Last Boy

by Ng Yi-Sheng

"Ng Yi-sheng's writing is always good for a romp through the enticing playground of language... but don't forget to stand aside, catch your breath, and observe the soul-ground on which Last Boy plays."
- Lee Tzu Pheng

"This whimsical collection evinces fascinating sleights of hand in its metaphoric associations. Ng distinguishes himself with a wide-ranging erudition and cultural acumen, invoking the arcana of every field from mythology to mathematics, literature to kinesiology, to make his subtle observations about the intricacies of urban culture and the nature of contemporary relationships. Wit and irony abound, as the poet displays his dexterity in word-play, whether this assumes the form of puns, alliteration, exploration of semantics and etymology, or
the sheer delight that comes from wildly original conjugations of imagery and conceits. In each, the leitmotifs take dazzling flight before landing on an epiphanic coda. Read and be bowled over."
- Dr K K Seet

"These are poems at their most omnivorous, with a glorious appetite for myth, history, philosophy, etymology. Ng Yi-sheng's debut collection is ambitious and daring. At its best, the voice in his poems belongs to a godling born under a mischievous star."
- Alfian Sa'at

"At last, here comes a feral fabulist to free us from the lyrical realism and postured rhetoric that have dominated our poetry for so long: To Ng and his peers, we may soon owe the future of our literature. I have not come across such restless, imaginative verse in a first collection for years. More please!"
-Alvin Pang

Genres: Poetry

66 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Ng Yi-Sheng is a poet, fictionist, playwright, journalist and activist. He was awarded the Singapore Literature Prize for his debut poetry collection, last boy (2006). His other publications include a spiritual sequel to that work, called A Book of Hims (2017); a compilation of his best spoken-word pieces, Loud Poems for a Very Obliging Audience (2016); the bestselling non-fiction book, SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century (2006); and a novelisation of the Singapore gangster movie, Eating Air (2008). He also co-edited GASPP: A Gay Anthology of Singapore Poetry and Prose (2010) and Eastern Heathens: An Anthology of Subverted Asian Folklore (2013). He recently completed his MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia and is currently pursuing his PhD at Nanyang Technological University. Lion City is his first fiction collection, published in 2018 by Epigram Books.

Reviews

[mm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small collection of interesting poems. So many that I enjoyed, in particular 'Gignomai' and 'Hymne', where lines from different poems are stitched together into a new one.
& the following:

'Xiao/laugh'
His eyes crinkle up
like transcutaneous arrowheads

and his face becomes the sky.

'Xiang/think
Perhaps
the mind is overrated
and all you really need

is a stout heart
and a single eye

to watch a tree that grows forever.

Interesting, no?

[Hao Guang Tse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I would've enjoyed it less than I actually did. The words here collide in delightful ways ("ouch my situps" being one particularly fine example). I appreciate gravitas in poetry but this collection reminds me that it (and I) can exist without taking itself too seriously.