Foreign Bodies (Library and Information Problem-) - Hardcover

Tan, H. H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892552360 ISBN 13: 9780892552368

Publisher: Persea, 1999

Synopsis

This first novel about international Gen-Xers is set in Singapore and follows three friends caught up in a mystery that ends in a spiritual quest. It heralds the arrival of an exciting new writer.

About this title

About the Author

Hwee Hwee Tan was born in Singapore in 1974. She graduated from Oxford in 1997 and now lives in New York City, where she is working on a new novel.

Reviews

If Flannery OConnor had written the screenplay for Midnight Express, it might have turned out somewhat like this startling and remarkable debut novelacademic glam, international intrigue, and Christian redemption all stirred up in the same wok. Going Abroad was the core motivating principle of my life. Mei has always been looking for ways out. Born in Singapore, she moved to Holland with her family as a girl, then won a scholarship to study law in Britain. Now shes back in Malaysia as a fledgling attorney, and one of her first cases turns out to be the greatest trial of her lifeliterally. Her English boyfriend Andy has been arrested for running a betting operation out of his flat, and under Singapores draconian penal code, he faces a lifetime in jail. Its obvious that the real culprit is Loong Tay, Andys old Oxford chum, who brought him over to Singapore and set him up in the flat in the first place. Loong is a diplomats son who has spent most of his life getting into trouble and leaving other people to deal with the consequences, and hes been heavily involved in Singapores gambling scene for some while. But is a Singapore court likely to believe the truth when it implicates the son of the ambassador to China? Mei knows better: The good suffer, while the bad go on to live happy lives. End of story. And Mei knows this from experience: specifically, the experience she had as a child at the hands of her father, whose perversion and cruelty could have killed her but instead somehow made her a Christian. Can Andy survive as well as she has? That depends on what you mean by a happy ending. Witty, hip, engrossingand utterly astonishing both in breadth of feeling and depth of intelligence: one of the strangest and most original works of the year. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Tan's lucid and wide-ranging first novel is a memorable portrait of disenchanted and feckless youth, a narrative that gains indelible resonance as the plot unfolds. Mei, a young Singaporean lawyer, is called upon to defend her British boyfriend, Andy, an English teacher who has been unjustly identified as the head of a gambling syndicate and may face a severe prison sentence. The only conclusive evidence found in Andy's apartment is a Filofax listing the names and phone numbers of the key operatives in the alleged syndicate. We discover, through Mei's narration, that Andy is a failed womanizer, and that their mutual friend Eugene, who comes to Singapore to protect Andy's innocence, is dangerously amoral. Mei shows a tough but caring attitude as she struggles to rectify the mistakes of both her boyfriend and her fiscally irresponsible mother?and to preserve her own ethics in a mercurial world. Andy, who alternately narrates, is intelligent but apathetic, enthusiastic but unfocused?a hapless lighting rod for the injustices awaiting him. Tan shifts tones expertly as she jumps back and forth between these two dominant voices. Eugene also narrates, contributing his own disturbing commentary to the trickle of revelations that soon indicate a host of secrets (foreign bodies) that each character hides. These rudderless figures pick up?and drop?various panaceas for their angst, including Christianity, Taoism and drug abuse. Their casually bandied references to such Western cultural icons as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Beavis and Butthead and George Michael give a rich texture to this multilayered work. Tan's worldly wise, dark humor animates every page, but she runs the risk of betraying characters' integrity, as when Andy complains that his imminent incarceration will keep him from his favorite video game. Are today's youth this out of whack? After Mei confronts a searing memory from her past, this seductive novel moves with furious grace to a transcendent conclusion.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

No one who reads Tan's debut will accuse her of shying away from the big topics: incest, murder, justice, loyalty, even varieties of religious experience are explored. Set in Singapore, Tan's novel presents three rootless friends in their twenties, each looking for a place where life holds meaning. Mei, a rookie lawyer who shares an apartment with her mother, dreams of a more exciting life overseas. Eugene, the nerdy son of a diplomat, who actually lives overseas, in Holland, is haunted by the long-ago death of a schoolmate. Andy is a British slacker with a teaching gig in Singapore who finds himself jailed as the leader of an international soccer gambling syndicate. (This is Singapore, remember, where even chewing gum is illegal.) Told in shifting first-person voices, the novel documents the nine tense days following Andy's arrest, but Tan's greater interest is in revealing her characters' secrets, the "foreign bodies" of the title. Fortunately, she counters the gravity with humor throughout. The wisecracks, language, and subject matter will especially appeal to college-age readers. James Klise

This lively combination of mystery, youth culture, and spiritual awakening is wonderfully unique. Three friends from three distinct culturesAMei from Singapore, Andy from England, and Eugene from HollandAare caught in a corrupt justice system. Andy has been charged with masterminding an international soccer gambling ring. Arrested in Singapore, he calls Mei for help. She contacts Eugene, and together they try to prove Andy's innocence. They have nine days, and in that time they discover truths about themselves, learn how to evade the hypocrisy that surrounds them, and at the same time find personal codes to live by. The melding of the three cultures is crisply described in prose that is fast-paced and totally unpretentious. A completely absorbing first novel.AJanis Williams, Shaker Heights P.L., OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Persea
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0892552360
• ISBN 13: 9780892552368
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 278