books are excellent 5⭐. I would put this at a 3.5⭐

[Jamesk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Susan Barker's first book which was a rollicking jaunt through the bars of Japan (an area that I really like). This is her follow up, and feels like a pop group who did a very commercial album for their first release to get themselves on the map, but subsequently reveal their truer, more introspective side with the second.

I feel a bit under-qualified to write this. The book has vast ambitions - the word 'epic' must have been in the author's mind as she wrote it - and it certainly covers all the bases of this literary ambition. Within the covers you range across the decades, featuring multi-generational struggles set against the background of war, drug addiction and extreme family turmoil. The author certainly has a way of capturing her moments - her descriptions are intense and vivid, bringing you sharply into the heat of Malaysia or the despair of a drug users hovel, and her research would apparently be impeccable.

At the end of the day though, we learn a lot about the lives of the characters, but they don't seem to accomplish anything. None of the major characters are particularly likable, so I didn't get that engaged in any of their struggles. At the end of the book, I felt like I'd learned a fair amount, but just didn't enjoy it that much.

Maybe I just like more self contained plots and if you like the kinds of books that document the travails of a family / generations of families, you'll like this. I hope that some people do, as Susan Barker's clearly a very talented writer and I do wish her well.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book follows the POV of an old man, Christopher Milner, living in a tower block on an English estate and visited by the ghosts of his past in a Chinese resettlement camp in Malaysia; Adam, trying to look after his junkie sister, and Sally, schoolgirl friend of Frances, both of whom attend an exclusive girls school in Malaysia after Independence. The Orientalist and the Ghost is funny, sad and harrowing. Ms. Barker writes in the area where the personal, the political and the racial meet. What happens when you are a decent person trying to survive, but everything you do and say is interpreted ideologically by your enemies and your saviours, both of whom have the power of life and death over you? What happens when you are a jealous little girl trying to revenge yourself on your ex-best friend, but your playground is the site of an ongoing massacre of those of your ex-best friend's ethnicity? What's it like when you are trying to love and help your sibling, but all she loves is heroin? And how did things get like this?
Susan Baker has written one other book - Sayonara Bar - which is an entertaining read and a very worthy first book. She is ridiculously young and a graduate of the Manchester University creative writing program.

[Hubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: Copy of text given by author -
Barker is an incredibly talented writer with a gift for effusive and colorful language. The story follows a British resettlement officer in 1950s Malaya and his relationship with a nurse, and the consequences of that relationship over multiple generations. Characters get caught up in the grand tidal waves of history, and in addition, make very poor choices resulting in friendships and relationships betrayed. A little confusing jumping from different time periods.

[Karla Huebner]

I'm potentially biased--my copy was a gift from the author since it's not yet published in the US. But this is an imaginative, compelling book. While I think it has a few rough edges, and the jacket copy is a bit misleading (makes it sound as though Adam goes on a quest to find out about his family, which is hardly the case) I didn't want to stop reading.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this and Sayonara Bar to give me some background on Barker for a review of The Incarnations. This felt like a huge jump from her first book - much more introspective, much deeper. Malaysia before and after Independence, profoundly bad parenting and a myriad examlpes of human cruelty - it is not an easy book, but a very interesting one. I am going to keep my eye on Barker - she's good!

[Justine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book jumped around way too much from one thin to another. The ending was poorly done. I had a hard time finishing off this book.

[Jane Shaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite confusing, don't think I really followed it. Some interesting history.

[Amyem]

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1...