A review by extemporalli
The River's Song by Suchen Christine Lim
2.0
Mmm, I think Suchen Christine Lim might be more suited to the short story. Despite containing some good moments and a very compelling STORY, this novel definitely felt quite meandering and many of the characters weren't as fleshed out as they could have been. This isn't totally fair, in the sense that I am comparing this less-good book to an incandescently-wonderful book, but it struck me not long after finishing that The River's Song is actually remarkably similar to Americanah in plot: two lovers are childhood sweethearts but are torn apart by ineluctable circumstances; one spends years as a student in America (of course, while Adichie's novel dwells at length on the difficulties her heroine faces and race issues that emerge; Lim is comparatively silent, with her heroine's achievement of a satisfying career and an ill-fated marriage reading as comparatively flat non-events compared to the past), while the other plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in the UK / is detained for the better part of a year by the ISD as a result of his labour organising activities. Prior to that separation, there is a misunderstanding, which is never cleared up, except only after years, during the second-chance reunion, in which both parties have to come to terms with their previous disappointments in order to rekindle love once again.
Thinking about the remarkable similarities between The River's Song and Americanah made me realise the difference between writing that makes you care about the characters, and writing that itself seems to pass the time (to say nothing of the plodding reader). I would have loved to read a Singapore novel that made me care about the characters to the same extent that I do Adichie's - it's a pity that, despite the surface parallels, this doesn't quite achieve it.
Thinking about the remarkable similarities between The River's Song and Americanah made me realise the difference between writing that makes you care about the characters, and writing that itself seems to pass the time (to say nothing of the plodding reader). I would have loved to read a Singapore novel that made me care about the characters to the same extent that I do Adichie's - it's a pity that, despite the surface parallels, this doesn't quite achieve it.