Tuesday, August 14, 2018

The River's Song by Suchen Christine Lim (Aurora Metro Books)



The River’s Song tells the story of Ping and Weng, who both live along the Singapore River. It’s a story of love lost and found, of music, and of the great cleanup of the Singapore River in the 1980s. Even though I don’t know much about Singapore at that time, I got easily immersed into the lives of the people who lived on and along the river.

Ping is the illegitimate daughter of Yoke Lan, who abandons her to reinvent herself in a different place. Ping survives with the help of Weng and his family, who live right along the Singapore River. They are part of the countless squatters who make their living off the river. The two children become close, and Ping starts to take music lessons from Weng’s father.


When Ping’s mother returns, she has married into a wealthy family, and her husband is the owner of the land along the river. He is instrumental in the plan to clean up the river and help turn Singapore into an economic powerhouse. Ping’s mother eventually takes Ping back, which sets up a growing conflict between mother and daughter; rich and poor; progress and tradition; and Ping and Weng, who have to figure out whether their alliances lie with each other, their families, or a way of life that is threatened by the massive cleanup of the river.
She doesn’t return until 30 years later, struggling to reconnect with a city she no longer recognizes, people who have grown up without her, and a way of life that has changed in her absence and no longer feels natural to her.
I truly enjoyed reading about Ping and Weng. They were both well-rounded characters, and the social setting was very interesting. A lot of the direct speech was written in dialect, which is not easy to pull off. But it felt very natural and authentic in this book. It was a pleasure to read this book.

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