Lian Gouw

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Aside from being a novel about a deeply moving saga of an Indonesian-Chinese family during the tumultuous times of war and revolution, as other reviewers have rightly pointed out, Only A Girl also invites us to explore the complexity of the term 'progress', as each of the main characters of the novel understands it--and struggles with it. At times, they embrace progress in order to grab what life has to offer; at other times, they have to turn their backs against progress so that they may survive the impossible circumstances of their lives. Lian Gouw has opened up a new avenue of examining the intricate web of class-gender-ethnicity in a trans-national context, while refraining from making any hasty moral judgments on the characters' views of themselves, and the subsequent actions they take as a result of such personal outlooks.

Only a Girl is a terrific book. Lian Gouw is a great story teller and has shown me so much I never knew about the history, people, society and culture of an important part of the world, which is so crucial to know about now, in this time of global connection and transformation.

In her debut novel, Only A Girl, Lian Gouw has assembled cultural history, social commentary, and character development skillfully. The thought-provoking novel is an intricate weave of family and civilization coming to terms with the past, the present, the future, and war.
Set in Indonesia between 1930 and 1952, Only A Girl is a finely detailed portrait of three courageous Chinese women trying to find their way in a world of cultural melding and upheaval as Western “progress” clatters against customary Chinese mores.
Nanna wishes to maintain established Chinese ideals, yet her daughter Carolien yearns to take on the ways of Western lifestyle imposed by Dutch colonialism. Carolien raises her own daughter Jenny in Western ways but then Jenny is ill-equipped to cope in a society where Dutch rule is no longer when Indonesia is declared independent.
Behind the stories of these women, Gouw deftly exposes her readers to the history of Indonesia during tumultuous years.

While each character individually resists the unpredictable constraints and changes of their eras, the women are also grappling with timeless and universal issues: love, refuge, independence, and acceptance. They encounter consequences never imagined and ask themselves difficult questions. How do we raise children and run households in unfamiliar territory? How do men and women relate when challenged by enduring war and new influential belief systems?
The reader is brought alongside these admirable characters and their complex circumstances with cheering and welling with tears. Difficult and often upsetting moments are balanced with Gouw’s careful and revealing attention to detail. The relationships and characters develop nimbly alongside stunning descriptions of nature, food, and setting.
Only A Girl causes self and societal introspection - we are reminded of the potentially tentative situation of any political system. It is a captivating novel that mines history, heartbreak and humanity.

"Your heart will be torn by the Lee family, citizens of Indonesia during that country's most dynamic period of history (1932-1952). You'll struggle with them as they grapple with which rituals to honor when the world is changing beneath their feet year after year, from Dutch control to Japanese control to Indonesian control. Gouw brings this fascinating piece of history alive."

In Lian Gouw’s Only a Girl, you take a trip to Bandung, Indonesia in 1932 without having to board an airplane. You are transported to a scene in which Chinese family values clash amidst the Indonesian Revolution in the colonial Dutch East Indies. You are immersed in a couple of strained households, a tense country, and an intense time of political and familial change. Fasten your seat belt for a rich tale that provides a terrific view of a multigenerational family entering the modern world. You needn’t bring a fondness for historical fiction on this ride but you may end up a fan nonetheless. While many of the difficulties faced by this family compare to adversity faced by families in the 21st century, the added bonus of learning about a window of time in Indonesia’s past is a real treat.
In her Dedication, Gouw writes: to the sisterhood of women with whom I share the joys, loves, hopes, sacrifices and pains that live in a woman’s heart, that mold a woman’s life. Her novel provides a front row seat to the womanly struggles she describes. Strong female characters abound, and even though you may not like all of them, Gouw's storytelling helps you understand what motivates each individual. It might be tempting to pigeon-hole this book as a woman’s book, but men will also find resonance in some of the male and female characters. After all, a war and revolution affect men and women alike.
Sensual images and brief but inviting descriptions of both scene and personal sensitivities beg the obvious question: when will someone convert this story into a great, sweeping movie? In the right hands, a director who stays true to the story line of this delightful novel, will be grateful to Gouw for the gift she has given the world. And let’s hope this gifted author has more tales to tell.

Lian Gouw’s captivating debut novel, Only a Girl, is a story of a Chinese mother, daughter, and granddaughter living in Indonesia through the World Depression, World War II and the Indonesian Revolution. Nanna, the matriarch of the family, tries to preserve her traditional Chinese values. Her daughter, Carolien, is eager to assimilate into the Dutch colonial society. Despite the Japanese occupation, Carolien’s daughter, Jenny, is brought up in the Dutch culture, which puts her at real disadvantage when the Dutch leave and the Indonesians revolt. Add to this plot a failed marriage and an abandoned baby girl and there is a book you may have trouble putting down. I found the generational tensions as well as the multicultural situation fascinating. As I am passing around my copy of Only A Girl, others agree with me.

Only a Girl, a novel by Lian Gouw, beautifully details the changing and often tumultuous lives of three generations of a Chinese family living in Indonesia during colonialism, war, and revolution. The story weaves a rich tapestry of joy, hope, disappointment, passion, and heartbreak as the three main characters, a woman from each generation, are both torn apart and united by their traditions, conflicting values, and love for each other. The story poetically describes the physical setting and the characters’ deep relationship with that part of their world, but it also vividly depicts the terror, violence, and death inherent in war and revolution. Violence, and it is there, is never gratuitous. Rather, it is seen through the eyes of characters who abhor it and are painfully touched by it. It is a story of steely resolve juxtaposed with rice-paper thin security during political upheaval. The rhythms of the story artfully lead the reader from subtle, quiet scenes of rituals, leave takings, and loneliness, to looming conflicts, both personal and external, and ultimately through doors that close and can’t be opened again. Lian Gouw describes a time not so different from today’s, where ethnic identity, oppression, and the struggle for independence is not just about governments but also about ordinary people who want better lives for themselves and their children. To read this book is to understand that people may speak different languages but that the language of the heart is universal.