★★★★
★★★★½
★★★★
★★★½
★★★★
The parts I appreciated touch on the experiences of children and grandchildren of immigrants in Europe. The socialisation of dehumanisation—with a quick sampling in racist children’s songs, the German version of rock-paper-scissors (if you point it out to them they say, ‘What? That’s what Chinese sounds like’), television … Read more
★★★★
★★★
★★★★
★★★★
I’m really into well-formatted language-learning textbooks and this is one. It’s not visually busy which blights many modern textbooks, it’s colour-coded sensibly so that pertinent information is accessible at a glance, and the exercises are helpfully reinforcing.
★★★★
★★★★
★★★
★★
I resented having to read through the chapters that presumably were to humanise the superintendent. We learn that he’s never had the capacity to socialise with other men, has lived in cellars too long, but at the same time he has absorbed the misogyny of our culture just … Read more
While I’m into Manglish, it’s a dragging chore to wade through stilted, pompous fantasy-speak. On top of that, referring to the female of the species so insistently is eminently irritating. It’s hard to stomach fantasy when one creates a world of dragons and fairies and … Read more
Believably melodramatic until the absolute betrayal in “The Two”.
★★★★
