Three books

Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas, John Boyne

The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas is a simple novel rich with metaphors and symbolisms that would be very suitable to introduce literature to secondary one students. Factual inaccuracies did irk me, to be honest, and at times it felt as if the author had dumb-down too much in an attempt to appeal to younger audience. The idea that a child may roam freely around a concentration camp with absolutely nothing to do or that people sat around looking ill, was ridiculous and completely undermines the brutality of the history.

That aside, the book actually requires contextual knowledge of the Nazi treatment of Jews in WW2. An uninitiated reader would not grasp the significance of ‘Out-with’ (Auschwitz), the Fury (Führer aka Adolf Hitler) or what the people on the other side of the fence are actually going through. As such there needs to be some sort of historical scaffolding while teaching this book to tease out the finer details and the impact of the irony of Bruno, son of a Nazi commander, being killed in a Jewish concentration camp. The themes of friendship, boundaries and social differences resonate strongly in this book, and as such it would be a good book to introduce to literature with.

Ministry of Moral Panic, Amanda Lee Koe

This is my first time reading Koe’s works, and I must say I enjoy her short stories very much. Her characters seem to leap out of the page and are so well crafted that you feel as if you have encountered them in real life before. It is also a refreshing experience as her characters are quintessentially Singaporean with their own quirks.

As much as I enjoyed reading her works, a careful selection of her work is need if one were to bring her into the classroom, as many stories are sexual and exposes the strange human psyche that is usually not discussed openly in Singapore. The stories are layered with a myriad of interpretations and introducing them to students may force the teacher into an awkward position in having to discuss peculiar relationship and human desires.

Fasting, Feasting, Anita Desai

I approached the book with trepidation as friends have been moaning about how terrible they think it is.  To my surprise I actually enjoyed this book. It is easy to read, has a non-linear perspective that is both refreshing yet not overly confusing. It is filled with a myriad of interesting issues: gender roles, gender roles in different cultures, the domestic space, parental expectations, societal expectations, food and relationships, orientalism and the overarching sense of characters unable to escape any of these.

The book is filled to the brim with the character's dissatisfaction in having to obey parental demands, which I am sure many students can relate to. The book's title also suggests the relationship of food and how we build relationships- or not- around the act of eating- or not eating, or not eating well, or not keeping down food eaten. This is a great relational point for students as the act of eating plays a big role in Singapore's culture.