The Night Tiger: The Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

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Ron Rash is renowned for his writing about Appalachia, but his latest book, The Caretaker, begins ... So what did I like about this book? It has the creepy, murder plot of a BBC murder mystery. I like how the murders were steeped in Chinese mythology and magic realism, and the looming specters of the weretiger, as well as the finger in the vial, were both suitably creepy. I didn't guess who (or what) was responsible until the very end, so there was a very nice series of reveals to make me feel as if the journey had been worth it. That's important in a murder mystery novel, I think you'll agree. Ji Lin was a great character and I liked that she had a job that was looked down on as being morally loose, and that she didn't tolerate any shit-talking from people about her career. Ren took longer for me to like, and I'm not sure I bought his "cat whiskers" premonitions. That was really strange. a b Rolls, Albert (2008). Stephen King: A Biography: A Biography. ABC-Clio. pp.37–38. ISBN 978-0-313-34573-9. I tried to visit as many as I could. When you're inside an old house, you realize its character. You think: How many people came down these stairs? Why is the third stair worn away? Did people stop here to listen? Many of the buildings have now fallen into disrepair, and there's something very melancholy about these old houses that are just falling to pieces. Sometimes you can see them by the side of the road, and other times you can ask people permission to visit the house.

The Night of the Tiger" is a short story by Stephen King. Originally written in the 1960s, it was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in February 1978. Ji Lin, an apprentice dressmaker, moonlights as a dancehall girl to pay her mother's debts. One night, Ji Lin's dance partner leaves her with a gruesome souvenir that leads her on a crooked, dark trail. Sherwood, Harriet (18 April 2022). "The God of Small Things to Shuggie Bain: the Queen's jubilee book list". The Guardian . Retrieved 30 April 2022.Crisscrossing Ren’s tale are those of William Acton, a philandering surgeon who becomes Ren’s new employer, and Ji Lin, a young woman chafing under her limited horizons as a dressmaker’s apprentice. Time and again, the missing finger passes among them: surfacing, then becoming lost again, then found, then stolen, then buried, and finally reburied. Ren is only 11 years old....a Chinese houseboy is on a mission to fulfill his formers master’s dying wish. His former master, Dr. MacFarlene, lost a finger due to an accident many years ago. Ren promised to find it and bury it with his body. The old age superstition says this ‘must’ happen in 49 Days...or his old master’s soul will wander the earth forever. After the death of her beloved grandmother, a Cuban-American woman travels to Havana, where she discovers the roots of her identity--and unearths a family secret hidden since the revolution... I did not expect to be so entranced by this book. The variety of characters and the exotic setting, 1930's Malaya, was a positive aspect for me.

The story revolves around a severed finger. What were your first thoughts about this going into the book? How did it help present a unique and compelling story? Another thing that I loved about the first novel, was the beautiful description of old Malaya and its culture. Also, I remember even now how I salivated from the delicious food the author wrote about in the first book. I did not have the same sense of place when

Malaya, with its mix of Malays, Chinese, and Indians, is full of spirits: a looking-glass world governed by unsettling rules.

At different points in time, the novel changed its shape. While working on it, I never quite knew what this book was about. Is it the boy Ren? Is it about Ji Lin, the dance hall girl? When I first started writing, Ji Lin wasn't even in there at all. I'd written a few chapters like that, and my agent asked why there weren't any women in the book. It’s this latter quest that leads them to a greater understanding of themselves and their relation to the other, thus-far-unknown members of their nascent Confucian quintet.

When 11-year-old Ren's master dies, he makes one last request of his Chinese houseboy: that Ren find his severed finger, lost years ago in an accident, and reunite it with his body. Ren has 49 days, or else his master's soul will roam the earth, unable to rest in peace. Houseboy Ren is trying to fulfil his former master’s dying wish: to find his lost finger within 49 days. Alongside this is the story of Ji Lin. Refused the chance to be a doctor because she is a girl, Ji Lin instead works as a dancehall girl, unbeknownst to her abusive stepfather and beloved stepbrother. When a handsy dance partner one night leaves something behind, she discovers to her horror that it is a severed finger. The dance partner in question is shortly found dead. Soon a mysterious man is showing up, following Ji Lin around, and asking questions. Yangsze Choo’s writing was totally alluring giving attention to detail and descriptive prose. It also had the best ending!!!! I felt so warm and wonderful after finishing it. Richly complex…Gorgeous…Transport[s] us into a colonial world we more often see from the view of the occupier, in this transcendent tale about twins who share no blood, mythology and superstition, sibling rivalry, loyalty, forbidden love and identity.” — San Francisco Chronicle

Sadly, this insight comes two-thirds through the story, at a point where Ji Lin’s almost willful purblindness has begun to sound deliberately disingenuous. Malaya, with its mix of Malays, Chinese, and Indians, is full of spirits: a looking-glass world governed by unsettling rules. The European werewolf is a man who, when the moon is full, turns his skin inside out and become a beast. He then leaves the village and goes into the forest to kill. But for the natives here, the weretiger is not a man, but a beast who, when he chooses, put on a human skin and comes from the jungle into the village to prey on humans. It’s almost exactly the reverse situation and in some ways more disturbing”. At times like this the boy looks far younger than his years. The old man is sorry—he wishes he could do it himself, but he’s exhausted. Instead, he turns his face to the wall. Starred Review. A work of incredible beauty...Astoundingly captivating and striking in its portrayal of love, betrayal, and death, The Night Tiger is a transcendent story of courage and connection. stars. I may need to think some more about this one. I'm giving it a tentative 3½, rounded up to 4 because I absolutely loved that this historical mystery was steeped in Chinese and Malaysian mythology and superstition.

Laura Benedict

There were a number of ways I got into the story. One of them is my love for old houses. Malaysia has a lot of abandoned colonial houses left by the British, and they speak to a completely different lifestyle. So one way to think about this novel is something like a Downton Abbey of the tropics, in which it's all colonial. The British had these large houses with large local staffs and, because of the language barrier, sometimes the people in the house didn't know what the staff were saying, or what they knew about them. That was always very interesting to me.