March, 2023 - 912 Batu Road by Viji Krishnamoorthy

BG1 and BG2 meeting March 2023

 

Review:  912 Batu Road by Viji Krishnamoorthy

The March book group meeting was quite special as Book Group 1 and Book Group 2 held a combined discussion meeting of the book ‘912 Batu Road’.  We also had the privilege of having the author Viji Krishnamoorthy join the meeting.

Viji Krishnamoorthy lives in Kuala Lumpur. She was born in Ipoh, Perak to a Tamil father

and a Hokkien Chinese mother.  It is the author’s first book and took nearly 15 years to complete, having started out as a collection of letters to her husband.

 

The book tells the story of two Malayan families from the time of WWII until the early 2000s. It’s the story of an interracial love affair, doomed by traditions and cultural restrictions.

 

The book consists of 53 chapters, relating to the past and present.  The past describes the devastating effect of the war on the Indian Brahmin family of Geeta and her secret boyfriend Ken’s Chinese family.  Although both families were very close in  the past and especially during the war, Geeta and Ken’s relationship in the present however must be kept secret as Geeta’s family would not consent to a marriage outside of their Brahmin community.

 

Some members of the group admitted that they did not know very much about the time of the Japanese occupation of Malaya and therefore found the chapters dealing with it very interesting and informative.

Customs and traditions, relationships between the different communities, as well as issues of betrayal, guilt and forgiveness are threads which run all the way through the narrative.

 

It was indeed a bonus to have Viji Krishnamoorthy with us to answer our questions and clarify various points patiently and graciously.  We are looking forward to her second book which she is already working on.

 

Marianne Khor