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Now That It's Over
*Winner of the 2015 Epigram Books Fiction Prize*
*Winner of the 2017 Singapore Book Award for Fiction*
During the Christmas holidays in 2004, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggers a tsunami that devastates fourteen countries. Two couples from Singapore are vacationing in Phuket when the tsunami strikes. Alternating between the aftermath of the catastrophe and past events that led these characters to that fateful moment, Now That It's Over weaves a tapestry of causality and regret, and chronicles the physical and emotional wreckage wrought by natural and manmade disasters.
*Winner of the 2017 Singapore Book Award for Fiction*
During the Christmas holidays in 2004, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggers a tsunami that devastates fourteen countries. Two couples from Singapore are vacationing in Phuket when the tsunami strikes. Alternating between the aftermath of the catastrophe and past events that led these characters to that fateful moment, Now That It's Over weaves a tapestry of causality and regret, and chronicles the physical and emotional wreckage wrought by natural and manmade disasters.
272 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2016
5 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
O. Thiam Chin
31 books15 followersO Thiam Chin is the winner of the inaugural Epigram Books Fiction Prize in 2015 for his first novel, Now That It's Over, and his second novel, Fox Fire Girl, was shortlisted for the 2016 EBFP; both novels are published by Epigram Books.
He is also the author of five collections of short fiction: Free-Falling Man (2006), Never Been Better (2009), Under The Sun (2010), The Rest Of Your Life and Everything That Comes With It (2011) and Love, Or Something Like Love (2013). Love, Or Something Like Love was shortlisted for the 2014 Singapore Literature Prize for English Fiction, and Never Been Better and Under The Sun were included in the top ten fiction books in the POPULAR Readers’ Choice Awards in Malaysia.
His short stories have appeared in Mānoa, World Literature Today, The International Literary Quarterly, Asia Literary Review, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Kyoto Journal, The Jakarta Post, The New Straits Times, Asiatic and Esquire (Singapore). His short fiction was also selected for the first two volumes of The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories anthology series.
O was an honorary fellow of the Iowa International Writing Program in 2010, a recipient of the NAC Young Artist Award in 2012, and has been thrice longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He has appeared frequently at writers festivals in Australia, Indonesia and Singapore.
He is also the author of five collections of short fiction: Free-Falling Man (2006), Never Been Better (2009), Under The Sun (2010), The Rest Of Your Life and Everything That Comes With It (2011) and Love, Or Something Like Love (2013). Love, Or Something Like Love was shortlisted for the 2014 Singapore Literature Prize for English Fiction, and Never Been Better and Under The Sun were included in the top ten fiction books in the POPULAR Readers’ Choice Awards in Malaysia.
His short stories have appeared in Mānoa, World Literature Today, The International Literary Quarterly, Asia Literary Review, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Kyoto Journal, The Jakarta Post, The New Straits Times, Asiatic and Esquire (Singapore). His short fiction was also selected for the first two volumes of The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories anthology series.
O was an honorary fellow of the Iowa International Writing Program in 2010, a recipient of the NAC Young Artist Award in 2012, and has been thrice longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He has appeared frequently at writers festivals in Australia, Indonesia and Singapore.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
August 12, 2016
This is my first review, but if I'm gonna rate a book poorly, I feel obliged to at least say why.
I really wanted to like this book. But the only way I got through this title was by cheating on it -- I read other things in between. Another reviewer has mentioned that the characters weren't engaging, and I agree. The story swerves shakily from one person to another, and from one time frame to another, so that any seed of attachment or sympathy you'd feel is quickly uprooted. In spite of these characters being directly connected to one another (marriage, friendship), their storylines seem so isolated that I felt I could skip a chapter without affecting the narrative's overall flow (I was sorely tempted. There was one dude for whom I felt only insouciance).
The story's supposed pivot is a tragic natural disaster but it reads like a laundry list of petty insecurities and domestic drama. These disputes do not seem particularly well-expressed most of the time; jealousies and betrayals are less Othelloan, more soap opera, romantic interactions teeter on the border of teenage movie territory. I didn't feel the sledgehammer falling on my heart like it should have. In fact, aside from times I felt minor irritation, I mostly felt nothing at all.
There were moments that encouraged page-turning, usually involving one or two peripheral characters sadly left unexplored. Some passages do tug at the proverbials, but these few gems are hidden by much duller prose. I liked, for example, the story thread involving But there were also some parts that felt more... conscientious, as though the writer was completing a checklist on how to write a Good Book. I became hyper-aware of O Thiam Chin's crafting, and became distanced from the craftwork.
At the point I'm writing the reviews I see here are divided -- some people seem to truly like it, so I'd still encourage you to give it a read if you're thinking of picking it up. It didn't resonate with me, but maybe it will with you.
I really wanted to like this book. But the only way I got through this title was by cheating on it -- I read other things in between. Another reviewer has mentioned that the characters weren't engaging, and I agree. The story swerves shakily from one person to another, and from one time frame to another, so that any seed of attachment or sympathy you'd feel is quickly uprooted. In spite of these characters being directly connected to one another (marriage, friendship), their storylines seem so isolated that I felt I could skip a chapter without affecting the narrative's overall flow (I was sorely tempted. There was one dude for whom I felt only insouciance).
The story's supposed pivot is a tragic natural disaster but it reads like a laundry list of petty insecurities and domestic drama. These disputes do not seem particularly well-expressed most of the time; jealousies and betrayals are less Othelloan, more soap opera, romantic interactions teeter on the border of teenage movie territory. I didn't feel the sledgehammer falling on my heart like it should have. In fact, aside from times I felt minor irritation, I mostly felt nothing at all.
There were moments that encouraged page-turning, usually involving one or two peripheral characters sadly left unexplored. Some passages do tug at the proverbials, but these few gems are hidden by much duller prose. I liked, for example, the story thread involving But there were also some parts that felt more... conscientious, as though the writer was completing a checklist on how to write a Good Book. I became hyper-aware of O Thiam Chin's crafting, and became distanced from the craftwork.
At the point I'm writing the reviews I see here are divided -- some people seem to truly like it, so I'd still encourage you to give it a read if you're thinking of picking it up. It didn't resonate with me, but maybe it will with you.
December 7, 2021
“A heart-stopping elegy to the unrelenting tragedy of time, the trauma of impermanence, set against the backdrop of a tsunami that devastated Thailand's coastlines. O Thiam Chin's characters are tested for their resilience and courage as relationships and self-deceptions are unforgettably wrung to the breaking point.”
—Cyril Wong, author of Ten Things My Father Never Taught Me
“A sensuous, heartbreaking and devastatingly true account of the everyday disasters of our lives: the tiny tragedies and betrayals that shape and destroy us. I advise getting a warm drink and a hug after reading this book. You'll need it.”
—Ng Yi-Sheng, author of last boy
“Now That It's Over is an intense read: a bold, insightful examination of the secret traumas that lie beneath the surface of everyday life, which grow until they break forth with devastating consequences. O Thiam Chin is a writer at the height of his powers.”
—Stephanie Ye, author of The Billion Shop and criticism editor of Quarterly Literary Review Singapore
“A complex jigsaw of interlocking voices. As the disaster of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami strikes Phuket, O Thiam Chin’s debut novel leads us on a journey into the hidden conflicts in two parallel relationships, and back to Singaporean childhoods marked by violence, loss and love.”
—Philip Holden, Professor English, National University of Singapore
—Cyril Wong, author of Ten Things My Father Never Taught Me
“A sensuous, heartbreaking and devastatingly true account of the everyday disasters of our lives: the tiny tragedies and betrayals that shape and destroy us. I advise getting a warm drink and a hug after reading this book. You'll need it.”
—Ng Yi-Sheng, author of last boy
“Now That It's Over is an intense read: a bold, insightful examination of the secret traumas that lie beneath the surface of everyday life, which grow until they break forth with devastating consequences. O Thiam Chin is a writer at the height of his powers.”
—Stephanie Ye, author of The Billion Shop and criticism editor of Quarterly Literary Review Singapore
“A complex jigsaw of interlocking voices. As the disaster of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami strikes Phuket, O Thiam Chin’s debut novel leads us on a journey into the hidden conflicts in two parallel relationships, and back to Singaporean childhoods marked by violence, loss and love.”
—Philip Holden, Professor English, National University of Singapore
October 13, 2016
A capably written but supremely un-engaging and predictable book that shockingly won the Epigram Books Fiction Prize. The water-related metaphors and similes get really heavy-handed after a while, using a natural tragedy which affected locals most as a backdrop for foreigners' petty domestic squabbles is flat-out exploitative and the most illuminating bits, strangely, have to do with adolescent sexuality.
December 22, 2018
Really didn't enjoy this book -- characters and conversations were so stilted! Does anyone really talk like that? I felt no pull from any character and they all seemed to have the same voice. Memories and detached sadness do not a deep character make. The end of the book made the best effort towards some sort of emotional core -- "back to the lives we had no choice but to live" -- but then dialogue comes up again and kills everything. You know the kind of dialogue whose only purpose is to give the reader context? This book had it. Eg, on the first page: "The price of air tickets is cheap, thanks to the promotions going on for the December holidays. It'd be easy to get tickets to Phuket." WHO SAYS THAT? "thanks to the promotions going on for the December holidays"? No Singaporean, for sure. And what's with the inconsistent use of perspectives (sometimes third-person, sometimes first) and tenses?
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March 7, 2017I'm not going to rate this book, because I would rate it poorly, & I don't generally like to do that. But I will try to give a review.
I really struggled to finish this book after reaching the halfway point. It's a very neatly structured book, which is not wrong, but oddly the 4-person structure multiplied with the narrative jumping from present to looking into their past made me a little confused -- what exactly is the book about? Is the book ultimately about the stories of their relationships? The two couples? That's the closest I can assume when I got to the end.
And if that's the case, was placing the setting against the backdrop of the tsunami necessary? I picked the book up with the assumption that the tragedy of the tsunami would figure strongly into the novel, but instead I found that it was just placed as a backdrop and the locals sort of serve as background, nameless, faceless figures. Their relationship problems could have happened anywhere then, it didn't have to disintegrate against this setting. The book didn't even deal with their trauma as well, I felt, or what it meant to have survived a natural tragedy of that scale. But that's not surprising since the tsunami was just treated as a backdrop. And it wasn't just tsunami but the way other things were cursorily thrown into as well, like for example, I am not sure how I feel about the statutory rape bit or why it was necessary.
I felt that the more 'present' situations were more interesting that the bits that flashed back to their past and how the relationships started. I was also really interested with the old woman that found and took care of chee seng but we didn't really even get to see her properly. I felt like perhaps with enough time the story could have really been more moving and delved deeper into the interiority of these characters and treated their stories with more complexity, depth.But as it stands now they seem to just scratch the surface.
I really struggled to finish this book after reaching the halfway point. It's a very neatly structured book, which is not wrong, but oddly the 4-person structure multiplied with the narrative jumping from present to looking into their past made me a little confused -- what exactly is the book about? Is the book ultimately about the stories of their relationships? The two couples? That's the closest I can assume when I got to the end.
And if that's the case, was placing the setting against the backdrop of the tsunami necessary? I picked the book up with the assumption that the tragedy of the tsunami would figure strongly into the novel, but instead I found that it was just placed as a backdrop and the locals sort of serve as background, nameless, faceless figures. Their relationship problems could have happened anywhere then, it didn't have to disintegrate against this setting. The book didn't even deal with their trauma as well, I felt, or what it meant to have survived a natural tragedy of that scale. But that's not surprising since the tsunami was just treated as a backdrop. And it wasn't just tsunami but the way other things were cursorily thrown into as well, like for example, I am not sure how I feel about the statutory rape bit or why it was necessary.
I felt that the more 'present' situations were more interesting that the bits that flashed back to their past and how the relationships started. I was also really interested with the old woman that found and took care of chee seng but we didn't really even get to see her properly. I felt like perhaps with enough time the story could have really been more moving and delved deeper into the interiority of these characters and treated their stories with more complexity, depth.But as it stands now they seem to just scratch the surface.
March 10, 2023
Es un libro de personajes,el tsunami solo es una pequeña parte de la historia. Lo principal es conocer a estas 4 personas sus deseos,anhelos, debilidades y errores que cometen y sus consecuencias.
Es una lectura introspectiva, me sorprendió de muy buena manera.
Es una lectura introspectiva, me sorprendió de muy buena manera.
January 7, 2018
An unremarkable story about a catastrophe. Readers may only have a glimpse of what happened in Phuket after the tsunami, yet it doesn't clear that author wants to bring out the real picture of any affected subject. Nevertheless, it gave me quite a meaningful message and some delightful moments by peeking into Singaporean lives.
June 8, 2018
This is one of the best books I have read so far in 2018. O Thiam Chin is a master at conveying the frustration and loss experienced by ordinary people in day-to-day lives in Singapore today. Living in Singapore myself, it was easier to empathise with the sentiment and read between the lines, which could be hard for outsiders. Maybe this is why other reviewers do not consider the book as engaging. But we must remember that a writer's job is not to provide an effortless read. As readers, we have an important responsibility to be analytical. After all, reading is a learning experience as much as an entertaining one. Hence, I consider some of the reviews here as unjustifiably harsh. This book might not be the easiest read, but it will stay as a memorable one for sure. O Thiam Chin is truly a rising star in contemporary Asian literature. I look forward to his other works.
June 20, 2016
O thiam chin uses the sea and tsunami as metaphor of time and circumstance, and puts it against two tangled relationships for emotional effect. I enjoyed many of the chapters. I liked his clean prose.
If something didnt work for me its probably the lack of metaphor in writing; and sentimentalism which sometimes takes over. Might suffer from lack of foreshadowing. Regardless it is a neatly put together schnovel.
If something didnt work for me its probably the lack of metaphor in writing; and sentimentalism which sometimes takes over. Might suffer from lack of foreshadowing. Regardless it is a neatly put together schnovel.
November 27, 2016
Told from the viewpoint of four friends, it is a compelling read of life, not just Singapore life, but any life. O Thiam Chin writes beautifully with a power of words that only a poet can have. Not all poets can succeed writing a novel but he does. A most deserved win of the first Epigram Books Fiction Prize. I really look forward to reading the rest of the list. Singapore literature has truly come of age thanks to publishers like Epigram.
March 17, 2017
O's writing is smooth. Enjoyed his descriptive prose, though I find the use of 2nd person POV for Cody jarring and distant. Tried to read them as Cody's philosophical thoughts, but some words and sentences in there just do not permit it.
I was expecting to read more of the emotional traumas the characters underwent after the tsunami and how they overcome them. Instead, I was overwhelmed with too many back-stories. Too many flashbacks, not in time sequence, interspersed across chapters (also not in time sequence) which confuses the timeline and story. Instead of following through with its title, ‘Now That It’s Over’, bulk of book was dealing with events before the tsunami (except those of Wei Xiang).
Initially, I thought I had found a glaring disconnect between chapter 1 and the last section of the last chapter. How does the young boy who had tried to pull Ai Ling to safety, know where to find the dead body of Ai Ling? An island 9 kilometres away from Phuket. And he is totally unharmed.
I was expecting to read more of the emotional traumas the characters underwent after the tsunami and how they overcome them. Instead, I was overwhelmed with too many back-stories. Too many flashbacks, not in time sequence, interspersed across chapters (also not in time sequence) which confuses the timeline and story. Instead of following through with its title, ‘Now That It’s Over’, bulk of book was dealing with events before the tsunami (except those of Wei Xiang).
Initially, I thought I had found a glaring disconnect between chapter 1 and the last section of the last chapter. How does the young boy who had tried to pull Ai Ling to safety, know where to find the dead body of Ai Ling? An island 9 kilometres away from Phuket. And he is totally unharmed.
March 16, 2021
O Thiam Chin’s debut attempt at a novel is set in the aftermath of a tragedy we are all familiar with – the fateful 2004 Boxing Day earthquake that led to a tsunami of such monumental scale that it shattered several countries. The tale centres around two Singaporean couples holidaying in Phuket when disaster struck. The tone is sombre, befitting of the occasion. Both couples are obviously troubled, escaping to the idyllic destination in search of resolution. Unfortunately, they are confronted with stark truths, and of course, devastating loss.
I enjoyed this book, even if it didn’t wreck me. I liked the study in human nature, how flawed people can be, the damaging decisions people make that lead to regret and guilt. If there’s one thing I learnt, it’s that people could do well to communicate more. So much crap happens because people wallow in their thoughts and keep silent. That’s the common thread in this story: all the characters feel distant from each other, often keeping each other at bay.
I liked the shifts in voices and timelines; I also liked being a fly on the wall, watching the rise and fall of love. The relationships (Wei Xiang and Ai Ling; Cody and Chee Seng) are revealed to you through selected sketches, conversations and inner thoughts, tracing their journey from start to finish. Ai Ling comes across as selfish; Wei Xiang, a victim of her self-serving, often hurtful, decisions. As such I find it hard to like this love affair.
I’m more invested in Cody and Chee Seng: their initial heady obsession with each other, their eventual descent into banal domesticity, the growing tension, their struggle to cope with stale routine. It’s a danger most people can identify with.
What I didn’t like was its setting. It started as a fascinating premise but as it became clear that it was to remain as simply background, there were times I wonder why the characters were even there.
This book got mixed reviews but I wouldn’t be so harsh on it. It’s still a compelling read about life and teaches you how best to treat others – with honesty, kindness and love.
I enjoyed this book, even if it didn’t wreck me. I liked the study in human nature, how flawed people can be, the damaging decisions people make that lead to regret and guilt. If there’s one thing I learnt, it’s that people could do well to communicate more. So much crap happens because people wallow in their thoughts and keep silent. That’s the common thread in this story: all the characters feel distant from each other, often keeping each other at bay.
I liked the shifts in voices and timelines; I also liked being a fly on the wall, watching the rise and fall of love. The relationships (Wei Xiang and Ai Ling; Cody and Chee Seng) are revealed to you through selected sketches, conversations and inner thoughts, tracing their journey from start to finish. Ai Ling comes across as selfish; Wei Xiang, a victim of her self-serving, often hurtful, decisions. As such I find it hard to like this love affair.
I’m more invested in Cody and Chee Seng: their initial heady obsession with each other, their eventual descent into banal domesticity, the growing tension, their struggle to cope with stale routine. It’s a danger most people can identify with.
What I didn’t like was its setting. It started as a fascinating premise but as it became clear that it was to remain as simply background, there were times I wonder why the characters were even there.
This book got mixed reviews but I wouldn’t be so harsh on it. It’s still a compelling read about life and teaches you how best to treat others – with honesty, kindness and love.
January 3, 2018
I don't know if there will be a lynching mob coming after me, but I actually really like the book. It did take me a while to complete, but that was mainly due to the reading coinciding with me starting on Dragon Age: Inquisition and then Stardew Valley, and nothing to do with the style of writing. (Heh, this is what happens when you love books and games.)
The language of the book is languid, mulling and soulful. The writing goes into the minds of the different characters and navigates their narratives through different points of views. While I understand that there are people who find these shifting POVs to be disorienting, I did not have trouble navigating it.
I am not the biggest fan of complicated character relationships--because I believe in making it a point to regularly do rain checks with your partner about things that range from their happiness, events in their lives, problems faced etc. and to be present in their lives--however, my approach to this book was to make it a lesson in accepting that people have different ways of living their lives and that we can both be kind and intelligent in the way we understand them. Chee Seng and Cody, however, is probably the best example of how not to make a relationship work.
The way the book reads is reminiscent of the way the sea moves, with undulations, waves and ripples, as well as moments of calm beauty juxtaposed with stirrings of more unsettling realities underneath. This convalescence of form and narrative is, in my view, done rather brilliantly and a craft I can definitely appreciate.
Personally, I think it is a quiet and evocative read.
September 8, 2022
I really, really wanted to enjoy this book because of how much potential it had. There were plenty of foreshadowings of death, disaster and heartbreak, but I felt that this huge element of the book --- the tsunami and its effects on the four characters --- could've been fleshed out a lot more.
While I appreciated the structure of the book and its four vastly different characters, I was left feeling underwhelmed by how everything felt muted. Perhaps that was the author's intention, to mimic being fetched off by the waves and into the ocean, alternating between gasping for air and trying to find a direction, or even sinking underneath the ocean and hearing nothing but bubbles --- perhaps that was his intention behind the switching perspectives, but I felt it wasn't very cleverly done and the book was pretty unsatisfying.
There were plots that just didn't seem to serve a clear purpose and I couldn't find a way to gel them together with the rest of the book, i.e. the old lady in the forest or the young boy at the beach. Like other reviews have mentioned, the tsunami felt like a backdrop for the rest of the insecurities and themes brought up by each character, and given the tsunami's impact on Phuket in 2004, I felt that this undermined the severity of the tsunami.
While I appreciated the structure of the book and its four vastly different characters, I was left feeling underwhelmed by how everything felt muted. Perhaps that was the author's intention, to mimic being fetched off by the waves and into the ocean, alternating between gasping for air and trying to find a direction, or even sinking underneath the ocean and hearing nothing but bubbles --- perhaps that was his intention behind the switching perspectives, but I felt it wasn't very cleverly done and the book was pretty unsatisfying.
There were plots that just didn't seem to serve a clear purpose and I couldn't find a way to gel them together with the rest of the book, i.e. the old lady in the forest or the young boy at the beach. Like other reviews have mentioned, the tsunami felt like a backdrop for the rest of the insecurities and themes brought up by each character, and given the tsunami's impact on Phuket in 2004, I felt that this undermined the severity of the tsunami.
February 14, 2017
I enjoyed Love, Or Something Like Love, so when I scored this at the library, I squealed. Anyway, I liked how the story presented itself in languid, effective flashback chapters of each character's life, but they overshadowed the present arc. The "current" (lol) events was almost uneventful, a lot of feelings and thoughts, to be sure, but the plot didn't move as swiftly as an event like a friggin tsunami should. I do get that the whole thing was surreal, and maybe that's the point. One thing I really didn't like was how the unnamed little boy and old woman were kinda just *there* to fit into the pseudo psychosis of the Singaporeans. The locals served as peripherals. The little boy has a metaphysical aspect to his existence, truly a stretch for me. If the tsunami event was entirely fictional, it wouldn't be as bad, but real people died in this very real disaster. I found it disrespectful to relegate them as back drop as the 4 Singaporeans stumbled along in their petty domestic trivialities. (in view of the bigger picture) Or maybe triviality is the whole point of this story. I like to second guess myself.
February 18, 2020
This was an interesting read, and I don't mean "interesting", I mean "iiiiinteresting".
O Thiam Chin narrated incidents in the lives of four main characters. It's full of raw stories that happen in everyday life - they were plausible and the fact that it was written in a Singaporean context makes it hit close to home. The author was so descriptive in this book - I was really able to visualise the objects and settings. While that is an excellent thing, my only complaint is that some parts got really, really sexual - and that too was descriptive. And I'm not big on reading sex scenes hahaha.
The story seems to go back and forth, from memories to the present where they were struck with a natural calamity during their trip to Phuket. This made for a bumpy ride as I saw some connections between the past and present, from the losses, love, trauma, and tragedy.
As I said, an "iiiiinteresting" read from a local author. On a global standard, it's hard to compare. But since it was the winner of the Epigram Books Fiction Prize in 2015, I think it must be quite phenomenal in our region.
I'm looking forward to reading more work from Singaporeans.
O Thiam Chin narrated incidents in the lives of four main characters. It's full of raw stories that happen in everyday life - they were plausible and the fact that it was written in a Singaporean context makes it hit close to home. The author was so descriptive in this book - I was really able to visualise the objects and settings. While that is an excellent thing, my only complaint is that some parts got really, really sexual - and that too was descriptive. And I'm not big on reading sex scenes hahaha.
The story seems to go back and forth, from memories to the present where they were struck with a natural calamity during their trip to Phuket. This made for a bumpy ride as I saw some connections between the past and present, from the losses, love, trauma, and tragedy.
As I said, an "iiiiinteresting" read from a local author. On a global standard, it's hard to compare. But since it was the winner of the Epigram Books Fiction Prize in 2015, I think it must be quite phenomenal in our region.
I'm looking forward to reading more work from Singaporeans.
July 9, 2017
I like the subtle portrayal of the emotional dynamics and O Thiam Chin's style of going deep within the undercurrent of turmoil in human relationships, although the middle and ending parts are too slow-paced for me. Maybe the novel can be better structured or shortened in some way to quicken the pacing in the middle and ending. just an afterthought. Now i am going to read Surrogate Protocol and Death of a Perm Sec. I just came back from overseas studies and surprised by the splendid range of novels published by Epigram Books. Well done!!
August 2, 2017
It was excessively descriptive at the beginning, with hardly any action. Normally even with descriptive writing, the plot progresses or characters are developed but it wasn't the case for this book. A friend recommended I stick to it until at least page 100 before deciding whether or not to continue, and I'm sort of glad I did. Things progressed afterwards, though a lot of it seems just fluff to make the book longer. I'm not sure if several chapters of basically the same thing being described was helpful at all.
January 12, 2024
Wanted to drop this again and again but thought maybe there was something that will redeem it and amaze me if I pushed further… Especially considering that i actually liked other books that won the Epigram award.
I can tahan boring and awkward writing if there is a storyline. But there isn’t much, I feel like I’m just reading about the sex lives of two not very interesting couples.
Don’t really see much depth also.
Don’t identify with their conflicts either.
Don’t recommend. Not in the same league as Gimme Lao/ Sally Bong/ formidable miss Cassidy.
I can tahan boring and awkward writing if there is a storyline. But there isn’t much, I feel like I’m just reading about the sex lives of two not very interesting couples.
Don’t really see much depth also.
Don’t identify with their conflicts either.
Don’t recommend. Not in the same league as Gimme Lao/ Sally Bong/ formidable miss Cassidy.
October 10, 2024
Captures what it feels like to not feel in control of your life, but to have your upbringing and your routine carry you along and shape you. The different point of views and events leading up to and after the tsunami being slowly revealed worked for me. The ever present boy character confused me though, hes almost a supernatural figure? did he notice Ai Ling at the beach, and also die to be buried by his grandmother? - and O's characterization of his four main characters sometimes felt like he was going through a checklist of particulars to cover, telling rather than showing.
July 28, 2017
I like the way the author handles and delves into the emotional dynamics and some existential issues, but somehow it does not go deep enough. Too slow pace, a drag for me. If the author is trying to write in the style of Raymond Carver and other well known story writers, it's better he writes short stories. I have read a few of his short stories. They are better. Prefer Death of a Perm Sec and Sugarbread.
July 28, 2017
To some extent I enjoy the first part of the book, as the second part is quite predictable. I appreciate the partly languid, subtly seething style that suggests the emotional energies and existential angst beneath the life events and emotional side of the characters. Yet I have to agree with many readers that the characters are not as engaging as I have expected, which is very disappointing. Hope to see more engaging and refined works by O Thiam Chin in future.
August 5, 2019
I really wanted to like this book, but it took me a while to get through it. It was hard to read a book that wound from the first person to a third person narrative within the span of the same page. Most descriptors used in the book seemed more like page fillers than the actual need to set a scene. Just like most reviewers here have mentioned, the post-Tsunami setting seemed more of an afterthought.
May 6, 2021
Highlights:
I could have let my imagination go - to recreate this memory in my head again - but I did not. The memory would not have been real; I would have coloured it with something else, and it would not have done me any good, to confuse what was there with what wasn’t. I would have changed Cody in that memory, making him into a man I wished he had been, but of course, he had always been who he was, no matter how i had imagined him in these memories.
I could have let my imagination go - to recreate this memory in my head again - but I did not. The memory would not have been real; I would have coloured it with something else, and it would not have done me any good, to confuse what was there with what wasn’t. I would have changed Cody in that memory, making him into a man I wished he had been, but of course, he had always been who he was, no matter how i had imagined him in these memories.
July 7, 2017
Trying to get used to Thiam Chin's style which kind of vacillates between the lyrical and some personal expose or erotica. some parts were mawkish and slow. His first novel is not as interesting as his second novel, and I prefer Sugarbread and Surrogate Protocol. Will be reading some of his short stories and other 2016 shortlisted winners.
August 1, 2017
O Thiam Chin's latest short story at QLRS is startling, good but near pornographic, a masturbating freak, new funk porn, inching towards Trainspotting ... but at least it is more thrilling that his novel Now that it's over, which is filled with relatively flat unengaging characters. I guess if it is shorter, it is less monotonous. Didn't like it.
March 2, 2018
I struggle through about 50 pages, give up and give the book away. A disappointing read. Not deserving. Over-written in many parts. No substance and superficial presentation of the key themes. O Thiam Chin's second novel Fox Fire Girl is better, more engaging and lively.
April 18, 2020
A diversity of characters. A unique storytelling format. Bits and pieces of the story gets revealed throughout the book. Intriguing story but depressing overall - speaks of loss, regret and breakups but does not advise on how to move on with life so read at your own risk.
August 7, 2017
The first part is interesting, poetical but the middle and ending become dull, boring, draggy, overall a disappointing read as I had expectations. His short stories are better.
November 25, 2017
Death is illustrated ever-so beautifully by O; along with the feelings of guilt, betrayal, regret, and loss.
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