11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For fans of Everything is Illuminated & The English Patient, February 21, 2004
By A Customer
This absorbing, utterly original, gorgeously written debut novel, much of which takes place during the chaotic days leading up to the Japanese invasion of the British colony of Singapore during World War II, delves into the psyche of both the conquered (in this case, the British and the ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Singapore) and the conqueror (the Japanese). At the center of the story is Claude Lim, a conflicted Chinese adolescent (who could have been a character out of Graham Greene) whose world is upended by the fall of the British empire as well as by his complicated relationship with a beautiful, strong-willed spy named Ling-Li, from whom he learns to embrace his Chinese roots. I must warn you that the novel is extremely sad and contains some harrowing depictions of violence and torture, but the ending has got to be one of the most breathtaking in recent memory; it is both awe-inspiring and uplifting. If you are tired of reading predictable, thinly-veiled autobiographical fiction, I COMMAND you to pick up this book! It is a dazzling achievement.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ambitious and challenging, February 14, 2004
A very intricately written novel. Loh deals with huge themes: war, colonization, national identity, historical and personal truth, and self knowledge--an ambitious range in a first novel. The language is powerful and moving, and I enjoyed being transported to a part of the world I know nothing about. The book revolves around the interrogation of Claude Lim, a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese in Singapore in World War II. Claude's story and his association with a suspected British spy, Han Ling-li, unfold under torture by the Japanese, but the questions always remain: how much of his story is true? how much is imagined or made up/hallucinated? how can we know for sure? The sure and confident way in which Loh achieves this without sacrificing the narrative and sense of the book reveals her mastery of craft and makes reading the book both delightful and disturbing.
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"It is too dark for recognition, it is war time.", April 8, 2004
Breaking the Tongue is a courageous, daring and unflinching account of the fall Singapore under Japanese invasion. Weaving the personal with the historical, Loh, has written an absolutely devastating account of the fall of the "the diamond shaped jewel of the Far East." The narrative centers on a young Chinese boy Claude Lim, who has been bought up along with his little sister to be totally British in action and thought - his family can't even speak Chinese. Claude is ashamed, uncomfortable, and quite mortified at his own traditions. His father, Humphrey, a banker, a man born to serve, and his decorative, wife Cynthia spend their time cow towing to the British rulers, and insisting that the family climb as far as they can up the ladder of British acceptance and colonial authority. They crave tradition, ceremony, and aristocracy, and they are forever grateful to the British "for their unfailing leadership, their unflappable disposition." Watching them with an air of authority, and traditional judgment is Grandma Siok, who surreptitiously tries to get Claude to accept his Chinese heritage, while constantly peppering him with advice and excerpts from the ancient Art of War.
Claude's life changes forever when he encounters Ling-Li, an elusive young Chinese nurse, who is acting as a spy for the British, and the stately Jack Winchester, a disparate traveler who has fallen maddeningly in love with the sites, sounds and smells of this colonial outpost. Jack and Claude form a formidable friendship, which is further cemented when Jack becomes sick, and Claude, on the eve of the Japanese invasion, with the "bombs falling and the claxons wailing" has to get urgent medical attention for him. When Jack and Claude stay to help Ling-Li with the sick, and war torn in a local medical center, both are led inadvertently into a web of intrigue, stratagems and safeguarded secrets. When the British and Australian forces crumble, so does Claude - "he loosens his hold on the world and falls." Finally, beleaguered by treachery and facing the horrors of torture he is forced to "grow up" and "face a lie of existence he cannot deny."
Loh paints a portrait of a colony undergoing enormous upheavals. On the brink of multi-ethnic unrest, Indians, Malays, the Fifth Columnists and the Chinese are all vying for political superiority and are all intent on furthering their own agendas. This is a newly forming world where everything else is coming into being or disintegrating into fragments, transitions and struggle. Racism is also rife as the occupying British laud it over the native Chinese, employing them as servants and restricting them to particular areas. "It's like sorting rice - white-not white."
The final part of the novel details the horrors of the Japanese invasion and the retreat of the mighty Britannia. The invasion leaves a landscape of battered fields, blackened villages, a setting fetid with corpses. In Singapore there are burning death houses, the disbelieving are maimed, the air is singed, and the Harbour is bombed and torched. Claude runs from a world "distinguished only by shades of charcoal and light." Breaking the Tongue seduces us through beautiful, stark and uncompromising language. There is a grace and simplicity of voice in the narrative that is impossible not to like. This is a gorgeous, ambitious, larger-than-life story - a real literary and artistic achievement. Mike Leonard April 04
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