I liked the different perspectives with each character. Their inner thoughts and emotions of hate and love toward each other was in contrast with each other and made you understand why they did what they did. Not much of a history buff but learned about the tumultuous relationship in indonesia with the Chinese and Japanese people.
Maybe it's my conservative Christian upbringing that made me dislike this book. I understand it's a commentary on how society was and still is. We tend to be obsessive about things and people mostly. And in our journey to obtain them, we go down roads that are not healthy for us. The writing was great, the descriptions, everything. Just that for me I just couldn't get into the book.