An Equal Joy

by Catherine Lim

“I have noticed, increasingly, that people after the age of 65 or thereabouts begin to experience the fear of death in a very palpable way. While in their childhood and youth they had viewed death as happening only to grandparents, while in middle age they could still afford to relegate death to remote corners of their consciousness where it could not intrude upon the pleasures of living, the advent of old age after 65 brings to them a deeply disturbing sense of mortality.”

So begins An Equal Joy, a collection of essays in which award-winning author Catherine Lim undertakes a bold and intense exploration into the fear of death, the nature of religion and the question of who we are. Drawing on her own experiences and myraid influences—from the Taoist “Sky God” of her childhood and the Christian God Jesus of her adulthood to scientist Pascal and philosopher Socrates; from intimate conversations with close friends to the imagined world of fictional characters—Lim reflects on the beauty of both the natural world and the world of faith.

As Lim writes, “Truth, Goodness and Beauty. For me, they form the goals of a perfect life.” In sharing her insights, Lim not only provokes us to reflect on the meaning of life but also encourages us to live as meaningful a life as possible.

212 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

林宝音 in Chinese

Catherine Lim Poh Imm (Chinese: 林宝音; pinyin: Lín Bǎoyīn, born 21 March 1942) is a Singaporean fiction author known for writing about Singapore society and of themes of traditional Chinese culture. Hailed as the "doyenne of Singapore writers", Lim has published nine collections of short stories, five novels, two poetry collections, and numerous political commentaries to date.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Ronnie Tan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love it or hate it
An interesting collection
That gets you thinking