Breaking the Tongue

'"Chinese," she says, "has no strict sense of of tense. It traverses time and history, intrudes upon the present."' To the Chinese, we are told, the Other are invisible. Invisible and barbarian. Europeans eat and talk and presumably shit, but do not exist.No matter how Europeans oppress the Chinese it is the Europeans who are no one, no person. When eventually the Japanese sweep through and annihilate the European presence, send its remnant marching to Changi, it makes in one sense no difference to the universe, for they never existed. The novel begins in the middle which is near the end, for Chinese has no strict sense of tense, and if the Europeans were here, will be here, are here, it makes no difference. And the Japanese may tear show more out, break and tear out the tongue - whose tongue? - but it makes no difference, for the story has been told, will be told, is being told.

This is a remarkable novel, brutal to read. Loh writes beautifully, but traverses time schemes with such fluency that for many pages it is the surreal that dominates. Yet then, suddenly, Singapore which nonchalantly was not going to fall has fallen and there is no time for pretense. The unglamorous Australians and the rather pathos-laden British are gone, and the Chinese whose lives were sublimated under the rule of a people who do not exists are left to survive a new oppression, and that doesn't matter either because ... time. And throughout the tale the central figure slowly grows into an understanding of what it means to be timeless, to be guided, to know what he is not (European), to so that he has seen heroism and defeat and life and death but why?

And what does it all mean? It is a chilling novel, but strangely comforting, for in the end perhaps we are all the myrmidons, crossing, in an indirect path, the horizons. This reviewer cannot tell the tale, but stands in awe of the author who tantalized and told so much about indomitable human spirit and meaninglessness of oppression. show less

This is an amazing work of historical fiction from the pen of Vyvyane Loh. She has created believable characters, particularly the young hero Claude Lim, and put them in an historical setting that is brought alive in this intelligent novel. We see the Chinese family trying to emulate their British colonial masters and watch as their society crumbles in the face of the Japanese invasion of December, 1942. But mostly this is Claude's story as he learns from his Grandmother Siok, befriends the Englishman Jack Winchester and in turn is befriended by the Chinese nurse Han Ling-Li. Slowly Claude matures and becomes reconciled with his Chinese ethnicity. This novel seamlessly blends the personal stories with the turmoil of invasion. One more show more for my list of great historical novels. show less

A book that focuses on those who are not British but are raised to be so, to the point of losing their own identity. This book shows that if you can break the tongue of the natives you can break their culture and pride.