A Bit of Earth

A Bit of Earth was the fourth novel that Lim wrote after a span of 8 years from Fistful of Colours. To me, I see some very identical styles present in both novels, which is a little surprising considering how far apart in time the novels were written.

In both novels, Lim writes about one protagonist and how he/she grows while surrounded by the many cultures and histories of the people around them. In Fistful of Colours, Suwen is surrounded by the history of the Ong family and the family backgrounds of her friend. In A Bit of Earth, Tuck Heng is surrounded by the Babas, the White Cranes, and the stories of his friends and wives. The style used here is pretty similar. Both protagonists go through pressures that they struggle with and undergo much tension when forced to confront who they really are.


I feel that Lim is very clever in interweaving multiple stories together that creates different perspectives, thus adding to the colourful vibrant nature of her novels. The plots are not dull and the characters vivid and real.

However, I prefer Fistful of Colours greatly to A Bit of Earth as I find the characters in A Bit of Earth too extreme for my liking. Perhaps this is because living in post-modern Singapore, I have no firsthand encounters with the coolies of babas mentioned in the novel, thus many a times, I find myself recoiling against the crude nature and language of the characters being portrayed. They are too unfamiliar and I find myself unable to relate to them.

Of course, that is just my attitude towards the story itself, but I must give credit to the author for her ability to engage different cultures and background and weave them together, making her characters come to life.

On Suchen Christine Lim...

During lecture this week, Suchen Christine Lim was invited to be our guest speaker/writer for the day.

Having met her before during my JC days, I didn't expect much since I thought that it will probably be about the same thing.

However, the woman writer, though petite, struck me as a very passionate woman about her work. She holds a love towards her writing and her characters, which is evident in both times that I've heard her speak. The way she read parts of her novel were energetic and full of life.

There was something she said during that lecture that really caused me to wonder. That is, when she kept urging us to read the novel to enjoy it rather than as a literary text.

This made me wonder if sometimes, we tend to over-analyse certain subjects and themes in novels, in literature itself. With the aim to write a good report, we debunk every single sentence to find something beyond what the normal reader would see. Through that process, we may actually get a deeper sense of the novel and how it relates to the world that the author sees, but does that diminish the simple enjoyment of just reading a book as it is? Is that really the author's intention?

I would always remember during a lecture in JC, when one of my classmates asked Lim why the title 'Fistful of Colours' and she replied that there wasn't any particular reason for that, it was just a nice name that her friend had suggested to her. We were all taken aback as we had spent many lessons discussing about that, trying to figure out what went through the author's mind.

But that said, there is always a little sense of accomplishment after every attempt to discover a theme and seeing the grades go up with each try. I guess it's a matter of balancing... and yes, I still love Lit.