The Singapore Grip

`Singapore Grip' recreates the world of pre-WWII Singapore. Farrell centers his tale around the Blackett and Webb conglomerate based on rubber plantations, but extends to wide-ranging export-import business. Singapore was created to be a trading center for the British Empire and it succeeded beyond any reasonable expectations. As war edges closer the air of unreality gets thicker. Even when the Japanese attack Malaya in late 1941, these people just don't get it. Singapore Grip explores this world in detail and from many different perspectives. The higher in the colonial hierarchy, the harder it is for reality to penetrate. Walter Blackett, scion and head delusionist is still planning the company's 50th Jubilee while the Japanese are bombing the island and even Singapore town proper. `Singapore Grip' is a vignette in what Huxley called "the descending road of modern history". The war gathers slowly, life begins to change, but not dramatically at first. But, the vise inexorably tightens and the world of the characters crumbles under the relentless pressure. Escape from the island seems at first an absurd idea, but it gradually becomes ever more desirable until it finally becomes impossible in the crush at the quays. If you are tempted to turn away from this book, don't. `Singapore Grip' gathers force and clarity as Farrell slowly adds the pieces to his masterful mosaic and the reader is duly rewarded. The book has been recently reprinted in the excellent New York Review of Books Classics series. Highly recommended.

Finished this book today on the uptown train and let pass a moment of silence before my stop. J.G. Farrell was a prophet of the Lord of All Blessings. Hard to believe this book isn't required reading. It features one of the greatest depictions of combat I've ever read, a very funny study of more wacko brits and a scene of corpse embalming that features a one sided argument about labor exploitation. That sounds tiresome, but when Farrell is roundly mocking all parties, including the corpse, a good time is guaranteed. Not that the book isn't shot through with human empathy, but it's that empathy that appeals to our common humanity often for the purpose of cracking wise. All of this in no way obscures his pointed insights. If you want to find out what really matters, read Farrell and have confirmmed your sneakign suspicions.

The UK's History Learning web site (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/fall_of_singapore.htm) does a marvelous job of sound biting World War II and offers these quotes about the fall of Singapore: "Once the Japanese expanded throughout the region after Pearl Harbour (December 1941), many in Britain felt that Singapore would become an obvious target for the Japanese. However, the British military command in Singapore was confident that the power they could call on there would make any Japanese attack useless. One story told about the attitude of the British Army in Singapore was of a young Army officer complaining that the newly completed defences in Singapore might put off the Japanese from landing there. "'I do hope we are not getting too strong in Malaya because if so the Japanese may never attempt a landing.' "British troops stationed in Singapore were also told that the Japanese troops were poor fighters; alright against soldiers in China who were poor fighters themselves, but of little use against the might of the British Army. "The Japanese onslaught through the Malay Peninsula took everybody by surprise. Speed was of the essence for the Japanese, never allowing the British forces time to re-group. This was the first time British forces had come up against a full-scale attack by the Japanese. Any thoughts of the Japanese fighting a conventional form of war were soon shattered. The British had confidently predicted that the Japanese would attack from the sea. This explained why all the defences on Singapore pointed out to sea. It was inconceivable to British military planners that the island could be attacked any other way - least of all, through the jungle and mangrove swamps of the Malay Peninsula. But this was exactly the route the Japanese took." ... "For the British military command in Singapore, war was still fought by the `rule book'. Social life was important in Singapore and the Raffles Hotel and Singapore Club were important social centres frequented by officers. An air of complacency had built in regarding how strong Singapore was - especially if it was attacked by the Japanese. When the Japanese did land at Kota Bharu aerodrome, in Malaya, Singapore's governor, Sir Shenton Thomas is alleged to have said 'Well, I suppose you'll (the army) shove the little men off.'" James Gordon Farrell makes the gross hubris of the British Empire never more clear than in The Singapore Grip, published in 1978, as the third of the "Empire Trilogy". This trilogy should be read in its entirety, but each novel stands on its own. The theme of all three is the time before a major change in the British Empire. Troubles focuses on Ireland, Krishnapur on India and Singapore the British Pacific Empire at the beginning of World War II. J. G. Farrell was born on 23 January 1935 and died on either 11 or 12 August 1979. He was both an Irish and British writer of historical novels. These are his most famous novels with The Siege of Krishnapur winning the 197

The first two-thirds of this excellent novel are a sharp, funny satire of colonial society: greedy businessmen, fierce young women out to get husbands, hapless and callow young men. After the Japanese overrun Singapore, the tone shifts with tragic force; the flimsy world of the British expats is smashed to bits and the characters violently swept away.

If you were to select a subject for a droll and howlingly funny novel, it is doubtful that the fall of Singapore would be high on your list. Nevertheless, that's what you have here! The action centers on the British expat community who, intent on their usual trivial rounds of partying and copulating, are completely oblivious to the fact that the Japs are inexorably creeping down the Malay Peninsula. The novel properly darkens in tone as the city's situation becomes obviously desperate, but it maintains its ironic tone throughout. The result is an absolute masterpiece, and I don't use that term lightly.