A review by jazsfox
Between Stations by Kim Cheng Boey
4.0
I don't usually review books but I feel like it this time since reading this felt particularly poignant as Kim Cheng Boey was my teacher for several semesters while I was studying Creative Writing/English Literature. I had this book sitting on one of my shelves for at least a good year or two after stumbling across it randomly in one of the many used bookstores I make my rounds at. After having just finished it today, I'm quite kicking myself about that now having finished my Bachelor of Arts a while ago because I really, really enjoyed it - especially since I don't usually read essay books - and can relate to a lot of what he was describing in relation to being a immigrant/emigrant as my family relocated to Australia as well (from Canada, rather then Singapore) when I was in my early teens. The way he was conveying the duality of belonging and not belonging in either country. The sense of wanting to return to that Mother country as you get a bit older but wondering if it's too late, if too much time has passed, too much has changed, if you've changed too much, for it to ever be possible again. This passage in particular really summed that up for me and resonated the most out of the various essays and I find myself doing this consciously and unconsciously all the time depending on who I'm talking too and what I'm talking about:
'One way to visualise this shifting ground is a mathematical trope you remember from problem sums you did in primary school. Circle A is for Australia and Circle S for Singapore. The overlap between the two circles is the shaded area where you dwell mostly. Determine what percentage belongs to A, and what to S. Sometimes the shaded area changes to the area excluding S; sometimes it migrates to the area excluding A. Most times it occupies the overlap between A and S, contracting and expanding by turns. In strange and uncanny moments the two circles come together, become one whole shaded area.
You are an emigrant to those you left behind and immigrant to your new friends.'
As I'm sure many other emigrants do too, there is a part of me that consciously stubbornly refuses to completely relinquish what Canadian strains still remain despite having spent nearly half of my life in Australia now. The way I talk, the words I use and still hang onto, the accent I continue to take pride in and have never once tried to water down and will away. But then there are other parts of that old life in Canada I know I've lost, it's been that long now, I was still young when we left, I can't remember places or faces anymore even if I try and will them up out of childhood memories. And that was where the point that Boey was making with circles really resonated as I know and can feel when those circles are shifting and I'm more Circle A or Circle C and those rare moments when they come together. I can't think of another passage I've read to date that's summed up those feelings as concisely and poignantly as that did.
This is absolutely a book I can see myself reading again in the future and recommending to others. I just wish I'd read this sooner so I could have talked to Boey about it in person when I'd had the chance.
'One way to visualise this shifting ground is a mathematical trope you remember from problem sums you did in primary school. Circle A is for Australia and Circle S for Singapore. The overlap between the two circles is the shaded area where you dwell mostly. Determine what percentage belongs to A, and what to S. Sometimes the shaded area changes to the area excluding S; sometimes it migrates to the area excluding A. Most times it occupies the overlap between A and S, contracting and expanding by turns. In strange and uncanny moments the two circles come together, become one whole shaded area.
You are an emigrant to those you left behind and immigrant to your new friends.'
As I'm sure many other emigrants do too, there is a part of me that consciously stubbornly refuses to completely relinquish what Canadian strains still remain despite having spent nearly half of my life in Australia now. The way I talk, the words I use and still hang onto, the accent I continue to take pride in and have never once tried to water down and will away. But then there are other parts of that old life in Canada I know I've lost, it's been that long now, I was still young when we left, I can't remember places or faces anymore even if I try and will them up out of childhood memories. And that was where the point that Boey was making with circles really resonated as I know and can feel when those circles are shifting and I'm more Circle A or Circle C and those rare moments when they come together. I can't think of another passage I've read to date that's summed up those feelings as concisely and poignantly as that did.
This is absolutely a book I can see myself reading again in the future and recommending to others. I just wish I'd read this sooner so I could have talked to Boey about it in person when I'd had the chance.