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More than Half the Sky - Book Review |
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Book Reviews -
Writing and Other Creative Topics
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Written by Lynn Kane
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 More
than Half the Sky, Creative Writings by Thirty Singaporean Women,
edited by Leong Liew Geok
Reviewed by Lynn Kane
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Singapore
is the New York of the Orient. It has a cultural diversity that
pulls from all parts of the Orient, Europe, India and even the
Middle East. And within that framework, there are millions of
stories. These thirty women authors have presented us with 40
stores, plays and poems between the covers of this book.
The title says a lot about the role of women.
More than Half the Sky is of course an allusion to Mao Tze Tung's
prescription for the men and women in the People's Republic of
China where the sexes were to be seen and treated in a communist
state as equal. Women (in China at least) hold up half the sky;
the other half, men presumably hold up in an admirably equitable
division of labour and responsibility. .... In Singapore in fact,
women are likely to hold up more than half the sky than only one
half of it. What a wonderful, interesting and engaging collection!
There were stories so unique that I could not put it down. There
was a story called "Pearls on Swine" by Wee Kiat about a pet pig
from the pig's standpoint, from a spoiled child's viewpoint, the
servant's standpoint, the chief gardener's, the secretary's and,
in short, from the viewpoint of all the people who were in contact
with the pet pig.
Perhaps it doesn't seem that interesting but this story, like
all of the other stories in this collection are like a window
into the Singapore culture and to our own humanity and sometimes
the lack of it.
Some of the stories left a lingering emotional ghost. Recently
stories have come out of the Middle East about local villagers
killing couples who they believed were living against the moral
teachings of their religion. Bandong by Suchen Christine Lim had
the greatest impression on this reviewer. In it, the author took
the view of a young man who traveled to a village of people who
had emigrated from his home village and witnesses the execution
by the village people of a woman accused of immorality. After
her torturous death, he learns that the dead woman's mother-in-law
drove her to do the minor things she was accused of and that this
was common knowledge in the village, but that they "had" to kill
her to preserve their social stability.
There are poems and short plays. The titles tell you a lot: "The
Mother and the Muscle and the Making of Love", "In the Proximity
of Humans", "The Matchmaker."
There is a very entertaining story called "Wingtips & Shoulder
Pads" by Eng Wee Ling which is about the conflicts between a macho
male subordinate and a woman executive which could have taken
place in Chicago, San Francisco, or New York.
Now, the unfortunate part of this story. The book is not available
in this country but it is available over the Internet from the
link to the overseas publisher.
Review provided by http://home.cybergrrl.com.
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