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LINKSHANDPICKED An unexpected love story: by SIEW SIANG TAY
Published by Harper Collins / Reviewed by Eloise Oxer
A bold debut novel in which the reader is initiated into a world of risk and reality, as a naïve and idealistic young woman bids farewell to her ordered yet impoverished life in Malaysia, to find fairytale happiness with a struggling Australian man she has never met.
Laila, or LEI LAH, as she coaches her rugged Australian husband by the light of a naked fluorescent bulb, has taken the ultimate leap of faith, turning her back on tradition and the life her forefathers had carved, to forge one of her own…albeit a terrifying and unknown quantity.
In the spirit of independence, Laila sadly finds herself bound and helpless once again. Her betrothed, a balding, simple Aussie bloke, pushing 40 and making ends meet with seasonal fruit picking and a rented caravan, brings his bride to be home to the isolated South Australian country town in which he grew up, and this is where Laila’s illusions of the promised life he’d painted in their months of correspondence comes crashing down.
Not only had her Jim led her to believe she would be stepping into a brand new life with a man sporting a full head of hair, but treacherously, and what at first appears to be her primary desire…a fully furnished red brick home, sprawling front lawn and white picket fence to boot.
Devastated by the isolation, the local hostility and the tin walls of Jims house on wheels, she seeks solace in the Murray, reminding her of her own watery refuge back home, her new courageous and happily married Phillipina friend Marietta, and finally a wealthy, dashingly handsome city dwelling fellow named Sean, who transforms with shocking rapidity from idolising knight in shining armour to grotesque perpetrator of sexual and emotional abuse.
Misfortune upon misfortune seem to beset this struggling heroine, and as she is beaten down by her husbands lack of finances, his modest desires and generous drinking, his patriarchal ideas and the towns xenophobia, her deep unhappiness and longing for a better life lead her from victimisation to outright abuse.
Siew Siang Tay richly crafts the form and life of her characters, and the manner in which she communicates Laila’s world brings to mind the struggle of a new language, a new country, and a new start.
An eye opening read into the Australian world seen through the eyes of a young immigrant woman full of hope and expectation.
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