A review by cherrytan
Lions in Winter by Wena Poon

2.0

Most of the stories were hard to read, especially since they were not especially insightful. The two main themes that the stories claim to discuss are only dealt with handily in a fraction of the stories, such as The Man Who Was Afraid of ATMs. Additionally, a few of the stories sounded less like actual stories than complaints about Chinese families. On that note, the author does not seem to understand the evolving mentality of Asian families and seems to show a disconnection with the Singaporean population. One thing that irked me was how the dialogue was awkward and the lexical and semantic choices are not in line with that of the average Singaporean. There are just some words that the average local would not use -- probably would not even know -- in daily conversation. Overall, 2-3 substantial stories at best, while the rest scratch the surface of the themes and offer flawed illustrations of local life.