RaveLos Angeles Review of BooksHeng’s novel is structured much like the experiences of the kampong dwellers: placidly paced at first, with change only seeping in around the edges, then everything collapsing all at once. The mode is mostly naturalistic, with one sliver of magic, those vanishing islands, as the only surreal flourish in a narrative otherwise factually compatible with Singapore’s National Education curriculum ... Heng dramatically raises the stakes ... Rachel Heng’s novel uses the dreams and aspirations of a kampong boy to track Singapore’s journey to \'a bright, orderly, prosperous future,\' whilst clearly delineating everything that the country thoughtlessly cast aside in the name of progress, revealing how paltry this progress turned out to be—and asks if it was all worth it.
