The Scent of the Gods

by Fiona Cheong

The Scent of the Gods tells the enchanting, haunting story of a young girl's coming of age in Singapore during the tumultuous years of its formation as a nation. Eleven-year-old Su Yen bears witness to the secretive lives of "grown-ups" in her diasporic Chinese family and to the veiled threats in Southeast Asia during the Cold War years. From a child's limited perspective, the novel depicts the emerging awareness of sexuality in both its beauty and its consequences, especially for women. In the context of postcolonial politics, Fiona Cheong skillfully parallels the uncertainties of adolescence with the growing paranoia of a population kept on alert to communist infiltration. In luminous prose, the novel raises timely questions about safety, protection, and democracy--and what one has to give up to achieve them. Ideal for students and scholars of Asian American and transnational literature, postcolonial history, women's studies, and many

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

247 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1991

About the author

Fiona Cheong holds a BA in English and MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University. She is an Associate Professor of English and the author of two novels, The Scent of the Gods (W.W. Norton 1991), which was nominated for a National Book Award, and Shadow Theatre (Soho 2002), described in The Women’s Review of Books as a “lush, stylistically inventive novel” and “subtly subversive work.” Her shorter work is featured in Charlie Chan is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Literature (ed. Jessica Hagedorn, Viking 1993) and Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Writing (ed. Shirley Geok-lin Lim and Cheng-Lok Chua, New Rivers 2000). She has taught at Howard and Cornell Universities and at the Hurston-Wright Writers Workshop, and has been a judge for the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and the Massachusetts Council for the Arts Awards. She has received numerous grants for her teaching and writing, including an Innovation in Education Award from the University of Pittsburgh’s Provost Office (2006), an artist’s fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts (2007) and a Make It Your Own Award from the Case Foundation (2008) for her civic engagement project, Re-Imagining Our City. She is a co-founder of the Asian American Writers Forum at the University of Pittsburgh and of its current manifestation, The Writers of Color Workshop. She is working on the final segment of her trilogy of novels set in Singapore, and on a book about teaching and writing.

(from http://www.writing.pitt.edu/people/fa...)

Reviews

[Abby Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good read but somewhat confusing. I felt that several issues were left unresolved and that Cheong brought the story to a certain point and then just left it there without wrapping up her loose ends. The chronology was also slightly confusing because while it is clear that the narrator is speaking from a time after the action of the story, the plot jumps around a bit in time before landing in 1969. I found the main story with Esha and her cousins interesting but found the intermittent "poetic" second-person sections somewhat incongruous. All in all, a decent book with a well-developed setting, but not my favorite book ever.

[Neuza · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading Around Worlf #128: Singapore

[Eliane L · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coming-of-age tale set in 1960's Singapore, The Scent of Gods tells of the Singapore's search for its identity immediately after independence. Told from the viewpoint of 11-year-old Esha, laced with intrigue, superstition and the struggle to understand what is happening, this is a well crafted and analytical look into the first days of the Singaporean nation.

[Judi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book came highly recommended but I fought the entire time to put it down and give up. I totally enjoyed any and all mention of chinese culture, history, customs, but the rest...I wasnt given enough information to really understand and grasp the story behind all the cultural stuff.

[Adar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetic and wonderfully written from a young girl's POV. I love it. A coming of age story with ideas that hit me and gave me space to think about it. I experience what is it like to be a Singaporean back in the 60s. It was certainly more purposeful.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loooved this book. Read it for class.