In One Word: MoralA Beautiful Sentence: “If we are drowning in the sea, we could still swim, or there would be clothes who could help pull us to shore, but if we are drowning in a sea of people, it’s like we’re buried deep in a muddy swamp, mun.” The Plot: A former village headman…
Category: Modern Singaporean Fiction
The Riot Act By Sebastian Sim – Review
In One Word: FrighteningA Beautiful Sentence: “She wished she were using one of those landline phones from her parents’ generation, so that she could physically slam the receiver down the phone.” The Plot: The 2013 Little India riot in Singapore sets the stage for this story, which follows three women’s lives. One woman fears she…
Raffles Place Ragtime by Philip Jeyaretnam – Review
In One Word: PowerfulA Beautiful Sentence: “Looking out at the lighted squares of other flats, the rows of streetlights and the lights of the cars hurrying to their destinations, she knew that she lived her life in too much of a rush, too readily accepting the lash of the whip that sought to drive her…
The Gatekeeper by Nuraliah Norasid – Review
In One Word: BrilliantA Beautiful Sentence: “The idea of long gone people from a past, unrecorded civilisation seemed strange to him and raised goosepimples on his skin.” The Plot: Ria, a woman with the power to turn people to stone, hides her monstrous identity after committing an act of violence in self-defense. She retreats to…
Ponti by Sharlene Teo – Review
In One Word: Disappointing A Beautiful Sentence: “One day the shitty corporate mug I’m holding will be somebody’s antique,…” The Plot: The book follows three women, Szu, Circe, and Amisa, across different times in their lives, from adolescence to adulthood. Szu is a teenager trying to build a relationship with her mother, Amisa, a former…