She can't be a medium, said Mom. She graduated from Harvard!There is lots going on in the life of Jessamyn. Due to financial and family reasons the unemployed Harvard graduate needed to move from the US to her aunt's house back in Penang, Malaysia. Although she is US-American, she is also a member of the Chinese people living in Malaysia, speaking the Hokkien language. She is also a closeted lesbian who is trying to make a long distance relationship work with her girlfriend who stayed behind, but who will soon start a new job in Singapore. As if all that wasn't enough, she also hears her dead grandmother Ah Ma's voice talking to her. And that grandma pulls no punches - neither in the way she talks nor when she takes over Jess' body without asking when she sleeps. Although Jess initially leaves a restrained and quiet impression, the little bickerings and conflicts and squabbles with Ah Ma gradually make her discover that she is much more like Ah Ma than she thought.
Ah Ma looked like the only thing stopping her from slapping Jess was her incorporeality.Of course, Ah Ma doesn't reside inside Jess' head for good. She has unfinished business and a mission here on Earth and wants Jess to be her medium. But the fact that she herself used to be a medium of a deity called Black Water Sister, she hides from Jess. And although Jess is aware that she will need to save a Temple from being demolished by Ng Chee Hin, one of Malaysia's richest men, AND from being gentrified into a temple-café by his son Ng Wei Sherng, she isn't being told all the truth by anyone and will step by step, painfully and enthrallingly, unveil all of it by herself.
But never forget that Jess has grown up in the US and doesn't really know her way around with Southeast Asian deities and that causes often comical situations because of her ignorance... If the God has a sense of humor, that is.
If your medium didn't want to call me, then she gave me an offering for what?" The uncle pointed at the mints Jess had put down on the altar. "This kind of offering, even if there's no trouble, I don't want. All the more there's a hantu attacking people, you think I want to eat this kind of thing? You should teach your medium to think of other people. And give better offerings! The packet is half gone already!
On her mission she has sometimes eerie sometimes
violent (but almost always hilarious) encounters with many ghosts and gods;
fights and cofronts ominous and dangerous gangsters and gains insights
into Ah Ma's very colorful life. Because Ah Ma was not what everybody
thinks she was. In a separate storyline Jess tries to focus on and
straighten out her own life and is preoccupied with many problems; looking
for a job in a poor country, family ties that are different than what
she is used to, difficulties of long distance relationships, being
closeted...
As I already mentioned, I immensely enjoyed this
book and for once I have nothing to criticize at all. Plus, while
reading I learned SO MUCH about Malaysia and the Hokkien and the
manifoldness of their religion and culture! I LOVE AH MA and I want a T-Shirt that says so!
Afterwards, if you are free, maybe you can make some offering to me.
"What offering you want?" said Ah Ma.
"Nasi dalca with mutton kurma and kerabu kacang botol," said the Datuk Kong promptly.
"Can find at Pak Ding's stall at Jalan Jelutong. Just put in Waze. An one air bandung." A look of yearning crossed his face. "Long time since I've had air bandung!"
Ah Ma frowned. "Mutton also want? You think this girl has a lot of money ah? Nasi should be enough already-!"
"It's a deal," said Jess.
From Gods who
require offerings that sound like a takeout food order; over refugees
working on Malai construction sites; to women, god or human, who have
much more in common than they knew - Black Water Sister is full of
wondrous adventures and is an excellently written book.
Thank you so much Pan Macmillan for providing me a proof copy for an honest review.
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