Rachel Heng
Autor de Suicide Club
Sobre El Autor
Obras de Rachel Heng
A Hundred and Twenty Muscles 2 copias
Morgondopp 2 copias
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Género
- female
Miembros
Reseñas
Listas
Premios
También Puede Gustarte
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 4
- Miembros
- 340
- Popularidad
- #70,096
- Valoración
- 3.6
- Reseñas
- 23
- ISBNs
- 23
- Idiomas
- 5
- Favorito
- 1
Ah Boon, the main character, is the son of a fisherman, born in a rural fishing village. His ability to "find" islands no one else can see, and the bounty that his village harvests from fishing these islands, earns him the chance to attend school. But his education is interrupted, first by the Japanese invasion that subjugates Singapore and kills his father, then by the demonstrations and protests of the Singaporean independence movement. Despite his love for Siok Mei, a girl from his village who becomes an enthusiastic revolutionary, Ah Boon cannot completely reject his connections to his family and his village. Instead, he takes a job with the Gah Men (government) in the hope of making life better for everyone. But he finds himself embroiled in conflicts between the traditional life and the promise of the bright future for his country.
The Great Reclamation, named for the Singapore government's project of creating more land for the island country by filling in the bay with sand, thus destroying the livelihood Ah Boon's village, is a perfect example of what so many people are facing today as their traditional ways of life are obliterated by economic development. Heng's beautiful descriptions of the natural world and village life really emphasize everything that the villagers are losing. She also has great sympathy for her characters and the difficult choices that they face. Nothing is black and white; all their decisions are haunted by the knowledge that they will affect so many others.
I was very glad that I found this book, as there's not a lot available on modern Singaporean history in the U.S. It probably helps to have a little knowledge of the general events of postwar Singapore. This is also a book that could have really used a glossary! But the story is compelling and the characters sympathetic enough to be worth reading even if you have to do a little bit of Googling.… (más)