Chin's writing, although sparse at times, vibrates with an emotional current invoked easily in a few words. I am in awe. ( )

I devoured the book slowly in one sitting. In some way I can't really explain, I loved it. The prose is uncomplicated and unpretentious and somehow in a simple way, spellbinding. His characters are also endearingly, seemingly simple, with an almost banal sheen to their lives. Their desires and griefs seem uncomplicated, and perhaps all the more relatable in a way we might not have paid attention to.
As if the stories spoke to our very nature; stories as real, as humble, as important to us as the very air.

I didn't really expect to enjoy the book but found that I really did. The first story "The Cat That Disappeared" was a strong opening which I thought was quite representative of O Thiam Chin's style -- a very compressed but telling silence. He jumps back and forth the timeline for a few of the stories, but I think he does it quite elegantly. He does turn the gaze of the reader to the details, and he does explain things with some length, but the power of his telling lies very much in suggestion. He writes around the obvious fact; the unsaid; the elephant in the room of the heart.

I enjoyed "The Years" and "Third Eye" the most, along with "At the Suvarnabhumi Airport" which I felt had such a brilliant ending -- So little is said about the wife in that story, but she knows everything, or at least enough, of what is going on in the protagonist's head which readers are privy to. "The Last Voyage" & "Swordsmen" stuck out too sorely in the collection, being set in a completely different timeframe, the latter having all of the explanatory detail but really none of the subtlety and silent, mournful gaze that his strong short stories have. I've read his novel "Now That It's Over" and prefer his short stories a lot more. Perhaps his writing is best employed in the form of the short story.

My honest rating would actually hover between a 3 and a 4, but since it would be closer to the 4 (like 3.7 if I want to be exact) I'll give it 4 stars. ( )