The beating and other stories

by Dave Chua

A mysterious tiger roams in the shadows of an apartment block. A security guard comes to terms with a past scarred by his father’s attachment to violence. A woman traces her family’s path of gradual change that began with her teenage pregnancy. A massacre on an island prison brings to life a forgotten strand of an island nation’s history.

The Beating and Other Stories is a long-awaited collection of short stories by award-winning writer Dave Chua, author of the novel Gone Case. The book frequently crosses genres and styles, spinning from historical fiction to magical realism, and takes us on adventures with a distinct melancholic undertone. Sparse but emotional, these stories continue to demonstrate Chua’s talent in exploring the intense inner environments of hyper-urban Singapore.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature

210 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Malaysian-born author and freelance writer Dave Chua, who contributes to various publications including The Straits Times, first came to literary prominence in 1995, when he was a joint winner of the SPH-NAC Golden Point Award for English short story. The following year, his first novel Gone Case received the Singapore Literature Prize Commendation Award. A resident of Singapore for most of his life, Dave has long worked the media industry, organising film festivals such as the annual Animation Nation (since 2005) and participating in various TV and corporate production projects. He also teaches ad-hoc and is actively involved with the Singapore Film Society as Vice Chairman.

Reviews

[milkygoogoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dave Chua's writing style has such clear, concise and minimalistic tones that brings through a deluge of emotions and meanings. You don't need big, fancy, descriptive words to tell a good story. Absolutely enjoyed this!

[Anggi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dave Chua shows how writers can inflict feelings without overdoing sophisticated adjectives, if they wish to. His sentences are pithy but suffice to play down readers’ imagination.

It’s not easy to point which of the stories is my favorite. I prefer longer stories than the short ones, though, since they feel more conclusive. The short ones, however, breathe fresh air since the longer stories are rather depressing. Most stories deal with urban family issues in the city-nation, such as broken/emotionless relationship and distance between parents and children. “The Flat” is so cleverly written to the point it is addicting; I wish it would never end, at least not that fast. I can somehow feel the aching boredom in Singapore’s busy evenings in “The Man Who Came Alone to Eat”. “Senang” is Chua’s fictional take on the prison riot in Pulau Senang back in the 1964, and this story can be tear-jerking if you are not careful.

This is my first experience with a Singaporean writer, the whole thing is experimentation for me, and it ends up in a disturbing, yet pleasant discovery. This book has definitely become one of my most favorite short-story collections.

[Le Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a master surgeon, Dave incises and cleaves away our slick veneers to expose gritty, if not utterly disenfranchised beings. He maneuvers his way around the pulse and the veins of the heartland and goes for the jugular. His short stories double as social commentaries, revealing characters conjoined in their solitude and whom, as Thoreau will put it, "lead lives of quiet desperation". The writing is often suffused with cool detachment, potent in nostalgia and ripe with familiar estrangement.

[Ernest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully melancholic tales. Standout stories for me are 'Chute', 'Fireworks' and 'The Beating'. The tiger in 142B can also join the ranks of the many literary tigers found in literature.

[Areli Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanna like it but I just didn't connect much with most of the stories. Though I'm looking forward to reading more from the author!

[Amy ☁️ (tinycl0ud) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories about broken marriages, dysfunctional families, neurotic children, abandoned elderly, and all around misery. Start reading only with a full tank of happy if not it can get quite draining. The foreword by Gwee Li Sui really hits the nail on the head. This is a Singapore that is plausible and uncompromising in its plausibility.

[Geraldine · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s collections like this that remind me why I love reading short stories, and why they’re so powerful. I love how the language which Dave uses is seemingly simple, yet evokes such accurate and precise imagery, and/or the necessary emotions.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of stories about the disconnect and dysfunction of relationships in modern and urban Singapore. Each story is a vignette of characters of different social backgrounds yet facing the same droning sadness and helplessness in their own lives. For me, the shorter stories (The Flat, Chute, The Drowning, Fireworks) are particularly resonating in that they hint at a larger story of which we only get a glimpse with no closure, furthering the melancholy and pointlessness of the lives of the protagonists. Senang, the only historical fiction in the book, provides an unexpected delight in this collection.

[Ray Ong · Rating 4 out of 5]

as succinctly summarized in the foreword by literary critic Gwee Li Sui, this collection of shorts is an examination of the pervading sense of alienation and loneliness that may be rightly termed the Singaporean condition. The inherent contradictions of a statistic-obsessed state machinery and its nostalgic populace, which itself speaks more about their dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs, has created a curious, conflicted creature who strives for material achievements but also laments the disconcerting impermanence brought about the rapid rate of change in a city-state where being in-vogue is the be-all-and-end-all - the Singaporean.

[PJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a mature collection of short stories set in the Singapore heartland. A piano in which vines were growing and choking the piano strings. A mysterious tiger roaming the void decks of a flat. Disintegrating relationships. A funeral. A lone man who orders and eats the same meal every time. Vanishing people. Writer Dave Chua weaves his imagination and spins a compelling world in which all these and more not only make sense, but come together in a coherent whole.

[Sae-chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite a good collection of short stories. First time I found among Asian non-Japanese writers. Sometimes I wonder, is there anybody leading a happy life?