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Exile or Pursuit
Hok Leong only knows one thing about his future: he does not want to become an office boy buying coffee for his superiors. Beyond this, he wants only to roam the streets of Singapore with his rough and tumble gang of boys—that is, until he is assigned to be the Chinese tutor for the new girl that has just moved from Indonesia. From here, Hok Leong begins a path through life guided by a tide all his own. He finds himself brushing serendipitously with academics, and forming romances and friendships that change his world forever. In a heartfelt story of coming of age, we follow Hok Leong through his many encounters with love and change as he grows into a world far larger than he ever imagined it could be.
(Singapore Literature Prize 2016)
(Singapore Literature Prize 2016)
306 pages, Paperback
Published December 15, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 20, 2021
The story was so wonderfully poignant and I think I got a good glimpse into what life must have been like for my father’s generation. I loved the inclusion of Chinese poetry and song lyrics, which were so meaningful in their own right. I loved how the protagonist’s life was written out chronologically through the women he met at the different stages in his life. Ah young love, what a bliss.
However, I thought the translation could do with a bit more editing. Sentence structures were frequently awkward, with a lot of unnecessary overly formal words being used (I often had to refer to the dictionary). If one is well versed in Chinese, they would be better off reading the book in the original language. Nevertheless, I appreciated the effort in translating the work for it must not have been easy.
However, I thought the translation could do with a bit more editing. Sentence structures were frequently awkward, with a lot of unnecessary overly formal words being used (I often had to refer to the dictionary). If one is well versed in Chinese, they would be better off reading the book in the original language. Nevertheless, I appreciated the effort in translating the work for it must not have been easy.
December 11, 2022
Any woman who likes 福良 is out of her mind because he has the personality of a rock. Truly a male fantasy where the author imagines that women will be attracted to men who lack personality and ambitions because of their inherent stability...which is ultimately because their insides are placid pools of deadwater. Nothing lives there.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews