Lead Review

• Book: Fragile Monsters
• Location: Malaysia (Malaya)
• Author: Catherine Menon

Review Author: Tina Hartas

3.5*

The storylines in Fragile Monsters pivot on the tense relationship between Durga and her grandmother Mary who brought her up after her mother died. Durga is an Indian-Malaysian mathematics lecturer newly returned from a decade in Canada, returning to her home village for Diwali. There she confronts her irritable and carping grandmother who has nothing positive to say to her. As if that isn’t challenging enough, a childhood friend and sweetheart Tom, now a doctor, arrives, and Durga begins to wrestle with painful memories concerning the death of her mother and her childhood friend, Peony. What follows is a slow unravelling as, petal by petal, Durga strives to come to terms with her past. She wants answers. Mary wants to forget.

In alternating chapters, Mary tells her story of growing up in the 1920s, with her Indian mother and British father, and her younger brother Anil. She recalls the friendships and jealousies and hurts, and the secrets and shameful events.

And then there’s the Japanese occupation and associated painful memories.

Durga is precise and rational in her thinking, Mary relies on myths and mysticism. Little wonder they struggle to get on. Menon uses the lens of domesticity to portray the different perspectives of the two women and their prejudices and fears, and always, behind the unfolding of memory and reflection, is the backdrop of Malaysia.

After an intriguing and dramatic start, the narrative tends to drag a little, Durga’s storyline labouring at times. Some themes seem a little overcooked. Menon took a risk with her characters, rendering them unlikeable, especially Durga and Mary, leaving it hard for the reader to identify with the protagonists and find sympathy with the story.

The novel has been carefully crafted to enhance the suspense, and Menon deploys an entertaining turn of phrase. A light and easy read in many ways, Fragile Monsters is a story that majors in sense of place with vividly descriptive scenes of rural Malaysia, its rainforests, its thick heat and relentless rain, and its flooding rivers. There are snippets of the country’s culture and history. The result is atmospheric and consuming. The novel follows a well-trodden narrative path and will appeal to those who enjoy family sagas along with readers after a window on Malaysia.

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