The Singapore Grip: NOW A MAJOR ITV DRAMA (W&N Essentials)

15 August 2000I SIMPLY CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS WONDERFUL STORY HIGHLY ENOUGH. I bought it purely on 'spec' as I was hunting around Amazon for any book on Singapore or the Far East (I was in a nostalgic mood for the exotic orient - probably our lousy summer weather here in the Uk did it). This book turned out to be an absolute treasure - Singapore in the last months before the fall to the Japanese is brought to life with remarkable vividness and the most loving detail. This is a truly compelling tale, by turns deeply poignant, hilarious, slap-stick, and bitterly ironic. Draped everywhere are succulent vignettes of colonial life and English eccentricity, all set against the dramatic, vast, dark tableau of the looming war in South-east Asia. It is a very clever and cleverly told story too. But the characters are the real strength here - it is a real ensemble piece, with a large and varied cast of 'players', and they are all so fascinating and three-dimensional you will find yourself completely captivated as you follow their progress and adventures, and watch them interact. An atmospheric, evocative, pungent, compelling, spell-binding book, perfect for tucking up in bed with on a cold rainy night, which will utterly absorb you into its streets and settings. I EXHORT YOU to order this book. J.G. Farrell was unknown to me before I stumbled across this book here at Amazon, and now I shall be ordering a couple more of his books next. The Singapore Grip is supposedly one of three books by Farrell referred to by critics as Farrell's 'Empire Trilogy' - guess what I'm ordering next!

Back in the days when my enthusiasm for literary fiction was unbounded, and I read all the Booker prize winners when they came out, I read Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur and admired it immensely. A number of years later, my husband read it and was very ambivalent; I reread it and found I didn’t like it quite as much. I’ve never read anything else by him, but sparked by my initial enthusiasm for that book, embarked on the TV series. With some trepidation – the obligatory shrieking and wailing about the evils of the Empire was of course in evidence.Apart from the appalling miscasting, I enjoyed it more than the book. Other than Charles Dance and the American actor playing Ehrendorf in a slightly Catch 22 manner, most of the actors looked as if they hadn’t a clue what they were doing there and didn’t begin to approximate the assurance, accents, posture or anything else of the privileged of Singapore at the time. I decided though that there was a good story in there and started reading the book more or less simultaneously. Hats off to the screenwriter (who got some flack, of course) for picking out the story whilst leaving out the pages and pages and pages on the history of Malayan rubber plantations, the League of Nations and other less than riveting topics.To say this book was discursive was an understatement. It was positively Shavian in its desire to preach; characters such as Matthew spouted and spouted ad nauseam. The characterisation was Dickensian – very black and white and slightly grotesque. The author made it unusually clear which characters he liked and disliked. Walter Blackett was a straightforward villain – there was nothing remotely likeable about him, and most of his cronies and associates were also painted as pantomime baddies. His wife was vapid, silly and snobbish, his son (not the near adolescent of the TV series, but apparently 30 odd,) was thoroughly unlikeable. Daughter Joan was less bitch than witch, so unpleasant was she. The book did not imply the rather creepy quasi-incestuous relationship displayed on the series. For some reason little daughter Kate was a goody. Matthew Webb was depicted as appallingly boring in the book, and more of an anti-hero than hero. He bored everyone, even his friends, witless with his prattling on, although we are shown that his heart was in the right place. He was also described as very physically unattractive. We are told that Vera was attracted to him only because of years of conditioning for Chinese girls to find scholarly, stooping and bespectacled men attractive because of their intelligence and the likelihood of them obtaining good occupations. Which doesn’t read that well today. Vera was not nearly as likeable in the book – very lovely, yes, but almost certainly a hardened liar, and with a closer acquaintanceship with dubious groups and prostitution than was portrayed on screen. Having got her claws into old Webb, she entranced Matthew pretty effortlessly. His affection was clearly genuine, hers probably venal. The three male characters that O’Farrell obviously liked were the Major (not the buffoon depicted on TV) but clever, thoughtful, reflective and resourceful. (Albeit a bit prone to ruminating lengthily on the evils of the Empire). It is revealed that he and Dupigny (a bit of a stock philosophical Frenchman) had known each other for years, meeting in the trenches of WWI. Ehrendorf is a “good” Henry James American, so educated, suave, well-tailored and well-mannered that everyone likes him. The military top brass were deservedly portrayed as hopeless en masse, although his portrait of the (real) Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham was quite sympathetic in its way, showing a man promoted well beyond his ability, totally unqualified for his post and vaguely aware of his unsuitability and overall inadequacy.There’s a lot of heroic firefighting, and Matthew and the Major show themselves in a good light – the baddies all make an undeserved get away and the noble trio of Matthew, the Major and Dupigny resign themselves to being captured and interned. And there it rather peters out. We assume, but are not told, that they all survive, and Vera smuggles them a food parcel consisting of a sugar cube and some white mice, so she clearly made it out of the ruins of Singapore, as one surmised she would. There’s a rather strange epilogue, which only added to the feeling that it lacked an ending.The major highlight of the book for me though, was how funny it was. Occasionally it was laugh out loud amusing, which did serve to lighten the endless preaching somewhat. And when not preaching, the writing was of a very high order, effortlessly conjuring up the sights, sounds and smells of Singapore. I’ve downloaded a couple of other of J G Farrell’s books and until I’ve read them, I’m not going to say whether I consider this to be not one of his finest. I can’t say I hugely enjoyed it though and kept going more out of a sense of duty than anything else.

I find it hard to believe people have read this and awarded it 4 stars. It feels to me that the author has both literally and metaphorically lost the plot in this one.I am about half way through & struggling not to give up on this book. The writing is verbose and the sheer amount of background detail tedious in the extreme. Too late now but this should have been edited down enormously.JG Farrell has written other vastly more engaging books. I wonder if this one languished in a cupboard before somone decided to see if it would sell? Such a shame, the plot, the period, the location and the history could have made for a fascinating read.

Written in the inimitable style of the author of the Troubles and the Siege of Krishnapore. One of the wittiest and most fluent writers in English I have ever read. Reminds me of P.G. Wodehouse. Tragic that he died before his time and did not give us more classics to enjoy.

Too much description of the actual fighting. A rather unsatisfactory ending.

フォーマット： Kindle版　ファイルサイズ： 1854 KB紙の本の長さ： 586 ページ出版社: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; New Ed版 (2010/12/30)　のレビュー。Empire Trilogy の最終巻。三部作といっても、それぞれの巻は独立した作品であり、共通するのは、すべてブリティッシュ・エンパイアのみじめな失敗と敗退をテーマにしていることだけ。わたしは他の2作は未読。本書が最初。第1作Troubles はアイルランド独立戦争を描く。第2作The Siege of Krishnapurはインド大反乱を描き、マン・ブッカー賞受賞。邦訳もあるが、わたしは未見。この第3作は日本軍によるシンガポール陥落を描く。登場人物Walter Blackett　 複合大企業Blackett and Webb Limitedの代表経営者。Mrs Blackett; 妻。シンガポールの社交界の中心人物。現在、娘の婿選びが悩みの種。Monty; 典型的な道楽息子。事業の後継者としてたよりない。Joan; 長女。ヨーロッパの花嫁学校を卒業して帰国。退屈している。Kate; 次女。Mr Webb; Blackett and Webb Limitedの創立者。一代にして財を築いた辣腕の経営者。現在、引退して奇行がめだつ。Matthew; 老Webbの一人息子。何をまちがえたのか進歩的なヨーロッパの学校にあずけられ、先進的（？）な思想に染まってしまう。現在、国際連盟関係の仕事をしているらしいが、最初は物語に登場しない。Major Archer　退役軍人。老Webb氏の居候というより、老人の話し相手であり世話人。François Dupigny; フランス領インドシナの高官であったが、シンガポールに避難。両家の友人。Captain James Ehrendorf; シンガポール駐在アメリカの武官（まだアメリカは参戦していない）。Matthewの大学時代の友人であり、国際連盟の会議で会ったこともある。Blackett家の友人であるがJoanにすげなく扱われている。　物語は1940年ごろから始まる。当面の最大の話題は Blackett and Webb Limitedの創立50周年記念事業。1942年初頭に盛大に行われる予定である。その一年前のパーティから本格的に物語が始まる。読者には正確な日付は示されないので、いつ戦争が始まるのかわからない。パーティや歓楽街やゴム売買のビジネスが描かれる。　開戦のあとは、当然歴史的な事実どおりに話がすすむ。上記の登場人物以外に、チャイニーズやインド人も少々登場するが、ほとんどの視点人物は、ブリティッシュ帝国の支配秩序が永遠に続くと思っている白人たちである。だから当然ながら、日本軍のマレー半島上陸なども、ちょっとしたストライキや犯罪ていどの事件として見られる。上流社会の生活はかわらずに続く。そういうことを、ブラックなユーモアとドタバタで描いた作品である。　小説としてちょっと読みにくいと感じたのは、すべての歴史的背景が特定の登場人物の回想や感想として説明されること。国際連盟や満州事変や日本軍のインドシナ占領など、もっと簡単に説明してもよいように思えたが。それから、この作者の文章は一文がひじょうに長いものが多い。ブラックな皮肉を効かせるためでもあろうけれど、ちょっと読みにくかった。　1978年発表。ということは、この種の植民地社会を白人の視点で描いた小説としては、最終期の作品だろう。ジョージ・オーウェルやE.M.フォスターやサマセット・モームの時代から続く系列の最後尾を飾る作品と言っていいのでは。これから後は、現地生まれの作家による作品がぞくぞくと登場することになる。Judy Garland　"Minnie from Trinidad" で検索すると、youtubeで映画のシーンが見られた。こんな映画が見られた時代の話です。

A really fine novel by the superb British writer, J.G. Farrell. I got this title because of the overwhelmingly favorable Amazon 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.

This is a gripping novel set in the months before Singapore falls to the Japanese. It focuses mostly on members of the expat community but, unlike the typical expat novel, the expats are revealed to be pretty awful people and exploiters of the native rubber growers.