City of Small Blessings

by Simon Tay

A Singaporean retires, migrates and then returns. But, he slowly finds, there is no simple return to the place called home. Once a well-known public figure who contributed to the country, he is now outside the rush of workdays, on the fringe of the city he barely recognises, distanced from his wife and son, even as he loves them. A letter comes from the government and he begins the journey. In the present, he must find a way to face the new men of authority. In the past, he must confront old sacrifices and struggles. He regrets. He loves. He cycles and discovers... Simon Tay's long-awaited novel, City of Small Blessings, is layered and nuanced. Telling the story of one man, it is a complex lens that exposes the tragedies and blessings in Singapore. This book has been described by the publisher as "likely to be one of the most hotly debated novels of all time".

Genres: Fiction

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[pinenutsandrice · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is hard to appreciate this book when it contains the following (italics mine):

- The epigraph is credited to "Kirkegard".

- Page 17: "I frequented the bookstores -- not the old ones I had known as a young man, which sold more stationary than actual books..."

- Page 55: "I scribble down these words instead, from Homer; what Tiserias forewarns Odysseus:"

- Page 87: "My father and her lived next door to each other for almost all their lives."

- Page 172: "They were country bumpkins who were deliberately used for their blunt visciousness, to terrorize."

How this book won the Singapore Literature Prize is beyond me.

[Leon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't muster the energy to finish the book.

I admit I was biased against the book from the beginning - the epigraph was attributed to a "Kierkgard". Surely someone should have been able to Google the name of the philosopher?

As a Singaporean none of the locations or feelings expressed in the book were presented in ways that made me want to read on. The main character Bryan is self-indulgent and uninteresting.

The writing simply plods along, employing italics (especially in large chunks at the ends of chapters) to hammer home non-existent feelings. The imagery employed is cliched, especially the dying tree metaphor.

Perhaps this might be a better read for a non-Singaporeans.

[CuriousBookReviewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Curiosity level of book: slow paced and draggy :(
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“There will still be those who grow richer, and those who enjoy the comforts of air-conditioning, clean and safe streets, and drinkable water from the taps.”
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It’s about a Singaporean who retires, migrates and then returns... who finds out there is no simple place called home.
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Apart from the fact that this book’s pages are so tightly wound together that I had to break the spine a few times just to read the middle portions, it’s quite a meh read.
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It started out very well, and I was intrigued by its quiet, promising beginning, but then it got messy with too many names thrown in quickly; complicated timelines and mysteriousness that got grating. Very reminiscent of “The God of Small Things”, but like a version gone wrong, because I find the meanderings both annoying and hard to follow. It is the plot that loses me.

[Talya · Rating 1 out of 5]

The novel is dry and clumsy. Not at all in that Murakami way that some people insist on comparing Tay's writing to. The whole time I read this, I thought to myself "this is what happens when bureaucrats have a mid-life crisis and think its time to write their magnum opus."

[Yifarn Loo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing much happens in this nonetheless finely composed book. The characters don't go through anything worth remembering.

[Ezra]

(Add me as a Friend! if u like my reviews)

City of Small Blessings is a literary novel by a writer of considerable and matured talents. None of the overwriting and bloat of other offerings (in the publishing line), just a crisp if not slightly lugubrious short work. But the novel manages to justify itself. It begins like a domestic novel except it is told in a stiff male voice. It slowly reveals itself to be more than about domesticity.

This is a Life story – there is retirement, migration and return, growing old and looking back. Tay tells the story with a quiet compulsion to discover and delineate the small blessings of memory – of family, friendship and place. There are the familiar themes (like migrating overseas and missing home) but thankfully that element is not overwrought.

Tay’s narrator sees modern Singapore with cold but not unloving eyes. It all seems intentional: the almost unspoken uneasiness of the central father-son relationship, the palpable damage caused by the Japanese occupation to the main character, as well as strong suggestions of governmental failure. All these roots the novel in psychological realism of the grayest kind. Praise is deserved for the finely tuned dramas described in the Japanese occupation years that makes the novel a lot more readable and energetic.

It is interesting that while Tay chooses to amplify nostalgia to sky-high levels (higher than UOB Plaza or OUB Centre), he does not fail to include contemporary developments: the issue with cats, how the new generation communicates, and the botanical passions that continue to obsess some Singaporeans today. “I have seen a beautiful garden,” the narrator says in his dream. Tay has given us a work of literary blessings set in city whose many versions have died and regrown like trees.

[Justine Oh · Rating 4 out of 5]

City of Small Blessings” is a quietly powerful novel. It lingers in the reader’s mind not because of sensational events, but because of its sincerity, emotional honesty, and how it wrestles with how much one can ever return home unchanged. It’s well-suited for readers who appreciate introspective, literary works more than plot-driven narratives.

[Tiara Ulfah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been a short story.

[Strangesunday · Rating 1 out of 5]

Perhaps no one will read this. No one is wondering now as they read this very word: "wow, i wonder what she has got to say about this book". But since you are still reading, here are some of my thoughts (i refuse to say "two cents"!).

Simon Tay's novel reveals a story of Singapore, describing the city's progress and the social and physical changes that truly capture the essence of the flourishing city. A story about a father and son and the struggles between the two different generations in Singapore blah blah blah

I must admit i find the narrative to be rather slow and dull. My interest which was first piqued by the non-linear storytelling (where chapters go back and forth presenting a -from-father-then-son's point of view) just vanished from exhaustion of encountering uninteresting story-line, overused imagery and even more boring characters. I guess i wanted the story to be more fast-passed and something that will shed some light on a Singapore that i have never known before. I guess this was really not a book for me.

[Benedict Ong · Rating 3 out of 5]

In terms of style, if Tay wanted to portray a state of confusion and indecision, he probably succeeded. He changes perspectives and time zones, leaving the reader sometimes wondering how things fit together.
The novel is filled with little episodes and stories, each subsequent one revealing a bit of the story, a bit of foreshadowing and a bit of... well, history. But there are those that seem unnecessary and cumbersome.
This novel as a whole can be viewed as an anecdote of the fast changing leviathan state and how one can feel insignificant, and left behind by it.
In this book, there seems to be little hope for the individual, for history, for remembering.

[Taiker · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Singaporean, it is easy to relate with what Tay is trying to portray, the very stiff and business-first attitudes of Singapore as a whole. It does seem to plod along occasionally, but it does make me reflect on what's wrong with society as a whole and perhaps gives some insight on the rampant unhappiness of our society.
However, the main characters in the story are far from compelling, feeling robotic and lacking in soul.