Corridor: 12 short stories

by Alfian Sa'at

A collection of short stories all set in present-day Singapore.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Asia, Literary Fiction, Anthologies

154 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Xueting · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing made me cringe hundreds of times... What is with so many local Singaporean writers who over-describe, over-explain and over-symbolize their story??? Most of them confused me so much in an annoying way :/ I can't wait to see how my professor discusses this collection in class...

[Diana]

This is my second time reading this collection of short stories by Alfian Sa’at. I was only meant to read two stories that were part of the Singapore literature syllabus in NTU, but couldn’t help finishing the book. Architecture and space figures strongly in the stories, with moments of intimacy, longing, anger, jealousy and disenchantment happen in corridors, toilet cubicles, void decks and discos. These are spaces so decisively planned in our city-state, meant to plan our daily activities and work in state-approved ways, but so much happens in these spaces that fall outside the parameters of what is planned.

One of my favourite realisations provided by a student is how a “typical singaporean” character in the story 'video' likes to buy chestnuts before going to her mum’s house. In Malay, chestnuts are called “buah berangan”, berangan is to dream, daydream, it has a sense of the unattainable. So much of our lives here are whiled away, lost in dreaming for what feels unattainable because it has perhaps been made unattainable. This sense is often present in the stories.

[JC · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book of short stories. I read it mostly during my mornings in Singapore, while I was there visiting family. I found so much of it poignant, moving, and often extremely funny. There was one story I found so similar to a story my mom told me of her sister that I wonder a little about the genesis of the story, and whether it maybe reflects a wider phenomenon in Singapore's past.

Singapore being a very socially conservative society, leaves the voices of LGBTQ folk so often erased or invisible. A few visits ago, a taxi driver talking to my dad said that there seems to be a lot more 'homosexuals' in Canada. My dad, as conservative as he is, still recognizes that this was almost certainly not true and responded that it's mostly because it's (on average) more socially acceptable in Canada to be open about being queer than it is in Singapore. And consequently, I know very little about the subjective experiences of being queer in Singapore. Alfian Sa'at, who is openly gay, conjures these very tender stories often focused on variously queer individuals in Singapore. Sa'at, also being Malay and Muslim, is also remarkably good at opening up a window into what it's like to be socially and religiously identified in Singapore as 'Malay' or 'Muslim'.

I also just think his writing is a joy to read. The stories just seemed to keep getting better and better. The title story, 'Corridor', was maybe my favourite, but there were so many good ones at the end too. A great companion if you're visiting Singapore, especially if your accommodations involve an HDB flat.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

i blazed through the series of short stories. the experience of doing so could be summed up like this:
--
it is early morning and i am sitting at a coffeeshop. i have ordered a breakfast set, but with teh bing instead of teh or kopi this time. it is something i haven't ordered in a while and i sit and slowly savour the familiarity. my motorola is in my bag. it is not something that i think about or touch often, only when i want to text someone, condensing my message into 160 characters to make my 5 cents' worth. and after i am done with the kaya toast and the soft boiled eggs, sipping on my teh bing, i order a plate of nasi lemak and begin to eat. still i do not touch my motorola because i do not think about it at all. there is no Facebook or Instagram or Instant Messaging. the auntie from block 17 walks by, kids in tow.
--
vivid and engaging read that explores and brings to light the nooks and crannies of Singapore that are often left unemphasised and/or unspoken. my favourite stories were Bugis, Cubicle and Video. i i like how there is a consistent undercurrent of restraint, and appreciate the astute observation of Singapore society through the short stories.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you can ever find this--buy it! And send it to me! Singapore author, short stories. best writer in Singapore essentially. this book is a collection of short stories about an array of "uniquely Singaporean" people. tragic stories, humanly flawed characters. exposes the real issues of Singapore culture. I know no one reading this review probably *cares* about Singapore like I do...but it is fascinating nonetheless.

[mellamy · Rating 4 out of 5]

actually weird how a book published in 1998 doesn’t feel all that dated? most of what sa’at writes is prevalent even today. he really nails the stark loneliness of standard communal living in a densely populated city.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential. Beats Catherine Lim's collections hollow.

[Isabella Abigail Ow · Rating 4 out of 5]

9.11.17 “12 corridors” by Alfian Sa’at offers a kaleidoscopic palimpsest of Singaporean characters in the 90s. The stories are wistful and imaginative. While the characters are strongly rooted in realism, their inner worlds are represented with much colour, pathos and at times, eccentric finesse. The themes could border beyond the readers’ comfort zones at times, but when viewed under the lens of the struggles of an individual against societal expectations, empathy for the characters are earned more often than not. This is a really good read for anyone who would like to take an incisive and pathological peek into the common Singaporean psyche, though these characters are by no means common. Their stories set further back in the 90s, require some contextualisation by the reader as a result.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reads like the progenitor of the Balik Kampung series, and there's bound to be a story that you vaguely relate to (regardless of the character's struggles or the setting they're in). These ordinary stories have an amazingly intimate quality to them, but are also frustratingly (though forgivable) open ended.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alfian Sa'ats vignettes are unexpected and vulnerable. Each cast of characters is unconventional, yet the stories that Sa'at tells are unblinkingly true and raw.

[sbs transit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first wanted to read this in Y1 after doing a PBQ practice from "birthday" and googling the author's name. However, I then got distracted and ended up not reading it.

Overall, it's quite interesting but I couldn't quite grasp the meaning of the stories sometimes - symptomatic of my ineptitude for analysis and complexity of the plot+prose I'm guessing. At some point through the book I wondered if "corridor" is supposed to pay homage to the alienation of contemporary singaporeans owing to the design of our urban spaces which mirrors the design of social policy/norms prescribing certain lifestyles and roles at the expense of undesirable "alternative lifestyles" but realized this was too naive and didn't apply to every story in the book so discarded the thought without an alternative to supplant it.

I rated it a 3/5 mainly because I didn't really understand some of the stories and because I felt they ended too abruptly. I appreciate the value in some open-endedness but at some point a repetition of abstract endings feels a bit too open-ended for my liking.

[Rinne · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories were certainly culturally Singaporean. The imagery and slang were somehow simultaneously nostalgic and other-worldly. As a Singaporean, I understood the Singlish with ease and was struck with nostalgia at the nods to everyday scenery and history. At the same time, the stories seem to weave a fantasy. It made me question if the country in these stories were really the country I'm living in. Without beautifying Singapore, the author incited a new appreciation for my country.

Controversial topics, such as homosexuality and academic failure, were also incorporated. The contrast to our 'successful and happy' facade was very nice.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love "Duel", "Video", "Umbrella" and "Corridor"... Sa'at poetically captures the Singaporean landscape via banal imagery which anyone can relate to. What strikes me most is the clarity with which he conveys the subtle nuances of every 'you and i' in beautiful short descriptions. it's like he could have been reading between the lines of your diary!

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to explore this author's work after being blown away by his play 'Hotel.' In this book, the stories capture the small daily challenges faced by middle-class Singaporeans. While some might come off as a bit ordinary, a handful of them beautifully capture those moments when life seems to stand still, revealing a glimpse of people's true selves.

[Randi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories of modern-day working-class Singaporeans, often written in pidgin slang. The best were the ones featuring young Gay people. Clear, crisp writing, the endings were usually downbeat and sad.

[Deesha Menon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it is difficult to write about happiness and hurt without being disparaging, but Alfian Sa'at does it well. I like that he put careful thought into the kind of symbols and motifs that each story was woven around, and each narrative was both meaningful and relevant.

[Kathleen Bu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quotes that stayed with me:

“When the body of the murdered man was found in the corridor we were having our holiday in Jakarta…Sometimes I try looking back and I wonder what I was doing when the man got murdered in our common corridor. Maybe at that time I was opening the mini-bar and wondering if it was all right to throw out the beer cans; I didn't want to sleep in a room that had alcohol in it. Or when I was trying to figure out how to open and close the vertical blinds. Or when I wondered where my daughter had packed my bra and panties, in which bag and which com-partment. Or maybe it was in that exact moment when I thought about home, that I wanted to be back, at Changi Airport, the white tiles, the cleaners, most of them at my age, how I might have ended up like them. Then the drive back on the expressway, my son-inlaw speeding, maybe we could wind down the windows, the children opening their mouths to the wind, tasting air, feeling the roofs of their mouths turning dry. That man might have been killed at the exact moment when I was sitting in that hotel room with the silly piped music I didn't know how to turn off, feeling homesick. Which also means to say that the man could have been killed any time at all.”

“I caught my son-in-law one day telling my daughter, your mother has a sharp tongue, and my daughter, so eager to come to my rescue, said it's because she has a sharp mind.”

“I heard that last time, this woman had a mother, very old, sitting in a wheelchair. She often brought the mother to the park in front, the one where sometimes after it rained, the bougainvillea petals would litter the tarred footpaths as if a parade had just passed. So while pushing the mother she would tell stories, and since the mother was sitting below on the wheelchair and hard of hearing, this woman would raise her voice. She would say things like, "look at the grass, they just cut it," as if her mother was blind as well. "Look at the patterns on the grass!" Even after the mother died, this woman still talked as if everyone was deaf.”

"I'm just thinking."
"Thinking of what?"
"Who's taking care of our plants.”
"Mak, one week won't kill them. Anyway we watered them before we left."
"You don't know those plants. You don't know what they need."

“Anyway, after television I would stay in my room trying to read something or else, just thinking about things. I'd have my thinking pose, which was to lay the back of my head on my palms. I'd imagine that my armpits were sensitive information centres that picked up thought waves from the air.”

“Tonight is a special night for me. The thing is that, the light at the bedroom I was talking about had been bothering me for the past two weeks. Somehow or the other it seemed to challenge me. Each night while on my bed, I would watch for it to turn off, but it never did. I would be the one to surrender, falling asleep to wake up sometime before dawn to switch off the lights. By then, the other person's lights would have gone out. There was even one night when I decided to keep a whole night's vigil. I drank two cups of Nescafé and laid still on my bed, watching his stark fluorescent ceiling lamp persist throughout the night. To occupy myself, I reached my hand out for the curtain and played peek-a-boo with the light. The novelty of that wore off within minutes, and that was when I started inventing stories for my oblivious late night compan-ion.”

“My mother speaks to me in English, something that she had never done in real life. She is wearing a powder blue blouse and coral pink lipstick. I had never been good at describing colours before so I know I am inside a dream.”

“Rosminah opens the cupboard in the children's room and takes out a box of mosquito coils. She drags out the plastic and realises that three of the four coils are broken. Rosminah then starts cracking them up into even smaller pieces before realising that the rustle of plastic could wake her children. She stops herself firmly and thinks: I am not well. She looks at the broken fragments of mosquito coils in the plastic and tells herself: there is no happiness in this world. Even if there is, none of it is mine.”

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The lovely Jamie (Lonelygirlbookclub on Instagram) was doing a book swap and I jumped at the chance to try something new. Since I mentioned to her that I wanted to try more SingLit, she sent me Corridors by Alfian Sa’at (and one other book).

To be honest, I was pretty scared to read this because Alfian Sa’at is really popular on Bookstagram and in the Singapore reading community in general and I… am not really a short story person.

The most recent short story collection I read was Exhalation by Ted Chiang and interestingly, Corridors was the exact opposite of Exhalation in that the stories seemed to have no point. If it wasn’t for the blurb on the back of the book, I wouldn’t have guessed that these stories were about people at turning points in their lives. I honestly thought the first few stories were just vignettes in people’s lives – vividly written but without that much of a point to it.

What I really liked about these stories were how natural the conversations were. It’s really like being a fly on the wall – I could totally see these as real conversations that actual people were having. The English/Singlish used was also really on point. On the flip side, all the conversations sounded very similar to me. It’s like having real people talk, but the same few people are talking in all the stories.

Another thing I liked was that Sa’at doesn’t hesitate to make his characters unlikable. The makcik in Corridors would probably be an antagonistic character (with her not wanting to leave the hotel room while on holiday) if the story was told from a different POV, and the protagonist in Bugis just casually dehumanises migrant workers by wondering “if this were their country, the Bangladeshi workers men might make wolf-whistle sounds at her”, as though there is no possibility they’re acting like normal humans on an MRT minding their own business because they are normal humans on an MRT. It doesn’t make the protagonists more likeable, but it does make them more realistic.

As for the stories, I generally preferred the longer ones to the shorter stories because they had a bit more time to develop. That said, there weren’t any standout stories, the way Exhalation had The Lifecycle of Software Objects.

Overall, I think this was an interesting collection and I think short story lovers are going to enjoy this. I haven’t read many SingLit short stories but in my limited reading experience, I would rank this as a tie with Lion City by Ng Yi-Sheng, behind my favourite Track Faults and Other Glitches by Nicholas Yong.

This review was first posted at Eustea Reads

[Fadillah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jakarta is a big city, the traffic is bad, people are just honking everywhere, dashing across roads. The hotel I stayed at sent us newspapers every morning which I tried to read, but I realised that the Malay and Indonesian languages have some words in common and many words not in common, so I gave up after a while and watched TV. It was strange to see the programmes we got at home which were usually snowy suddenly look so clear. At home we could get some Indonesian channels, but they always looked like there was a swarm of ants on the inside of the screen, crawling all over but not disturbing the studio host, the newscaster with the big earrings, or the soap opera star with the giant hair bun.
- Corridor : 12 short stories by Alfian Saat
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Majority of stories ended abruptly just when you started to make sense of it. I guess that is the risk of reading an anthology - you never know how it ends or how much it will revealed. I felt somewhat connected, called out even over how much i can understand the loneliness and desolation of some of the main characters in the story ; The one that was hustled but never got compensated for it, the one that was abused but never got over their trauma, the one that trying to escape their own misery but never did and the one that endlessly chasing the dream only to realise it’s not what it seems. The stories captured what its like to be a middle class Singaporeans at least that’s what i have gotten while reading it. Majority of the stories possessed this unsettling vibe and i do believe it is the intention of the author. Overall, i would say this is a decent collection of short stories. The one that stood out to me is ‘Corridor’, ‘Project’, ‘Pillow’ and ‘Video’. The rest not so much as it has its moments but it’s forgettable for the most part.

[Apollos Michio]

My thoughts on these stories:

Project - A very short story of not helping someone and the guilt that comes after.

Video - A video camera brings a mother and daughter closer together, or is it further apart?

Orphans - A conversation in the car between a woman and her fiancé about orphans, happiness, money and charity.

Pillow - A clandestine relationship between the protagonist and his father’s friend.

Corridor - A death at a corridor potentially ends a feud between two neighbours living there.

Duel - A boy has an imaginary contest with a neighbour on an opposite block of flats. The challenge: whoever switches off their room lights last wins.

Winners - A couple wins air tickets to Australia but somehow ends up not going… They make love at home instead…

DNFed at page 146/308 (47.4%). Don’t really like the looseness of the short stories. Even though they are short, I had a hard time trying to figure out what they mean.

Cubicle - (Unread)

Umbrella - (Unread)

Bugis - (Unread)

Birthday - (Unread)

Disco - (Unread)

[Xin Ru Toh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contained a collection of short stories about a diverse range of HDB-dwelling Singaporeans. A common theme across the stories was the characters' painful experiences of confronting their own flaws and hypocrisy, as well as their strong desire to be loved and accepted for who they are. I enjoyed stories such as "Project", "Duel", "Winners", "Umbrella", and "Bugis", which looked at antisocial misfits and the socioeconomically disadvantaged. However, I found it more difficult to relate with most of the other stories, which focused on the LGBTQ community. I also felt slightly alienated by the time-specific references to local pop culture in the stories, as I was not raised as a child in the 1990s. While this was an interesting book, I seem to prefer Alfian Sa'at's recent work as a playwright with Wild Rice, though I can't be certain if it's due to the difference in genre or time period.

[elly · Rating 5 out of 5]

#bookreview 📖: 'Corridor' by Alfian Saat. A collection of twelve short stories that truly deserved the accolade it received. Each story in the collection pulled at my heart strings. Raw and honest, the voices in this collection remain immutable. Alfian Saat definitely has a beautiful way of carving his stories, in ways that leave me starving for more ✏ Truth be told, I've read his poetry collections and this is my first reading of his prose. And it will definitely not be my last! 🤓⁣
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Each story allows readers to peek into the lives of Singaporeans living in HDB flats (aka public housing in Singapore) 🏢, exploring and redefining what happiness and success means in a city that is bustling with activity 💼 Themes such as desire, loss and redemption are resounding in this collection. Rich in detail, 'Corridor' is authentic and haunting in its portrayal of contemporary Singaporean lives. ⁣

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like so many short story collections, this was a mixed bag of stories I liked pretty well and others I didn't. I don't know much about Singapore and I was hoping to get a better idea of life there than these short stories provided. The stories are filled with people who have rather bleak lives, so they would seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum from the characters in Crazy Rich Asians, which I admittedly have not read. I chose this instead of CRA to read about average people but I think a novel may serve my purposes better to learn more about Singaporean society.

[Shelved by Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely timeless collection of short singaporean stories that are so singaporean at its core. despite it being published in 1999, many of the issues touched on in each story remain relevant in 2024. god, some of these stories broke my heart. alfian saat being one of singapore's publicly recognised gay playrights and authors, he taps on his own personal experiences to craft some of the narratives. each persona in each story is such a uniquely interestingly crafted individual. alfian saat does such a good job at humanising his characters and making his readers feel for them. it's the way many singaporeans might live the lives of his characters among us, going unseen by the public eye. anyways enough yapping, i really enjoyed this collection each story is so heartbreakingly beautiful.

[ting :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

it was enjoyable to read abt the experiences of different ppl living in SG. i found it cool that the main characters of each story were somehow written to be relatively complex characters despite each story being rlly short

i get that short stories like these are often left open to interpretation bc they’re meant to get a message across through symbolism. but i didnt rate it higher cuz a lot of the endings were too symbolic and abstract for me — they didnt make sense sometimes and it is never explained bc the endings r so abrupt. idk mayb im just dumb but this is the kind of book i’d need to discuss in class / with friends to truly appreciate

i did understand ig 2/3 of the stories? but i was left confused for the other 1/3

[j · Rating 3 out of 5]

as with all short story collections, i liked some stories better than others. alfian's writing style took me a while to get into, but by the end of the collection i could better appreciate the vagueness of the endings and the seamless transitions between present time and flashbacks. worth a read as these stories really illustrate what it's like to live in Singapore. there was also very diverse representation. read for my intro to Singapore literature class.

[Ismim Putera · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars. This is an amazing collection of short stories by a very talented writer. I enjoyed "Bugis" & "Corridor". The rest are just fine and I think could have been written better in some way. The ideas are original but the storylines are slightly boring, unentertaining, not suspenseful, too many distractions and somewhat cliched. Still, I will read other books by this author.

[Paricha duangtaweesub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading these shorts made me feel claustrophobic, stuck, even hopeless at times. The characters’ struggle reflected the lives lived on the edges of Singapore - socially, economically, gender-wise - though the pains are somehow very universal. Duel, Umbrella, Disco, Orphans, Cubicle stood out to me. I enjoyed the calm writing style and subtle hints to the characters backgrounds.

[Bo Manson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book still carries the Malay Sketches’ vibes. It’s another collection of stories, short stories written in a simple language that made reading feels like a breeze and of course enjoyable. Let say that the contents is for mature reader. It has a darker tone to it, a different aspect of life. It’s life. It should be told the way it is.

[YANKEET · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had a mix of emotions for this book. There are stories that touched me a lot but some that left me more confused. It felt like a poem written in prose form. It really reflected life in the past for Singapore and feels really like I’m seeing the characters in real life since the context is so familiar to me. Interesting read but be ready not to expect closure, they are short stories anyway.