First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

A wry, affecting tale set in a small town on the Indonesian coast, Man Tiger tells the story of two interlinked and tormented families and of Margio, a young man ordinary in al particulars except that he conceals within himself a supernatural female white tiger. The inequities and betrayals of family life coalesce around and torment this magical being. An explosive act of violence follows, and its mysterious cause is unraveled as events progress toward a heartbreaking revelation.

Lyrical and bawdy, experimental and political, this extraordinary novel announced the arrival of a powerful new voice on the global literary stage.

It is finally the weekend! For me, the weekend already commenced today as I am on vacation until the coming Tuesday. Thankfully, the coming Wednesday has also been declared a holiday. My work week has been cut short. HAHA. But for those who still had to report to the office, I hope you are ending the week on a high note. I hope it went well for everyone, else, I hope that you will spend the weekend recovering or finding your groove back. It is now the time to ditch those corporate attires for comfortable articles of clothing. More importantly, I hope that everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit.

Before I can dive into the weekend, I will be capping the work week with a fresh First Impression Friday update. My journey across Asia – except Japan of course – is in full swing. The journey, so far, has been interesting and riveting. My literary journey has taken me to China (Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum), South Korea (Han Kang’s Greek Lessons), the Philippines (Ninotchka Roska’s State of War), India (Deepti Kapoor’s Age of Vice, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay’s The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die, and Dipika Rai’s Someone Else’s Garden), and Pakistan (Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist). Earlier today, while waiting to board the plane, I finished reading Vietnamese writer Dương Thu Hương’s The Zenith. I have just commenced reading Eka Kurniawan’s Man Tiger after settling down in our accommodation.

With Man Tiger, I am traveling to another Southeast Asian country, Indonesia. This is also my second novel by Kurniawan; my first was his labyrinth of a debut novel, Beauty is a Wound. It was also Kurniawan who first redirected my attention to works of Indonesian literature after I came across his works in the earlier months of the pandemic. Beauty is a Wound was a psychedelic work that stretched the limits of my imagination. Nevertheless, I ended up liking the book’s mix of folklore and historical context to capture the contemporary history of Indonesia. It was a lush tapestry that made me look forward to Kurniawan’s other works. This came in the form of Man Tiger.

I recall a couple years back a documentary about people with supernatural powers who roam the streets and alleys of Indonesia. It is said that they can transform into tigers (or another animal, I forgot since it was years ago). It is no different from popular Filipino folklore; I guess we share a lot more with our Southeast Asian neighbors than we know. I was reminded of this local legend when I first came across Man Tiger. It is also what I am expecting the story is going to be, or at least it is around this legend that the story is going to be built upon. I guess I can say I wasn’t far off the mark.

Unlike Beauty is a Wound, Man Tiger is slimmer. This, however, does not impair my impression of the book I am currently reading. Set in a small unnamed town on the Indonesian coast, the novel started, interestingly, with the murder of Anwar Sadat. At the scene of the crime was the perpetrator, Margio. So there no longer is much of a mystery around the identity of the murderer. The story then proceeds to build the profile of the victim. Although he was charming and respected by the community, Anwar was no angel. He once had a promising career as an artist but it was cut short when he married into an affluent family. He soon lost interest in his wife and turned to a Casanova.

Margio, meanwhile, was a mild-mannered local. His polite veneer belied his capabilities as a hunter. His girlfriend was the daughter of the man he murdered. Confronted with this, he said calmly that “It wasn’t me. There is a tiger inside my body.” This admission, or nonadmission rather unsettled everyone. This gruesome opening chapter, however, served as a means to capture the readers’ attention, at least from my point of view. In the succeeding chapter, the book backtracked in time, when Margio was younger and his insatiable imagination was well-fed by stories of his grandfather. One of these stories was about a female tiger. This is the part of the story I have reached so far.

If I were to consider my experience with Beauty is a Wound, then I have a lot to expect from Man Tiger. I expect political elements to converge with folklore, the supernatural, and even complex family entanglements. Perhaps there will even be a fair share of sex and even graphic details. The latter can be true as a tiger is at the heart of the story. What I am interested to know is whether this tiger is allegorical or simply a figment of Margio’s imagination. Will this tiger have some physical manifestation? There is a lot I am looking forward to in the book which I hope to finish over the weekend.

How about you fellow reader? What book or books are you taking with you for the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy them. Again, happy weekend everyone!