Novel set in Singapore – Sarong Party Girls – Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

Submitted: 25th March 2022

Singapore, Sarong Party Girls and Singlish

Novel set in Singapore – Sarong Party Girls – Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan – This is the novel which you will read differently from any other. It’s written in Singlish for a start – half Singaporean and half English and it’s surprisingly easy to read! You’ll be speaking like the characters by the end. Hopefully not behaving like them as they’re young woman looking for husbands. What they have to do to find one might just break your heart…

BookTrail the locations in Sarong Party Girls

Setting: The clubs and party scene

#Bookreview

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Where do I start with a review of this book? It’s not like anything I’ve read before. First of all, I’ve never read a book written in Singlish before – a mix of English, Chinese, Malay written in a singsong style. It’s surprisingly easy to read and before long it feels as if you’ve read this way for ages and it’s perfectly normal. It’s a fun way of getting into the hear of the characters and their lives.

The story is supposed to be an Asian version of Emma, by Jane Austen but I don’t see this at all. It’s about girls wanting husbands, but that’s where I would say the similarity ends. It’s more like sex and the city ramped up a couple of notches. If any of this book is remotely true, I feel very sorry for women in Singapore. On the shelf at 28? These SPGs, Sarong Party Girls are expected to search and snag their “ang mohs” before it’s too late. And search they do. One night club after another, one man after another. It might all sound like fun but it soon builds up into a seedy picture.

It’s one very shallow world she lives in. All women are there for men to cheat with and pretty much control how they see fit. Men can do what they want, yet women are expected to find husbands and be good girls. The novel certainly looks at the role of women in society in Asia today.

I felt the novel however was like the scene at a party – all fun, a bit seedy, but overall too dark and confusing to see what was going on. The after party – when Jazzy finds more Independence and looks back on events – that’s what I would have liked to see more of. A contrast of what life was then and how it is now?

Jazzy by name and Jazzy by nature. But it has many layers of darkness and a look at sexism and the treatment of women in society. Like the sweet and sour of an Asian dish with an aftertaste you’ll think about long after reading.