The Last Lesson of Mrs de Souza

by Cyril Wong

“An unsentimental yet moving narrative, a sobering alternative to Dead Poets Society and To Sir, With Love. With its deep probing look at the teaching profession, it unveils a rich array of themes—homosexual awakening, human actions and consequences, the individual in conflict with society, and most compellingly, the nature of perhaps the most noble and difficult of vocations.” —Boey Kim Cheng, author of Clear Brightness

One last time and on her birthday, Rose de Souza is returning to school to give a final lesson to her classroom of secondary school boys before retiring from her long teaching career. What ensues is an unexpected confession in which she recounts the tragic and traumatic story of Amir, a student from her past who overturned the way she saw herself as a teacher, and changed her life forever.

This stunning first novel from award-winning poet Cyril Wong is a tour de force, an exceptional examination of the power of choice and the unreliability of memory.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Asia

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Cyril Wong is a two-time Singapore Literature Prize-winning poet and the recipient of the Singapore National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award for Literature. His books include poetry collections Tilting Our Plates to Catch the Light (2007) and The Lover’s Inventory (2015), novels The Last Lesson of Mrs de Souza (2013) and This Side of Heaven (2020), and fiction collection Ten Things My Father Never Taught Me (2014). He completed his doctoral degree in English Literature at the National University of Singapore in 2012. His works have been featured in the Norton anthology, Language for a New Century, in Chinese Erotic Poems by Everyman’s Library, and in magazines and journals around the world. His writings have been translated into Turkish, German, Italian, French, Portuguese and Japanese.

Reviews

[Hulyacln · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rose de Souza’nın bugün öğretmenlik hayatının son günü.Birazdan vedalaşacağı öğrenciler ve meslektaşlarıyla dolu okula giriyor..Yıllar önce yaptıkları,hatta o doğmadan önce ailesinin başına gelenler de aklına uçuşuyor.
Hayat arkadaşıyla vedalaşma,seneler evvel bir öğrencisiyle konuşmaları,gözü açık gördüğü rüyalar da düşüyor yazıya.
Bayan de Souza’nın son dersi,tam anlamıyla bir iç döküş..İnsanın yaşamında neler yapması ve nasıl bir yol izlemesi gerektiğine dair fikir de edinebiliyorsunuz.
Samimi ve bir o kadar umutlu da..

[Dr_Savage · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wong is a decent stylist but that's not quite enough to save the book for me. The characters feel two-dimensional, and while this is fair enough in the case of Amir (who exists only in his former teacher's tormented recollections and daydreams), it's a problem that the narrator, too, isn't interesting enough to sustain the reader's attention or arouse much sympathy. The basic problem is that the rash action she took all those years ago, and which she has never ceased to regret, comes across as psychologically implausible; it's a novelist's contrivance rather than an intelligible human response to a child crying out for help. Mrs de Souza just doesn't come alive, despite attempts to fill in her family background and convey a sense of her physical presence. At one point the narrator (on behalf of the author?) scoffs at the saccharine fairytale view of teachers peddled by "Dead Poets Society", but actually Mrs de Souza is a lot like Mr Keating in that film: idealistic, culpable, not quite human. In short, the author doesn't quite convince me that I should care about this woman and her guilty conscience.
I read the novel concurrently with Andrew Koh's similarly themed novella, "Glass Cathedral", and maybe it was spoiled by the comparison.

[Yalan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where Cyril Wong succeeds as a poet, he fails as a novelist—at least in this novel. The prose misses and is over-saturated with his poetic style all at once: his attempt at poetic prose ends up eschewing an economy of words, which results in a novel that is over-written without, in the final analysis, saying very much. A few problems:

1. The narrator’s voice is inauthentic and not believable. I did not find it plausible that a 60-year-old woman would, for instance, refer to her skin tone as “the glimmering darkness of my pigmentation”.

2. Attempts like the above to write descriptively by looking up and inserting words from a thesaurus when a simple phrasing would do—which is littered throughout the novel—rendered the narrator’s voice inauthentic and thus frustrated the usual suspension of disbelief that is vital to the basic success of any piece of fiction.

3. As such, the events of the book were not believable. Worse, they came across as contrived. For the narrator’s anguish to be sympathetic, it must be at least plausible that there might exist someone like her out there in the world, who would have taken the course of action that she did when confronted with the dilemma that she faced. Since nothing about the narrator was plausible—I did not believe that someone like her could exist in the world because she did not come across something other than a piece of narrative fiction—it followed that nothing else about her experiences was plausible or believable.

4. In the same vein, the characters—especially the narrator and her husband—felt like the author’s mouthpiece with which to criticise Singapore society, including its education system. While there was nothing wrong with the content of the critique, there was plenty wrong with its mode. Social commentary from the mouths of unbelievable characters is both contrived and didactic. Contrived because one cannot imagine actual people saying these things in the manner in which they are written; and so didactic because the author is bluntly shoving his viewpoint down the reader’s throat.

5. Finally, the story was entirely predictable. The gay student, the tyrannical father, the “twist” at the end...come on.

Sped through this book just to finish it. Borrowed a collection of Wong’s short stories at the same time as this book and was going to read it next, but now I think I will pass.

[felicialowj · Rating 4 out of 5]

I simultaneously pitied and wanted to punch Mrs de Souza. Cyril has created a fantastically believable character in her.

[Sabrina Loh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deceptively short and undramatic book that exposes a simple truth: never trust the narratives we tell regarding ourselves. Also, the road to hell can be paved with good intentions. Mrs De Souza is clearly unhinged; and the sparse writing does not hide this or couch this in over-description. An unsettling first-person perspective that is not to be trusted, even as the book allows for us to judge De Souza on our own terms.

[Renklikalem · Rating 4 out of 5]

basit dusunursek konu tek bir olay ozelinde geciyormus gibi olsa da; saygi, ozsaygi, sevgi, aile, iyi insan olmak, mutlu bir birey olarak toplumda ayakta(hayatta) kalmaya calismak kavramlari uzerine;
ebeveynlerin, ogretmenlerin, arkadaslarin insan hayatindaki nereye ve ne sekilde yayildigini ve bazen bir niyetin, bir sozcugun nerelere dokundugunu bilemedigimiz su hayatta, kucuk ve onemsiz sandigimiz bir cok hareketimizin sonuclari uzerine incecik ama dusunducuru, doyurucu, sorgulatan bir kitap okudum.

[Caleb Liu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was clearing out my Singlit collection and a friend claimed this book so I thought I’d browse this before giving it away. The short novel is poet Cyril Wong’s first and involves Mrs de Souza reminiscing about her marriage and ex-husband, her career and in particular one former student that has haunted her throughout her life during her final lesson.

I won’t be giving too much away in saying that the student in question solicited some very personal advice because he was confused about himself. If you know Cyril at all - it won’t take much to figure out what the student is confused about.

Cyril does have a good ear for dialogue. I thought he captured the voices of the students fairly well. I particularly loved the imagined dialogue Mrs de Souza has with her late husband - I think the quiet intimacy and comfort of the marriage is captured very nicely. Nothing in this book is overwritten.

Where I did have reservations was with the characterization. I find it hard to believe that Mrs de Souza presented as a rather stern figure, would suddenly speak so candidly about such a private matter (even if it were her last day) seems unlikely.

As an educator myself, and one from a different time than her, and far more liberal, I would never have done what she did especially given her student’s admonition not to. What drove her to do it? Naivety? Vanity? I didn’t need answers per se but I struggled to view her actions as keeping with her character.


Personal Verdict:

Happy to have read it? So-So

Interesting, Inspirational, Though Provoking? A little Inspirational

Keep in Library? No. Happy to be passing this on.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

The blurbs damn this book with false praise.

It reads well but I get the nagging feeling of being told what the story is, instead of being shown what it is about.

Mrs de Souza seems to come across about being untethered mentally at times and her narration of what happens to a past pupil Amir doesn't really do much for me in understanding her mindset and doesn't extend and explore the plot further.

The use of "I" locks the reader into seeing the story through Mrs de Souza's eyes and since most of what is important is never really seen, there is only speculation on her part.

This feels like a novella that wants to be a novel but comes across as a series of short stories and oddly more youth adult.

The Atonement-like ending doesn't do it any favors at all either.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quiet, strange, unexpectedly disturbing story of an aging teacher's regrets. I wouldn't say I liked it, but the story has lingered with me - haunted me, bothered me - and I applaud the writer for that. Mrs. de Souza was never fully fleshed out to me, but as we only know of her what she wants to tell us, it's to be expected that she remains somewhat mysterious, unknowable. I certainly did not understand why she - an older woman brought up in conservative Singapore - would have chosen to do what she did with regards to Amir and his big secret. A very unlikely move that has disastrous consequences.

[Li Sian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting this slim novel to bowl me away - short though it is, Cyril Wong's story about a woman who teaches her last class the day before retirement somehow achieves the unhurried and considering voice which strips away the layers of self-presentation - and -delusion - of the titular character. As one might expect from a Cyril Wong work, 'The Last Lesson of Mrs de Souza' is full of meditations on culture, society, voice, spirituality, and spiritual death. I found his mastery of voice incredible - in his presentation of a woman who is serene, certain, and compelling, yet fatally and cruelly flawed. A story to keep thinking about.

[Helly · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a bad book

[Andrew McDougall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This debut novel from one of only two persons to have won the Singaporean Literature Prize twice offers plenty to think about in its less than 150 pages. The eponymous Mrs de Souza narrates her final day as a teacher before retirement, where she tells her class, and us the readers, the story of a former student of hers that continues to haunt her. Along the way there are reflections on society, education, her childhood, her marriage and more besides. With crisp, clear, meditative prose, Wong has excellently crafted the voice of his narrator and one can hear the soothing yet weary tones of Mrs de Souza with all her experience, wisdom, certainties and doubts...

...This short novel is a quick read but will stay with you for a long time.

Full review here

[Banu Yıldıran Genç · Rating 3 out of 5]

60 yaşına gelmiş, çok sevdiği kocasını kaybetmiş, yalnız, çocuksuz, iyi de öğretmen olduğuna inanan bayan de souza'nın okuldaki son gününde öğrencilerine yaptığı son konuşmadan oluşuyor aslında roman.
geri dönüşlerle ise annesiyle, kocasıyla ilişkisi verilirken, çocuklara hayatının hatasını anlatma kararı romanın asıl doruk noktasını oluşturuyor.
ben de bunca yıllık bir öğretmen olarak böyle bir hatayı nasıl yaptığına şaştım açıkçası. bok yemiş affedersiniz :/
eşcinsellik öğrenci için de öğretmen için de zor konu. ama bu hata kadının hayatını da mahvetmiş. roman boyunca da bununla uğraşıyor.
bana göre fazla şiirsel bir romandı.
sanırım çevirisiyle ya da anlatımıyla ilgili de problem var. çok tutuk geldi.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prose is stylish and precise. The narrative structure, though initially daunting because of the temporal to-and-fros, was surprisingly easy to follow. It was so compelling that I finished this within half an hour, but its haunting effects stayed with me till a few hours later. The last lesson of Mrs De Souza had a last lesson for the retiring teacher, though as it with all lessons, one wonders if she had retained any of it.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this book was written with good intention, but as much as I wanted to like it, the plot and dialogue in the book felt very contrived and the ending (spoiler alert: a letter that sat unnoticed for years suddenly surfacing?) did not sit well with me. It could have been a short story, but instead dragged out into a novel. That said, there were beautiful bouts of prose that I enjoyed. Maybe I should try reading the author's poetry instead. ;)

[Jeffrey Tham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely hated the protagonist, but making me hate her is clearly deliberate--an interesting strategy by the novel. I think De Souza's sense of self-delusion is reflected in the (almost too-simple) structure of the narrative. Also, I was "Amir" once, facing the things that he did in the story, so I can relate.

[mm · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rambling walk down memory lane that required a tighter editing hand. Premise is good but execution isn't of the quality I expected having read wong's books of poetry n enjoyed them. But still a good read.

[Remy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good God, Mrs de Souza.
This is absolutely beautiful, in a way I can't describe. I'm not sure if I want to hug Rose or give her a slap. The reality of it all, is so... hauntingly achingly real. this book shall live on in me.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple but deceptively thought-provoking. What really made this book most haunting for me was surely Mrs De Souza’s nightmares. She really needed to talk to someone about her state of mind and it sucks that she didn’t.

[Déwi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The sentiment of the story was a good one but it dragged on and was too predictable.

[jin jie · Rating 3 out of 5]

sometimes, life does not require happy endings..

[Caner Sahin · Rating 4 out of 5]

İçsel ve hüzünlü bir itiraf gibiydi Bayan de Souza'nın dedikleri.

[Elif · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ne var ki bu ülkede… bu toplumda… ve bunu ne kadar vurgulasam azdır, kim olduğunuzu hatırlamayı unutacaksınız.
.
Singapur edebiyatından ilk defa bir kitap okudum ve bu yüzden Bizim Büyük Challange’ımız okumadığınız bir ülke edebiyatından bir ktiap kategorisine çok güzel uyum sağladı. Bayan de Souza’nın Son Dersi bir ara adına sıkça rastladığım bir kitaptı. Öğretmen olan Bayan de Souza’nın okulda geçirdiği son günü daha doğrusu son dersini anlatıyor. Hayatı, pişmanlıkları, yaşanmışlıkları ve hayalleri derken çoğunlukla düşüncelere ve biraz da diyaloglara dayanan bir okuma. Başlangıçta büyük bir şeyin olacağını vaat ediyormuşçasına bir hazırlık içerisine girilse de ilerledikçe biraz hayal kırıklığına dönüşen bir okuma oldu. Bunun en büyük nedeni Bayan de Souza’nın anlattığı hikayenin tamamen kendi hadsizliğine dayanmasıydı. Emir ortaya çıktığı anda kitapta nereye gidileceğini sezer gibi oldum ve karakterin kendisiyle çatışıp durması bunaltırken bir yandan da patavatsızca konuşup sonra toparlamaya çalışması komik geldi. En ufak sözlerin sonucunun ne kadar büyük olabileceğini gösteriyor. Hayal kırıklığındaki bir diğer neden ana karakterin iç çatışmalarının okuru yoracak kadar bunaltıcı olmasıydı. Ben kadının yaptıklarının affedilemez olduğunu ve kendisinin kötü bir öğretmen değil sadece kötü bir karaktere sahip olduğunu düşünüyorum. Nasıl bir toplumdan yaşadığından habersizce toz pembe olaylara yaklaşması ve kişinin isteğine ısrarla karşı gelmesi kitabın en can sıkıcı kısmıydı. Bazı okurlar bunu her insanın hata yapabileceği ve kitabın hatalardan ders çıkarmanın önemine değindiğinden bahsetmiş. Singapur’da gey olmanın ‘yasak’ olduğunu da bu kitapla öğrenmiş oldum.

[Öznur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sövcem sövemiyorum, tşk

[Yifarn Loo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is clearly about a teacher's first-person, unreliable narrative and the more we read into her almost surreal "story", the more we simultaneously feel for her and distrust her at the same time. One appreciates how the novel seems to exist in the fictionalised interim between an actual Singapore and an anonymous place that isn't Singapore at all; much like how De Souza's memories are real-yet-unreal (like any recollection in any ontological sense, whether a result of self-delusion or the imperfections of memory). A simple yet challenging little book. Amir's own story in the novel is made particularly moving as a result of all this uncertainty at the heart of the narrative.

[eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a poet like Cyril Wong writes prose, it turns out exceptionally visually compelling. I felt as though I could literally see and picture Mrs de Souza and her classroom of students, and the field outside the window. But what made this novel even more impactful was the sudden ending. It's hard to cope with the sudden revelation at the end, and the character's trauma. But that's what makes it so haunting for the reader. Even after putting down the book, the characters remain so alive in my mind. To me, Wong's prose is even more memorable than his poetry, but I can also understand how poetry helped shape his signature writing style with images that sparkle.

[O · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunatly less stellar than I'd hoped. After the first two chapters or so, I could signpost where it was heading, and none of the major plot points shocked me at all. It was simply too bland, and for something so life changing, that's criminal. And perhaps shock wasn't the point, perhaps psyche was meant to be the focus, but that didn't draw me in either. It was too draggy, yet too underdrawn. Her self-pity was way too cloying. I'd enjoyed Cyril's short stories, and perhaps that was what this novel should have been.

[Julie Koh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simple novel that isn't what it seems, I think. More lyrical (and tellingly unreliable) psycho-drama than "novel" in the conventional sense, I'm nonetheless haunted by the mistake the teacher makes (I've known teachers like this, who believe they can do no wrong, especially towards the end of their lives), and by the way the narrative is like a sudden dream one wakes up from shivering and weeping for no apparent reason.

[Neil H · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mrs De Souza is collectively a soulless, depraved sociopath. I cannot in good conscience recommend this book unless to see the sliver of human decency of Amir that provides a much needed relief from the suffocating thoughts of Rose. I got really increasingly irritated by the self delusion, aggrandized narrative playing out as composition of her thoughts.

[Melzheng · Rating 1 out of 5]

Felt to me like a rambling account of a self-absorbed woman. Granted the narrator had been through quite some trauma, but it was still tough sympathising and empathising with her. Regardless, the text does trigger a certain degree of introspection in the way we deal with others’ shared secrets, and how we hold on to and manipulate memories of the distant past.