Shadow Theatre FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Unwed and pregnant, Shakilah Nair has just returned to Singapore after fifteen years in America. The women of the neighborhood and all her old acquaintances revel in their gossip, airing speculations that are dark and wondrously imagined." They are Straits Chinese, Indian, Malay, or a combination, and their world - contemporary Singapore - is populated by an array of spirits, seen and unseen: ghosts, vampires, and other phantoms of the shadows. Their actions are circumscribed by the spirits' powers; their comfort comes equally from the Catholic church and from the local witch doctor. The questions they feel impelled to resolve are the identity of the mysterious diamond woman, who is said to have used a magic potion on her husband, and the reason for Shakilah's return.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
The voices of women in contemporary Singapore and the spirits who permeate their world shimmer in this elegant if muted second novel by Cheong (The Scent of the Gods). Mystery and omens swirl around Shakilah Nair, a writer and university professor who has returned to her home in Singapore pregnant and unmarried after 15 years in the United States. Shakilah is the object of speculation by her girlhood friend Rose Sim and other neighborhood women and girls of assorted Chinese, Indian, Malay and mixed ancestries including Shakilah's own troubled mother, Valerie, who has secrets of her own. As Shakilah prepares for the birth of her baby, the women experience visitations and sightings of ghosts and spirits. Employing alternating narratives a device paralleled by the book Shakilah herself is writing, which has been rejected by her publisher as having "too many voices" Cheong allows hints of violent undercurrents and tragic events from the past that foreshadow the future. While this subdued unfolding lends itself well to the overall theme, it can be frustratingly coy and slow going; some facts remain puzzlingly opaque and new narrators are introduced to discuss the principals, rendering their stories more distant than might be desired. But Cheong's delicate layering and poetic language rescue the narrative, and there's no avoiding the emotional punch delivered by this lushly exotic story of mothers, daughters, friendship and tragedy. Agent, Alice Martell. (June) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
In her second novel, the Singapore-born Cheong (The Scent of the Gods), who now teaches at the University of Pittsburgh, presents a view of her native land that is exotic and mysterious, even surreal, as she portrays a segment of its culture not often seen in contemporary fiction. Drawing on a centuries-old tradition of belief in ghosts and vampires both benevolent and malevolent, Cheong offers a gripping story told from various points of view, culminating in a surprise ending that keeps the reader guessing. The narrative focuses on Shakira Nair, who had left for the United States many years before and now returns to Singapore pregnant and unmarried without even hinting who the father may be. The story also involves a traditional medicine woman and a ghost child who has been seen prowling the cemetery. Who she really is or was is caught in a snarled mesh of rumor, insinuation, fear, superstition, and prejudice. The novel is told in flashback form and incorporates "Singlish," a blend of the Singaporean language with English, which adds flavor and authenticity to the narrative. A glossary of Singaporean terms as well as popular slang helps to illuminate a story strong in intrigue and mystery and colored by the human tendency to believe what we feel rather than what the evidence presents. Recommended for all public libraries and academic libraries with an interest in diversifying their collections. Michelle Reale, Elkins Park Free Lib., PA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Modern-day Singapore becomes a whispering thicket of ghosts and gossip in a mysterious though in some ways unsatisfying tale. Perhaps as a defense against possible criticism of Shadow Theatre's multilayered voices and personalities, Cheong (The Scent of the Gods, 1991), a teacher at the University of Pittsburgh, makes one of her main characters a novelist whose American publisher is troubled by her latest book's multiple voices: "Don't Americans know how to pay attention to several people talking at one time? They should come sit at a dinner table over here." The story is set in a tightly connected Singapore neighborhood that's full to bursting with history and yet is slowly being subsumed by spiritless modernity. Tongues start wagging when local girl Shakilah Nair, the novelist, returns after many years in America, pregnant and with a scandalously bare left hand. But for all the noise about Shakilah's condition, it is hardly the most notable of things going on: philandering, murder, and abuse, for example, not to mention the ghosts that seem to lurk behind every bush and the stories of vampires and local shamans. Cheong approaches her tale from all angles and by means of many different narrators, including servants, tongue-clucking gossips, and teenaged girls eager for exploration and discovery. All is conveyed in Cheong's musical take on Singapore language, a sing-songy rhythm that from the first page pleasantly engulfs the reader amid a luscious blend of cultures and languages-Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, Catholic, Muslim, animist-that further makes for a seductive setting. If only it were easier to clarify what is taking place: it isn't the many narrators that muddy the narrative, it'sCheong's restless jumping around and her coy way with facts-flaws that don't make for an unpleasant experience, merely an occasionally frustrating one. On balance, skillful work that should appeal to lovers of mystical literature-including Maxine Hong Kingston's Warrior Woman.
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