More killing: Dial A for Aunties

A murder story with lots of madcap and slapstick scenes! Four aunts with distinct characters share hilarious exchanges, and the unexpected death gets mixed with wedding preparations that are going to go wrong anyway! These are not easy to pull off so Jesse Sutanto clearly is a talented writer.

She writes very well and originally, and could have carried the plot well without the sex scenes/references and swear words that pad the story.

For me, this is a major drawback because the Meddelin-Nathan relationship is a critical plot element that runs through the story but ironically, is also one of its weakest links. What exactly do they see in each other? This is not explained and Meddelin dwells a lot on the physical aspects of their relationship as well as Nathan’s looks, body and smiles. Is that all we should care about for the main couple?

Apart from that, the resolution is weaker than the rest of the story. How can it be so easy to explain and laugh away a dead body? Sutanto is not the first to have done this but how acceptable is it to construct a comic tale out of a person’s uncalled for death? We have here, literally, a guy being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I feel that the ending is somehow not quite right. There are no regrets and no attempts to make amends for Ah Guan’s death.

Overall, though, the book is entertaining with its very funny scenes and all the excesses of excessively wealthy Asian families.

Dial A for Aunties

by Jesse Q Sutanto

(Berkley, 2021)

Comments

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