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The Singapore Grip Empire Trilogy JG Farrell Derek Mahon Books

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The Singapore Grip Empire Trilogy JG Farrell Derek Mahon Books

The other reviewers who have commented on the great sense of place and time JG Farrell creates are correct. However, thinking about the novel "critically", I thiink one should acknowledge a few downsides. First, Farrell does not seem in control of his tone or material is a first-rank way -- it starts off in gorgeous Conradian fashion, both with an immersion into a society of expatriates and a narrative drive and natural authorial control....and then...(in my view) the wheels come off the vehicle. There are long passage of pure exposition, set-ups of discussions about "were the colonial periods better or worse for the indigenes, compared to the alternatives..." -- great for discussions of imperialism in class, but what happened to the people, the natural narrative of the first 100 pages? Second, after that 100 pages -- well, an intelligent reader can only take so much dramatic irony -- that is to say, everyone in the book is unaware of what we as readers KNOW is happening as Singapore is going to fall....


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The Singapore Grip Empire Trilogy JG Farrell Derek Mahon Books Reviews

What's stayed with me after completing this novel and the two previous books in the "Empire Trilogy" has to be how strongly delivered each story has been.

This one deals with Singapore on the eve of Japanese invasion. For the Blackett family their way of life will be gone forever and their lives and those of their friends will no longer be as they know it.

I will say that this book has a "darker" humor than the previous two, but I appreciate a darker humor and enjoyed it. I still have a slight leaning towards the very excellent "Troubles" but that's just this readers preference. Each book can certainly stand in it's own right and be considered excellent.
A really fine novel by the superb British writer, J.G. Farrell. I got this title because of the overwhelmingly favorable reviews (hats off to those who praised the book in this forum) and because of my own positive experience with one of Farrell's other sagas of British colonialism, "The Siege of Krishnapur".

"The Singapore Grip" is a social satire as incisive and entertaining as some of Evelyn Waugh's better books and certainly as good in capturing the cracks in the facade of empire building and maintenance. The story opens in the late 1930s with an unsparing look at the British business community which was running the Malaya/Burma/Singapore branches of the colonial empire and which was focused entirely on the maximum exploitation of the natural resources of those territories on behalf of the metropole, and very much at the expense of the native populations. That ruthless selfish behavior is boasted of and lionized by "...Grip's" business characters. The same characters speak of the "virtues" of classism, racism, anti-intellectualism, anti-humanism--and the list goes on. Entering the scene is the scion of one of an important Singapore business family who is a relative naif to all of this, having labored fruitlessly for a number of years for the League of Nations. He becomes the ineffective critic of all the much-prized bad behavior of his peers, but also a bridge to the local native population and hence to some kind of sanity and humaneness.

While the war of manners goes on and economic exploitation continues unabated, the Japanese are closing in the colonial territories. Ignored and then denigrated as a military force until they invade Malaya through friendly Thailand, the Japanese Army is soon pounding down the Malay peninsula toward the stronghold of Singapore. The rest of the story includes some amazingly good accounts of infantry and tank battles, military strategy and tactical bungling. Eventually Singapore's defenses disintegrate and the city falls. The reaction of the besieged population to the attacks on the city is rather brilliantly imagined and told. There are some comeuppances doled out here, but not nearly in the amounts merited. The author's message being that life is never fair and the weak will always be at a disadvantage in the face of adversity.

These few paragraphs don't come close to doing justice to this extremely skillful and engrossing story that has a terrific storyline and plot (mostly following the true line of history) and brilliantly sketched characters who are mostly flawed but all accurately reflecting their time and place. A wonderful read by a very talented writer.
The Singapore Grip tells the story of the fall of Singapore to the Japanese during World War II, as seen from the view of characters inhabiting the heart of British Imperialism. The firm of Blackett and Web has prospered via every opportunity offered by British domination of native resources and commerce. As the story opens, Walter Blackett, a co-owner, is facing the doddering decline of his aged partner, Web.The imminent arrival of Web's heir, his son, Matthew, who has been raised with modern ideas, sets Walter, and his family, including a beautiful Machiavellian daughter, socialite wife, and disappointing son, to scheming. Matthew turns out to be a dilettante socialist, who projects a free-floating type of idealism looking for a practical anchor amid the vivid reality of Singapore. The primary juxtaposition of Walter and Matthew is surrounded by fully developed, supporting characters who join to tell the story of the fall of Singapore, each holding a unique role within the social fabric of the British imperialist community, looking outward from that role to comment on events. Walter, Matthew, and the beloved (to me) Major - who has traveled along from earlier in the trilogy - are unforgettable, as are the women, each playing the part time and place has assigned her. The story is character driven, its humor arising unforced from the narrative. The lessons of history, here, are timeless. It was particularly interesting to read this novel now, during the current (Trump/Clinton) primary cycle. The dialogues between capitalist, imperialist, socialist, and wearily disaffected characters, which are intended to be somewhat satirical, sound very much like the actual points of the candidates, which lends resonance since these characters are heading into war. The narrative moves swiftly but the writing is so fine you linger on words and sentences, skimming nothing, wanting to take your time. Along the way I learned a great deal about this segment of history. This was the kind of novel you bring up at dinner. I'm reading this very interesting book.... Everyone who reads a lot knows how rare that is, and how enriching. I had previously read Farrell's Troubles, which I also loved learned from, and brought up at dinner,, and I am not a reader of historical novels. Farrell is on my list of not to be missed.
The other reviewers who have commented on the great sense of place and time JG Farrell creates are correct. However, thinking about the novel "critically", I thiink one should acknowledge a few downsides. First, Farrell does not seem in control of his tone or material is a first-rank way -- it starts off in gorgeous Conradian fashion, both with an immersion into a society of expatriates and a narrative drive and natural authorial control....and then...(in my view) the wheels come off the vehicle. There are long passage of pure exposition, set-ups of discussions about "were the colonial periods better or worse for the indigenes, compared to the alternatives..." -- great for discussions of imperialism in class, but what happened to the people, the natural narrative of the first 100 pages? Second, after that 100 pages -- well, an intelligent reader can only take so much dramatic irony -- that is to say, everyone in the book is unaware of what we as readers KNOW is happening as Singapore is going to fall....