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The Shadow of a Shadow of a Dream: Love Stories of Singapore
A collection of eight short stories that focus on the joys and travails of love in a Singapore at a time of rapid social change.
211 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1987
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About the author
Catherine Lim
52 books79 followersLibrarian 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)
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)
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 30, 2018
I picked up this book published in 2017 by Marshall Cavendish. "A Shadow of a Shadow of a Dream" by Catherine Lim was released by different publishers before, under a longer title for the book. It was named: "The Shadow of a shadow of a dream: Love stories of Singapore". It was first released in 1987 by Heinemann Asia and later by Horizon Books in 1999.
This book has eight short stories. They were love stories of Singapore taking us back to the years after Singapore’s independence. They were years when I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. In a sense, it was nostalgic to read these love stories in 2018.
Catherine Lim is good with words and the love stories did tug at my heartstrings. They are believable and could be real stories that actually happened in that era.
The thing that marred my enjoyment of this book was the many typographical errors found in this book. I found instances of names of characters were changed within a story. I can tolerate one error but when I found four such errors it became annoying. There were also errors in certain words in a single paragraph that were not grammatically correct. It gave a different meaning too. Reading passages that were not checked for spelling was tedious. It was not smooth reading for me. I wonder what editorial input the publisher Marshall Cavendish had on this book. A pity for such good stories by Catherine Lim.
This book has eight short stories. They were love stories of Singapore taking us back to the years after Singapore’s independence. They were years when I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. In a sense, it was nostalgic to read these love stories in 2018.
Catherine Lim is good with words and the love stories did tug at my heartstrings. They are believable and could be real stories that actually happened in that era.
The thing that marred my enjoyment of this book was the many typographical errors found in this book. I found instances of names of characters were changed within a story. I can tolerate one error but when I found four such errors it became annoying. There were also errors in certain words in a single paragraph that were not grammatically correct. It gave a different meaning too. Reading passages that were not checked for spelling was tedious. It was not smooth reading for me. I wonder what editorial input the publisher Marshall Cavendish had on this book. A pity for such good stories by Catherine Lim.
October 12, 2023
This is written in the characteristic style of Catherine Lim's short stories: stories with strongly delineated characters and which end in a twist at the end, and in the process interrogates the nature of romantic love. Her technique is to narrate from mainly one point of view, and with flawed or self-deceived characters, it is easy to misdirect readers, so that there is a surprising ending. These stories are also firmly set in Singapore and brings up various character types in Singaporean society, especially from the Chinese and Indian community.
August 10, 2018
A Shadow of A Shadow of A Dream is a collection of eight local short stories that all centre around the main theme of love. Suddenly being in the mood for some local Singaporean fiction, I made an impromptu decision to borrow this from the library after seeing it was by Catherine Lim, an author I came to be familiar with after being made to read many of her works while in secondary school. I can't say that her works have made much of an impact on me in my adolescent life given the fact that I couldn't remember any of her works specifically. However, this book proved to be different.
With varying degrees of enjoyability, A Shadow of A Shadow of A Dream still proved to be a great read that explored the various niches and complications that love can bring. The collection starts strong with A Change of Heart about a loveless marriage where successful businessman Michael is embarrassed by his wife Geok's lack of social awareness and weak command of English on display in upper class social gatherings, but he is bound to her out of gratitude for her sacrifices to get him to where he is today. The character of Geok is one that can be easily identified or imagined in local contexts and when Michael decides to leave her, he feels relieved but gets together again with her out of necessity to look like a family man after being approached for a potential political career. A Change of Heart was well written with complicated characters in only the span of a few pages.
Muniandy was next in the collection, a story of an Indian man who greatly repulses everyone due to his outwardly appearance as a gigantic, disgusting beast. Haunted by a great deal of loneliness and even being rejected by prostitutes for their services, Muniandy's kindness is repaid when he snags a job as a luxury hotel's doorman where dressed up in their costume, he looked magnificent. His infatuation with one of the hotel's guest however ends horribly as it is mistaken that he tried to molest her and he is fired from his job as a result. Back to his life as a social outcast, Muniandy commits suicide which is an ending that I found a little clichéd but still fit given the circumstances and emotional writing of Catherine Lim.
Wedding was the shortest of the short stories, a tale that juxtaposes love in an era long gone that exists in an old man's memory, and love in the current day where the man's grandson is getting married. The frail elderly man disapproves of his grandson's wife greatly but is mistaken for being so approving of her when he sees his late wife in her place when she offers him tea in the tea ceremony, an absolutely crushing final scene. Karen follows this tale where the titular character's loneliness in a family fractured by divorce finds the attention she desperately needs from a parent in her mother's boyfriend Bill. Lines get blurred and mixed messages are sent before culminating in a climatic 'will they, won't they' scene between Karen and Bill that passes safely, but unfortunately her mother imagines the worst and leaves Bill.
Third Grandaunt's Story was a bit of a drag in the collection, a tragic kind of forbidden love story where the protagonist is visited by the titular character in a dream where she explains her tale of ill-fated romance and why she is so removed from her family's history nowadays. Anniversary too was a little muted, where a wife upon discovering her husband is cheating on her on her anniversary, plays psychological warfare on him to make him think that she has done the same as revenge for his unfaithful behaviour.
The English Language Teacher's Secret was a bit of a weird one where the story took me places I didn't know it was going to go, the story of a sad spinster whose single passionate love from her past keeps her going. It slowly leaks into her life as a teacher, throwing his name around in classes and sentence examples to give herself small thrills. However, once the reality that her old lover is about to marry a colleague of hers threatens to ruin the romantic fantasy in her head, she slowly goes crazy with disappointment and regret. It culminates in an amazing mental breakdown that I would have loved to watch during my time as a student.
The final short story, Vanessa Theng Boey Li, explores the theme of fitting in as the titular Vanessa feels out of place giving her underprivileged background in an extremely privileged school. She lies about her family and background in order to fit in but comes clean to the boy she likes. Her background ends up being less of a deterrent and instead makes the boy love her more in a heartwarming twist. However, the book ends on a depressing note as Vanessa discovers her mother has taken up a job as a prostitute in order to make ends meet, ending in an emotional confrontation between the two.
There is probably bias from the fact that I can identify much more with these stories given that they take place in my home country and I can see traces of these characters from people that I know in my own life. Still, it doesn't take away anything from the quality of these short stories, ranging from the different aspects of love they explore and some truly gripping writing from Catherine Lim to make you feel some type of way. Overall, I really enjoyed reading stories from a place that I am truly know and am familiar with. 4/5
With varying degrees of enjoyability, A Shadow of A Shadow of A Dream still proved to be a great read that explored the various niches and complications that love can bring. The collection starts strong with A Change of Heart about a loveless marriage where successful businessman Michael is embarrassed by his wife Geok's lack of social awareness and weak command of English on display in upper class social gatherings, but he is bound to her out of gratitude for her sacrifices to get him to where he is today. The character of Geok is one that can be easily identified or imagined in local contexts and when Michael decides to leave her, he feels relieved but gets together again with her out of necessity to look like a family man after being approached for a potential political career. A Change of Heart was well written with complicated characters in only the span of a few pages.
Muniandy was next in the collection, a story of an Indian man who greatly repulses everyone due to his outwardly appearance as a gigantic, disgusting beast. Haunted by a great deal of loneliness and even being rejected by prostitutes for their services, Muniandy's kindness is repaid when he snags a job as a luxury hotel's doorman where dressed up in their costume, he looked magnificent. His infatuation with one of the hotel's guest however ends horribly as it is mistaken that he tried to molest her and he is fired from his job as a result. Back to his life as a social outcast, Muniandy commits suicide which is an ending that I found a little clichéd but still fit given the circumstances and emotional writing of Catherine Lim.
Wedding was the shortest of the short stories, a tale that juxtaposes love in an era long gone that exists in an old man's memory, and love in the current day where the man's grandson is getting married. The frail elderly man disapproves of his grandson's wife greatly but is mistaken for being so approving of her when he sees his late wife in her place when she offers him tea in the tea ceremony, an absolutely crushing final scene. Karen follows this tale where the titular character's loneliness in a family fractured by divorce finds the attention she desperately needs from a parent in her mother's boyfriend Bill. Lines get blurred and mixed messages are sent before culminating in a climatic 'will they, won't they' scene between Karen and Bill that passes safely, but unfortunately her mother imagines the worst and leaves Bill.
Third Grandaunt's Story was a bit of a drag in the collection, a tragic kind of forbidden love story where the protagonist is visited by the titular character in a dream where she explains her tale of ill-fated romance and why she is so removed from her family's history nowadays. Anniversary too was a little muted, where a wife upon discovering her husband is cheating on her on her anniversary, plays psychological warfare on him to make him think that she has done the same as revenge for his unfaithful behaviour.
The English Language Teacher's Secret was a bit of a weird one where the story took me places I didn't know it was going to go, the story of a sad spinster whose single passionate love from her past keeps her going. It slowly leaks into her life as a teacher, throwing his name around in classes and sentence examples to give herself small thrills. However, once the reality that her old lover is about to marry a colleague of hers threatens to ruin the romantic fantasy in her head, she slowly goes crazy with disappointment and regret. It culminates in an amazing mental breakdown that I would have loved to watch during my time as a student.
The final short story, Vanessa Theng Boey Li, explores the theme of fitting in as the titular Vanessa feels out of place giving her underprivileged background in an extremely privileged school. She lies about her family and background in order to fit in but comes clean to the boy she likes. Her background ends up being less of a deterrent and instead makes the boy love her more in a heartwarming twist. However, the book ends on a depressing note as Vanessa discovers her mother has taken up a job as a prostitute in order to make ends meet, ending in an emotional confrontation between the two.
There is probably bias from the fact that I can identify much more with these stories given that they take place in my home country and I can see traces of these characters from people that I know in my own life. Still, it doesn't take away anything from the quality of these short stories, ranging from the different aspects of love they explore and some truly gripping writing from Catherine Lim to make you feel some type of way. Overall, I really enjoyed reading stories from a place that I am truly know and am familiar with. 4/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 25, 2023
3.5 stars.
October 1, 2020
Beautiful language and storytelling but I’m not a fan of the story content....ambivalent.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews