Saturday, March 20, 2004
Spring arrived on schedule. It's almost uncanny actually: yesterday it was snowing. Today the weather is downright balmy. I feel peaceful in a way that would probably disappoint my younger self. The consistency and dependability: I love it, and have grown to hate chaos.
I'm 80 odd pages into Vivyane Loh's Breaking the Tongue. So far: beautifully written and engaging. I'm especially impressed by Loh's ability to use the second person without it coming off as the hackneyed device that it so often is (see The Crimson Petal and the White for examples). Rather, Loh's second person passages enhance a character's sense of dislocation from his physical body, which is being interrogated and tortured. The book also scores well in being a historical novel set in Singapore before and during WWII and the Japanese invasion of that island that a reader unfamiliar with that time and place can follow without endless exposition breaking up the flow.
I'm 80 odd pages into Vivyane Loh's Breaking the Tongue. So far: beautifully written and engaging. I'm especially impressed by Loh's ability to use the second person without it coming off as the hackneyed device that it so often is (see The Crimson Petal and the White for examples). Rather, Loh's second person passages enhance a character's sense of dislocation from his physical body, which is being interrogated and tortured. The book also scores well in being a historical novel set in Singapore before and during WWII and the Japanese invasion of that island that a reader unfamiliar with that time and place can follow without endless exposition breaking up the flow.
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