Confessions of an Old Boy by Kam Raslan

Assalamualaikum...

I started reading this book soon after i finished Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I didn't practice that very often, i mean, about reading one book right after another. Because i'm the type of guy to savour the feelings/essence of every book i read (sometimes for days - the longest was Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Huhu, really..) and i have to tell you 'Eat Pray Love' also had almost the same effect to me.

But still, i decided to read this book right after Ms Gilbert's book anyway.

The reason? I made a 'mistake' of reading the first chapter of this book, 'A letter to a newspaper' -the most hillarious first chapter i've ever read- and i was instantly hooked. After several minutes, i already finished one fifth of the book and i knew i've to finish reading the book straight away!

Maybe i have to explain here the reason i didn't practice reading one book exactly after another, other the 'savoring' part i mentioned above.
The reasons are many but very simple. Different genre, style of writings, depth of the story telling, memorable characters, just to name a few.
Simply said, i won't read Harry Potter books soon after i read Jack Welch's book. Or even after a John Grisham's book. And neither do the other way around. It just feels... wrong. Each author has their own strength and style and obviously different genre. And i felt -personally- as if i will do them unjustice if i didn't take time to -again- savour their work.

And in this case, i definitely worried because i never heard of Kam Raslan before. And after reading such an impressive book in Eat Pray Love, i was really sure that 'Confessions of an Old Boy' won't stand a chance.

I was wrong!

The story of Dato' Hamid' life and his adventures in this book was told in such a way, you want to believe and not to believe it at the same time. At times, it felt so real, so convincing, we believe Dato' Hamid was real. He was somewhere out there, just finished sharing the story with us. At times, it felt outlandish and bizarre, hard to believe, but still want to believe it anyway!

If there's one word to describe the book, I would say: Intriguing

For me, Kam Raslan is an excellent author. I love the way he told his story (which can be very complex in an inexperienced hand, like me, heheh) in such a relax and simple manner. As a reader, sometimes i love to feel the pressure of the story plot, and sometimes i don't. This book falls onto latter category -it could be really overwhelming to younger readers, in my opinion- and Kam Raslan delivered it perfectly. His writings was sly and cunningly appealing, cynical and brilliantly hillarious. I laughed so hard sometimes, and i thought i smiled all the way to the end of the book.

Dato' Hamid's character, hands down, is one of the most exciting character i've ever read. And i think, Kam's words at the back of the book, summed it best.

"You'll never meet anyone quite like Dato' Hamid, but you'll know him."

Okay, now to the 'not-so-nice' part. And surprisingly it all came down to one particular subject only. As you can see below..

Firstly, the name of the character, Hamid. I dont have problem with the name Hamid. In fact it's a very good name. No, not just that. It is a very very very good name, it also happened to be one of Allah's name, in Asmaul Husna. Kam is right when he named the character Dato' Abdul Hamid. But as you learned when you read the book, the name Hamid wasnt really suitable to the 'bad boy' character of Dato' Hamid in the book, which will make my point no 2 below.
I believe, this minor flaw -not quite minor for some people i afraid- is accidental, but still it would be nice to be extra sensitive about things like this.

Secondly, the 'bad boy' character of Dato' Abdul Hamid. In the book, Dato' Hamid is an 'Old Boy', meaning he lived in an era of not-so-islamic way of life. Women and liquor, are part of the lifestyle, especially from an elite family like Dato' Hamid. And Kam did very well to describe all that in the book. In fact, too well, too casually told, it didn't even feel wrong to any of it! Which made it all the more wrong then, if you got what i mean..

I understand, this is an English-languaged novel -which for some mysterious reason, Malay/Muslim guy/gal didn't even know/interested to read- but for me, again, Kam needs to be sensitive to such issues. I can understand the needs to put all that in the book, but maybe it won't have to be apparent/detailed, you know..

That being said, i strongly recommend the book to everyone. It is a Malaysian book, everyone can read it and will enjoy it immersely. Except for that particular subject above, 'Confession of an Old Boy' is an excellent read, one of few local book i really love, and enjoy immersely.
And i wil eagerly await for the next book from Kam Raslan.

To all my government servant friends, this book is for you.
To all my non-government servant friends, this book is also for you, hehe.

Why I made such 'toast', you have to figure out by reading the book...

If there needs to give star, i'll give 7 out of 10.

P/S Thanks to Mullah for lending me this book. Maybe i should get one for myself, huh.






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