Chinese Women: A Novel

by Jan Lowe Shinebourne

Uniquely pairing Caribbean grievances with political Islam, this intriguing novel begins as a sad story of unrequited love but descends into the nightmare world of a stalker. Told through the eyes of Albert Aziz, a Guyanese Indian Muslim, the story opens with his boyhood memory of falling from a tree and being badly injured, after which he developed an obsessive attraction to a young Chinese girl, Alice Wong, who lived on the same sugar estate. Now, years later, Aziz lives in Canada and has become a highly paid engineer in the nuclear industry. Although he has a new life in a different country, Aziz still nurtures racial resentments about the way he was treated as a child on the sugar estate and has become a supporter of radical Islam. He also begins to fixate again on Alice and tracks her down. He finds that she is divorced and living in England and asks her to marry him. Though Aziz is telling the story, it is clear that Alice's apprehension is slowly mounting as she fears the violence that will occur if she turns him down.

110 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2010

Reviews

[Saajid Hosein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange read. It's quite an interesting character study but it was too short for what it was trying to do.

[Renata · Rating 2 out of 5]

Albert Aziz narrates his childhood and adolescence in Guyana, on sugarcane plantations, and his search for unrequited childhood love in adulthood.

This book caught my attention because its narrative shows the racial diversity of Guyana and the Caribbean, which differs from other South American countries.

It's interesting (and revolting) to see how people are judged worthy of respect according to their origin and skin color. And this affects who Aziz becomes as an adult.

Starts well. However, the text gets lost when it reaches the second part, showing a pre-made concept of Muslim people. Maybe, if the book was longer, it could have the space to work on this matter with a deeper and less stereotyped approach.

[Rianna Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

"If I had not gone to London to find her and she had not rejected me and sent me back to Calgary to live with myself, I might have blown up the world."

I finished this last chapter listening to 'Triumph' by Wu Tang. I thought it was very fitting.