Episode 1294: Babette's Feast Is Brilliant!

Couldn't get to sleep last night, so I started reading the Babette's Feast chapbook series from Math Paper Press. Am halfway through the 10 chapbooks, and so far, I haven't been disappointed (although the first, Jason Wee's My Suit, probably could have done with more proofreading to smooth out some of the awkward tense shifts). In fact, I think what Kenny and Karen have started with this series has the potential (and deserves) to put Singaporean writing on the global map. That's the level of the quality of the writing! Alvin Pang's What Gives Us Our Names is one of the best things I've read. Ever. That's saying a lot because I don't usually get all superlative about the stuff that I read. There's a powerful simplicity to Pang's writing that transforms the chapbook into a very moving experience, reminiscent of say, Italo Calvino's writing in Invisible Cities. Anyway, I managed to survive the Easter service on about three hours of sleep, and then a couple of us had lunch at Arun's and just hung out for pretty much the rest of the day. It does mean I'm pretty exhausted now, so I might crash soon, in the hope of shifting my sleeping patterns back into something resembling normal hours.