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xenobio's review against another edition
5.0
I've been trying to sample the "Singaporean Writers" shelf at Clementi Public Library. (Apparently they are so short on local writers, they have to steal Malaysians to pad it out but anyway that's off topic.) Most of the books don't look like something I want to read, or have been simply disappointing upon reading, but this is a pretty good murder mystery. The narrator is a kind of naive/innocent hero, almost like an amnesiac or someone sleepwalking through life except for the passion he had for his fiance, murdered at the beginning of the book. His dreamy nature, however, allows him to notice things that normal people might not. The story is mystical but in the end the facts and motives of the murder are entirely realistic.
Unlike a lot of younger local authors, Baratham does not have the irritating habits of a) exoticising his own country by writing in a self-conscious style as if explaining everything to a Western reader (wa buey tahan Catherine Lim) and b) using thesaurus words all over the place, often inappropriately (blame the ridiculous school system). He's an old-school guy, someone from the narrator's Uncle Oscar's generation. The only points where error (a) was committed were the ching-chong Chinaman speech of the narrator's colleague Loong and the me-Tarzan-you-Jane of an Indian character later in the book.
Unlike a lot of younger local authors, Baratham does not have the irritating habits of a) exoticising his own country by writing in a self-conscious style as if explaining everything to a Western reader (wa buey tahan Catherine Lim) and b) using thesaurus words all over the place, often inappropriately (blame the ridiculous school system). He's an old-school guy, someone from the narrator's Uncle Oscar's generation. The only points where error (a) was committed were the ching-chong Chinaman speech of the narrator's colleague Loong and the me-Tarzan-you-Jane of an Indian character later in the book.
caterinaanna's review
3.0
Given that this story includes police brutality, corruption and racism as well as the murders listed in the synopsis, it is no wonder that the writer is described as 'controversial'. There is also a ghost in this tale of letting go and masculine intuition. Parts of it are not for the squeamish, but it is definitely worth a read.
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