My Singapore Lover

by Judy Chapman

Young, Western and single, Sara arrives in Singapore on a magazine assignment to detail the long-held attraction between Western men and Asian women. She soon becomes swept up in the exotic city, mesmerised by its glitter and glamour and seduced by the promises of a career, wealth and success.

However, a chance encounter with a charismatic Chinese Singaporean hotelier, who just happens to be married, draws Sara into an unexpected inward journey that forces her to confront her past and contemplate the difference between love and infatuation.

Set in contemporary Singapore, the Manhattan of Asia, this rapturous book is the story of one woman's journey of self-discovery, in which she explores her competing urges for corporate success and personal, spiritual happiness.

As with Eat Pray Love, popular Australian author Judy Chapman writes about finding soul and spirituality in unexpected places, and having the courage to follow the truth wherever that may lead.

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2013

Reviews

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It seems like this year, books set in Singapore have finally started to become popular. And I'm not talking locally published books. First there was Crazy Rich Asians (read my review here), and now, My Singapore Lover, which, to be honest, I requested because of the word Singapore.

Sadly, it seems like my search for an awesome book set in Singapore and published to a worldwide audience is not over. I didn't actually like this book very much.

Why? You ask. For one thing, the speech. At least for Crazy Rich Asians, the Singaporeans talk like Singaporeans. Here, the Singaporeans all sound too.... strange. I know that Sara isn't a Singaporean, but still, you'd think that the book could afford to put in Singlish now and then.

Another thing would be that I didn't like Sara. I think I liked her less than Rachel Chu, the protagonist of Crazy Rich Asians. At least Rachel was a sufficiently empty character that I could enjoy the setting. Here, the book was full of Rachel's voice, which was just whiny to me. Not so much of a learning journey, but just her whining until she decides to put on her big-girl clothes. I'm serious. She doesn't realise anything, she's running and she knows it. And unfortunately, she wasn't a sympathetic enough character for me to root for her.

The third, and last thing, would be the inaccuracies in the book. It's not that much, but they appear mostly in the beginning, which prevented me from liking the book. You can skip the list (actually, I'm just three points, not all that caught my eye) if you want:

1. A character 'slices fried carrot cake.' The only type of carrot cake that you can slice would be the baked one. If you can slice this:



Picture from Wikipedia Commons


Then I sincerely congratulate you. In all my years eating it, I've either picked it up directly with chopsticks or with a fork - it's already in little pieces, why would I need to slice it?

2. "Crystal Jade is situated on the fifth floor of Paragon Shopping Centre and is one of Singapore's finest establishments for chilli crab, a local seafood dish." While I have eaten at Paragon's Crystal Jade a few times (there are a few outlets by the way), and it is a nice, though extremely expensive place, I'd hesitate to say that it's know for Chilli Crab. If you ask me where the best Chilli Crab is found, I'll probably say something like Jumbo Seafood restaurant. Not Crystal Jade, which for me, is more for when you want a high class Chinese dinner.

3. "It does not take me long to discover that infidelity is not as forbidden here as in other countries." Please, just last week or so we banned Ashley Madison, the adultery website. The government banned it as a symbolic stand on where our societal values are (they know you can always use a VPN to get around it), and because many many many Singaporeans made a huge fuss. Considering that the book was set in 2005 (the 'Year of the Rooster'), I'd have thought that we were, if anything, more conservative then.

The only saving grace of this book is that every now and then, it describes a part of Singapore in a beautiful way. Like the migrant workers, or parts of Chinatown and Little India, those bits of prose were what stood out to me. This is the only reason why this book got two stars instead of one (although I'm still tempted to give it one star)

Which means that I would have liked the book a lot more if they just kept those descriptions of Singapore and added photos, making it a travel guide.

I wish I did like this book. After all, I'd love for Singapore to be the setting for many books. But unfortunately, the occasional gems in the prose was not enough to save the annoying characters and the inaccuracies.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this galley from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

This review was first posted to Inside the mind of a Bibliophile

[Jessie Dawson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible read. Flitty, train of thought writing that doesn't follow a clear line of plot at all. I had zero interest in the outcomes of the characters dilemmas. The back of the book boldly puts itself into the same category as Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love". This book is light years away from being anything remotely close to Gilbert's concise prose. Don't bother with this one!

[Elizabeth Curington · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this one since I am a sucker for a good travel story. And an emigrant living abroad, even better, right? Unfortunately this book did not deliver on its promise. I had to put it down and come back several times. It sadly lacked in romance or travel. Some of the descriptions were nice, but the narrative voice was often annoying and overshadowed any beautiful word pictures. I didn't care for the protagonist either. She was indecisive, whiny, and easily manipulated. That might have been okay if she had received any insight over the course of the book, but she never did. Why would I want to care about her? This is a book that needed to decide what it wanted to be because trying to be all things left it lacking across the board.

*I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

[Supriya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picked it up as it seemed to promise insights into the mindsets and thought explorations of Ang-mo (Western expats) as they discover Singapore. It's readable, but like any flighty novel it is written more like a train of thought rather than a thoughtful characterization and well-structured literary novel.
The author clearly knows her spas and way around Singapore's Orchard Road though; and largely, strikes me as an affectionate but rather surface-level exploration of a western expat trying to understand the Singaporean Chinese, Western educated, affluent businessman, his society and his thinking.

[Kayti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed My Singapore Lover , it posed some interesting cultural questions and also offered an alternative voice to novels in a similar genre that do not question the buying of another pair of shoes or the choice of romantic partner. The character of Sarah was reflective, and she is considering her life and the choices she has made during a time spent in a hotel room, which for me was quite a clever set up. It's interesting to read the criticisms of the book, because I actually preferred it to Eat Pray Love, which I found irritating, was it that voice of the over indulged white woman, that Sarah seemed to be able to avoid? Whiny was another criticism, I think if you want a book that paints a romance in a South East Asian city as a beautiful perfection this is not the book to read, but if you want to read a book that considers life possibilities, how we build our images and desires for ourselves around the influences on our lives and are curious how patterns of living, desire and success can be challenged and changed then this is a contemplative novel that will reward you in its pages.

[JG · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Singapore Lover, isn't a romance. In fact the title is more a symbol or a catalyst for change for Sara, the protagonist in the story. It details her life in Singapore, a blonde blue eyed young lady who has been traveling the world trying to find out her path. The series starts out as the ending and from a series of flashbacks and introspection she details how she got to that point. Its a well written novel, more introspective than narrative. The only jarring point would be the constant jumping around in the tale, so you tend to get lost on whether what you are reading is happening or has happened. Otherwise its still a good read.

*The ARC for this novel was provided by the publisher and NetGalley in return for an honest review*

[Nicki · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so bored by this I don't even have words. How disappointing. I recently visited Singapore briefly and loved it. I was really interested in reading the experiences of a western woman who moved there to work and fell in love with a local.
My first error was that I didn't read the blurb and I thought it was a true story like Eat, Pray, Love.
I soon realised it was fiction, and the only person Sara is in love with is herself and her "beauty".
Writing was dry and dull. Story was blah. Even the descriptions of Singapore couldn't redeem this.

[Selina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want to know how a woman thinks in her inner thought and feelings? Amazing read on the mental struggle with relationships that we all dealt with one way or another. Judy Chapman has translated into words that I have never read before. Brilliant!

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

I visited the library earlier, fully determined to check out the Singapore collection. Faced with the fiction shelf of Singapore literature, this one bright blue spine popped out, so I took it from the shelf. Turns out it was My Singapore Lover. While I didn't really know what it was about, I had seen copies of that book on display at bookstores. I thus started to read the book. 20 pages in, I already wanted to chuck it aside. Nothing really grabbed me but I didn't want to make snap judgements. Plus, My Singapore Lover was published fairly recently, which I figured fits in squarely with Crazy Rich Asians , another book set in Singapore that was published last year. (I have yet to read it.)

Instead of returning it to the shelf, I grabbed a chair, sat down and read all the way to the end. When I was done, I wasn't sure exactly how I felt. Initially I gave it a rating of 2.5 stars, which I kept reducing by half stars until I reached my final verdict of 1 star.

The prose was a tad simplistic. That surprised me because I don't read all that much adult fiction. I read a lot of YA, so I somehow expected the prose to be more complex since this is an adult fiction book. It wasn't. The book was set in first person present tense. I didn't really think that that fit with the air of mystery that My Singapore Lover was supposed to convey. Also, the sentences were short. Two or three chapters were only made up of a single sentence. Stylistically, I thought that was a strange decision. There were a couple of grammar errors as well. The occasional attempt at poetic lyricism was contrived.

The prose contained a lot of repetition. I'm not sure what the aim of that was. I suppose in poetry repetition serves as an anchor, or as a means of emphasis. Trouble is, My Singapore Lover isn't a poem and neither would I peg it for literary fiction. That's why repetitions didn't convey much meaning to me.

"...and I am gone, gone, gone."
"All his stillness gone, gone, gone."
"...my thoughts are high, high, high."
"...stop myself from getting high, high, high."
"I feel myself falling, falling, falling." [original emphasis]

These are only a few quotes I pulled from the book. There were a few more. The only thing I could tell is that they divided the book into three parts, starting with gone, gone, gone, followed by high, high, high, then ending with falling, falling, falling. Oh and the author was obsessed with the term "scent"! It was slightly disturbing. Sara enjoyed the scent of this, and the scent of that, from the bedroom to restaurants, to wanting to know the scent of an orchid. Like I said, repetition without much evident reason.

The main issue I had was the blatant racism and even sexism. Stereotypical views of Orientalism seeped through the pages right from the start. The characters were caricatures. The loud and expressive Indian friend, contrasted with the demure, expressionless and infinitely mysterious Chinese woman. Yet, there were still overarching Asian traits to be found in both. At least according to the main character. Then again, she often slipped into using the terms Asian and Chinese interchangeably. Asia is bigger than that. There are so many different cultures that call Asia their home. There is no homogenous Asian to speak of in the way that My Singapore Lover would have readers think.

Racism spilled over into sexism, as ideas about Western women versus Asian women were perpetrated. Talk about why Western men prefer Asian women, and how Western women's independence makes them more masculine, while Western men are headed in the "opposite" direction. Sure, some of these ideas were presented by pompous men who clearly were male chauvinists. Within the sphere of fiction, I can accept that because not every character is going to be likeable. What bothered me is that even though the main character noted that these were clichés and she was on a quest to find out how much truth there was to these dispositions, she didn't actually set out to analyse her findings. She was a writer who wrote articles for magazines, so that's the least I would've expected. I waited in vain because none of these issues were resolved.

Sara, the main character, was an expatriate, who took on a job at a Singaporean publishing house. Evidently, she had the eyes of an outsider. Her experiences would inevitably colour her perceptions of the city. She met a number of people embroiled in affairs, and soon enough engaged in an affair herself. It's not surprising that she came across men who fetishised "Asian women" and wouldn't want to "go back to Western women". But to not question that?! That didn't sit right with me.

Even worse, the Singaporean culture that she presented was a warped one. At one point, she claimed that extramarital affairs were acceptable and a normal part of life. If that were the case, the Media Development Authority of Singapore wouldn't have banned access to the Ashley Madison site last year, where members can look for partners to engaged in extramarital affairs. In fact, acts of infidelity are fodder for headline news, so I honestly don't see how anyone might even conclude that it's acceptable in Singapore.

It's laughable that Sara kept mentioning the importance of family to Asians. That they wouldn't deny their religion because it would upset their parents. That they wouldn't marry someone their parents disapprove of. I don't see how social acceptability of cheating fits with those values. They don't. Of course, social values aside, people will cheat on their spouses. In Singapore, and elsewhere. That does not make it any more acceptable in Singapore.

Little things too made me wonder how much the author knew about Singapore. Chapman is Australian, so I was prepared to forgive minor details that were off but everything combined was just too much to bear. Take the dish chilli crab. It's a favourite with the locals. According to Sara, the best chilli crab was served at this restaurant in town, called Crystal Jade. I nearly burst out laughing in the middle of the library. Crystal Jade Restaurant is more of a place for Chinese fine dining. Chilli crab is a dish best served in dedicated seafood restaurants.

Bottom line, the representation of Singapore and characters were reduced to Oriental stereotypes and were underlined so much by racism and sexism, the rest of the book hardly mattered anymore. In fact, I don't think I need to go into Sara's shallowness and obsession with her own beauty as well. That might just cause me to drive the rating down to half a star, or maybe even zero.

This review is also available at dudettereads.com.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love stories of expat women abroad. It doesn't matter if the protagonists are Asian, Western, etc. - for me, there's something familiar and thrilling in any story of cultural exchange and discovery. I especially love it when there's a foreign love interest involved, which is why I picked up "My Singapore Lover" on a recent trip to the island state, and proceeded to recommend it based on the back summary alone ("charged affair with a charismatic Chinese Singaporean hotelier," "as with 'Eat, Pray, Love'..."). However, I ended up feeling very meh towards the book.

I agree with another reviewer who summed up her disappointment in the book in one word - it felt "flitty." It's mostly written in the present tense, but the author flits back and forth through time in a very confusing manner, taking us through Sara's arrival in Singapore and career rise yet always returning to one moment where Sara is in bed with Jimmy - he first spends four hours with her, then seven, etc., and ends with a very dull breakup scene. I didn't understand they'd been together a year until the author told me. Other events move at lightning pace - one minute Sara's friend Tammy is working for the publishing house, the next she's successfully opened her own tea spa; one minute Manish is dating Cho and they're making love all over the place, the next he's not with her (wha?) and has apparently found love with someone else (wha?).

Sara herself is a hard character to root for. She's almost too self-aware, mulling over her faults and insecurities throughout the novel until it becomes annoying. Yes, I felt like screaming at her, you've already told me you have daddy issues because your father abandoned the family, so what are you going to do about it?!? You keep telling us you are attracted to powerful, wealthy men in authority positions, so are you really in love with Jimmy or is he just another daddy figure?!? Aside from hot sex I couldn't understand the Sara-Jimmy attraction. It many ways it felt like she was exoticizing him the way some Western men she interviewed earlier in the novel exoticized Asian women - references to his dark, caramel eyes and skin, and attributing his behavior to his culture, which she doesn't seem to want to learn more about. And Jimmy's revelation at the end about his Japanese first love, though meant to give him depth, just made their relationship feel even more shallow - he liked her because she reminded him of someone else?

There are some beautiful descriptions of Singapore, but in the end, the confusing timeline, flat characters, stilted dialogue, and disappointing "big reveal" (about Ravi and "the package") left me feeling lukewarm towards the book. Maybe the book needed a better editor and proofreader; it was riddled with typos and inconsistencies which also distracted from the story (pg. 182, Sara sees "all four of them," but there's just three - Jimmy, his wife and daughter; pg. 190, Sara "was almost sixteen and Ravi had just turned seventeen," but on pg. 193 Ravi says "I'm much older than you," and Sara says "Not even by three years" - which is true, but why say three when there's just a one year difference? Pg. 93, Ravi clearly tells Sara he's married; pg. 187, Sara seems surprised by this fact - maybe she's just forgetful! Pg. 94, young Ravi tells young Sara he has a girlfriend, which breaks her heart; in later flashbacks, it's like the girlfriend never existed - they act like a couple, he is almost her first, and what pulls them apart and causes a rift is their parents' affair.)

[Sanjeev Vaid · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book "My Singapore lover " just to kill time but when I started to read and as the story progressed I just could not stop reading it. The author has described Singapore and it's multicultural society, colourful festivals, spa's, it's traditional and modern lifestyle beautifully.

All the characters in the story are well connected and especially Sara's character is amazing and very motivating. Despite all the corporate politics ,social and economic problems she continued to follow her heart and dream.

The most beautiful and learning thing I found in this story is compassion, care, love, tolerance, understanding and facing the challenges bravely and continue to follow your heart and dream.

Well done Judy Chapman and I must congratulate and thank you for giving the opportunity to understand a very different Asian lifestyle and a unique love story. Will be eagerly waiting for your next novel. A must read, highly recommended.

Sanjeev vaid

[Jamie Garde · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books centers on Sara, a young, beautiful American expat working in Singapore. The plot revolves around Sara’s conflicting desires for artistic expression, business success and romantic love. Sara has a number of interesting, well drawn friends and an ambivalent relationship with a wealthy, married Singaporean lover.

While I enjoyed the scenes she spent with her friends, her scenes with her lover were less satisfying. The sensual and emotional connection with her lover did not touch me, so I wondered why she stayed in a relationship that was clearly dead-end.

I received an ARC in exchange for a truthful review.

[Marionne De · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read for enjoyment, relaxation and to escape into another world. My Singapore Lover allowed me this journey into an exotic world . I thoroughly enjoyed it. The writing is classy and elegant, it held my attention through to the end. The touch of spirituality gave the depth that I look for in a novel. The scene was set well.
I was there, very much a part of it. This is the sign of a good writer.

I eagerly await the next novel .

[Frances Ardika · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 'light' read and should not be judged so harshly.

What I liked most about this book is the protagonist's own journey towards creativity, spirituality and love. The struggle to choose between the trappings of a corporate career or following her own path was interesting for me as I have had to make these decisions many times. The book helped me to follow my own heart.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fantastic holiday read taking me back to my time in Asia as a single, expat woman with unexpected snippets of '5o shades' style romance thrown in the mix. This was balanced well by a spiritual depth as Sara shares her inner conflicts and redefines success for her. I really enjoyed her journey to self and could relate big time. I consumed it in a day!

[Audrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read it in three hours on the plane from HK to Korea. Picked it up because the title seemed unlikely, myself being a Singaporean and all. Found a few mistakes about my own country in the book- hello, where's the fact checker? overall, superficial.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed My Singapore Lover. I have also been an expat for many years, and found the rich descriptive language beautiful. I read it over two rainy days and loved it. I guess everyone's taste is different, but for me, it's a gem.

[Maya Sweeney-ridoux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judy Chapman has a wonderful way of describing moods and smells, I was carried away in it. Actually I could see the story working really well in a T.V series, like a sex and the city Singapore style! I wanted more hence the T.V series!! Any chance of that happening Judy Chapman??

[Cristy Elmendorp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I normally do not read a lot of fiction but enjoyed reading this novel and felt it offered a view into how it is for a female expatriate living in Asia and trying to make her way in a foreign environment. An easy read and an opportunity to see different ways of being and living.