This Place Called Absence [Paperback]

Lydia Kwa (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Kwa's debut novel already published in Canada four narrators tell two stories, one of a contemporary Chinese-Canadian psychologist mourning the death of her father, another of two Chinese prostitutes in early 20th-century Singapore. As the novel opens in 1994, Wu Lan has just begun a year's leave of absence from the Vancouver, B.C., clinic where she sees patients: her father committed suicide at home in Singapore, and Wu Lan has had a breakdown after returning from the funeral. To distract herself, she begins researching the sex trade in Singapore, and Kwa introduces three other narrators: Lee Ah Choi, whose parents sell her into prostitution for three sacks of rice; Chow Chat Mui, who flees her father's sexual abuse only to find herself tricked into prostitution; and Mahmee, Wu Lan's mother, who grieves over her husband's death and her daughter's flight from her native city. As the novel progresses, Wu Lan slowly makes peace with her memories of her father, her roots and the recent loss of her girlfriend, while Ah Choi and Chat Mui fall in love and try to escape the usual fate of Chinese prostitutes (or ah ku), death by opium. The two stories are narrated at entirely different paces; the ah kus lives are telescoped into short passages while Wu Lan's account lingers over domestic details. Kwa does a lovely job of intertwining these two stories; her research is thorough, and her writing is often vivid. But it can also be clumsy, as when Wu Lan resorts to psychological explication, and Kwa introduces many more themes than she develops. She takes care, however, to show the complexities of ah ku life circa 1900, and even if the novel is not gripping, it sheds light on a little-explored world. (Mar.)Forecast: There are few Asian/lesbian-themed novels, and this worthy addition to the subgenre should find a small and devoted readership.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Booklist

A vast emptiness at the core of Wu Lan's life deepens in the wake of her father's startling suicide. Understandably depressed and despondent, Wu Lan is inexplicably drawn to the arcane journals of two prostitutes living in her native Singapore at the turn of the century, seeking answers and finding solace in their impassioned chronicles of barbaric brothel life and illicit lesbian love. Superficially, these three lives appear dissimilar, yet the longing each woman feels for a love that will complete her and fill the void that envelops her existence transcends time and place. This is as much Ah Choi and Chow Mat's story as it is Wu Lan's, as Kwa seamlessly weaves their past into Wu Lan's present, unlocking a familial mystery in the process. Kwa incisively juxtaposes divergent cultures and tender psyches, paying homage to the resiliency of the spirit with beguiling imagery in this psychologically complex tale. Lush and lyrical, Kwa's spellbinding portrait of dispirited women haunted by ghosts and hampered by circumstance echoes with raw, emotive drama. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (May 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758201486
• ISBN-13: 978-0758201485
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,751,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dealing with the Past, October 14, 2003

By 

Jessica (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Place Called Absence (Paperback)

~In This Place Called Absence, Lydia Kwa beautifully combines the past and the present to show how four women from Singapore are connected through their different and difficult lives. Wu Lan is now in her forties and left Singapore 20 years ago to find a better life in Vancouver, Canada, since then she has become a successful psychologist. She at first had trouble trying to forget the traditional Asian ways of her past and dealing with her parents choosing to ignore her choice to be a lesbian and~~ not return to Singapore. Yet, the sudden surprise of her father's death by suicide has left Wu Lan very confused and is affecting her life drastically in which she now sees everything from a different point of view. Miles and miles away, Wu Lan's mother is dealing with the death of her husband in her own awkward ways by hiding the truth from others and talking to herself to keep from becoming so lonely. Mahmee (Wu Lan's mother) is also constantly worrying that her daughter is making the wrong~~ choices in life and will end up lonely and without a husband.
Throughout the novel, modern day occurrences are paused as Wu Lan reads the journals of Lee Ah Choi And Chow Chat Mui. She reads the journals to become more enlightened on the issue of women being sold into prostitution by their families to pays off debts which is really starting to interest her more and more. Lee Ah Choi was sold into the prostitution trade by her family for a few bags of rice. Chow Chat Mui runs away from the~~ troubles in her family with her cousin, but with their arrival in Singapore she becomes separated from him and falls into prostitution. By reading the journals we are able to follow the stories of how these 2 women, each on their own separate paths, find each other and try to survive the hardships of life in the Singapore brothel. In the brothel it is very common that ah kus (prostitutes) be exposed to diseases and the harmful opium drug. After reading the journals, we go back to seeing how~~ they have affected Wu Lan's life.
Lydia Kwa has used a very difficult writing process and still manages to put all together gracefully. At first I was a bit confused with what was going on with the journal entries and Wu Lan's daily life, but once you get more into the book you start to get the idea and become more involved. Lydia Kwa wonderfully describes each event with lots and lots of different forms of detail. The detail makes the story come to life more. Although, I did find some of~~ the more provocative occurrences to be a bit disturbing with all the detail, and this does happen a great deal in the novel. This can be a difficult book but if you are willing to take a chance I think you'll like it.~

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absence Makes the Reader Grow Fonder, May 9, 2004

By 

Judith K. Parker "weeshes" (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Place Called Absence (Paperback)

Why is This Place Called Absence by Lydia Kwa not on everyone's reading list? I can't figure out whether it should be first a classic of CanLit, a lesbian classic, or a classic of immigrant literature. The novel takes place in two times and places: contemporary Vancouver and colonial Singapore, both settings rendered in vivid detail. The novel's modern heroine is Wu Lan, a Chinese-Canadian woman who is dealing with the death of her father and the seeming clash between her birth culture and the one she has adopted. While taking a leave of absence from her career as a psychologist, Wu Lan comes across a a book about au ku, Chinese women who were brought to Singapore during the 19th century to be sold into prostitution. She tells herself (and us) the story of Lee Ah Choi and Chow Chat Mui, ah ku who fall in love with each other in spite of the damage done to them by oppression, opium, and disease. The stories from the past and present weave together as Wu Lan learns that her personal tapestry must include threads from both. I highly recommend this book.