Summary Of The Book
This story portrays a band competition which took
place after the members trained for a year. It focuses on a team of sporting
losers who have been instilled with discipline. They were “down but not
out” with special vocabulary picked by the author. This story shows that
although winners are usually the most honoured, but in this case, the good
losers have shown great sporting hearts and thus have achieved the most
honoured award in this story.
There are also other interesting and real life story
accounts in which have been specifically chosen by the author to convey
the message that Singapore is a country which is although small, but filled
with a lot of willing and respected people.
Comments
The author uses different types of language and a different view for
every story, resulting in the achievement of touching people’s heart’s
with their words. But in the midst of telling just some true stories, there
is a morale behind each and every tale, which teaches us the principle
of how to be an upright person, or an example we should set ourselves to.
Of course, Goh Sin Tub also uses humour and irony
to lighten up the sad or rather monotonous stories. And this, in addition
to the experiences in life she has had, the quality of her stories have
been able to touch our hearts with the right message she
wants to pass to us. Although the words used to sketch the actions
and movement taken by the characters in the stories are short and sweet,
there is a vast difference between the “bombastic” words used to describe
the people by books written by
Western writers.
But after reading the book, I feel that the style
of writing the author puts in the book is about the same as other Singaporean
writers, and I strongly agree that Singapore writers should expose themselves
more the out side world of writing. Through this, local writers can write
more openly with more styles and thus can more easily get hold of reader’s
attention from other countries.