Sarong Party Girls

Angela Lin's command of Singlish--English as spoken in Singapore--showcases her skills as a narrator. Not only does she establish characters and create a strong atmosphere, but she does so in a patois that draws heavily from several other languages. Yet everything makes perfect sense, thanks to her spot-on delivery. Jazzy and her best friends are rapidly approaching the age at which they really ought to be married--or at least engaged--or, at the very least, have a steady boyfriend. So far, only Sher has gotten married, but no one wants to talk about that. So Jazzy comes up with a plan: The girls need to get serious about settling down. But for these Singapore party girls, that is far easier said than done! K.M.P. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

October 1, 2016

Jazzy is still single at almost 27. When her BFF-quartet lost Sher to the dream they all aspire to--marrying an "ang moh," a wealthy Western expat, because local Singaporean men "are a bit fussy" about "older girls"--Jazzy decides she needs a strategy to achieve such privilege and power through an international match. Still living with her parents and working as a newspaper editor in chief's assistant, Jazzy spends most evenings with her remaining BFFs as sarong party girls on the hunt. Fueled by materialistic pressures and too-easy hedonism, Jazzy and crew drink, dance, flirt, and audition potential suitors with varied results. Tan's debut novel, following a memoir, A Tiger in the Kitchen, is seemingly meant to be light entertainment, although underlying issues of race and class can't be ignored; that Jazzy and friends target wealthy white men as would-be saviors is an all-too-familiar, albeit disturbing, trope. VERDICT Flaws aside (self-absorption and overpartying quickly induce eye-rolling tedium), Tan's work gets a spirited boost from narrator Angela Lin, who embodies Tan's Singlish--"the patois that most Singaporeans speak to one another"--with energetic, pitch-perfect intonation, making Lin the real life of this imperfect Party.--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2016
One young Singaporean woman's meandering journey toward self-actualization.The so-called Sarong Party Girl, Jazzy, is on a mission with her friends Fann and Imo. Before she turns 27, she wants to find an ang moh--white, foreign--husband with whom to have the most enviable accessory, a "Chanel baby." The plan is fivefold: be "chio," meaning attractive--skinny, fair, preferably dimple-cheeked; behave differently from other women providing only one or two nights of excitement; be interested in ang moh interests beyond "laugh laugh drink drink wink wink"; know the enemy--"China girls...Filipinas...other SPGs...ang moh girls"--who may try to "potong" eligible men; and know the best places to go for pickups. Jazzy makes her way through the often shocking after-hours world, which, at its mildest, includes sexual harassment and infidelity and, at its cruelest, includes KTV lounges where men have their pick of willing professionals and parties where wives stand by as husbands sample sex toys with the young girls who work for them. What she comes to find, secondary to a husband, is herself. Tan (Singapore Noir, 2014) offers a fascinating insight into Singapore's club scene and social castes, and she does so in an irreverent, likable voice made more notable for its patois, Singlish--the unique mix of English, Malay, Mandarin, Hokkien, Teochew, and more. For example, describing the sort of undesirable attention the girls receive in Marina Square, "if you have two nice-looking girls sitting outside McDonald's--walao, Ah Bengs confirm will suddenly damn steam." After the turbulence of Jazzy's journey, the final message is a positive one.A rowdy tale, memorable language, and a very distinctive protagonist.

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