Friday December 21, 2007
A tale of suffering
Review by SARAH CHEW
The Girl with the Cardboard Port
Author: Judith L. McNeil
Publisher: Exisle Publishing, 247 pages
THE cover of this book shows the naked back of a woman. Curiosity raised, I picked it up.
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Poverty drove her mother to seek help from Judith’s aunt in Brisbane, Australia, and to accept living with an abusive man. At 14, Judith was made to work. Then, her aunt sent her to a Catholic rehabilitation school for delinquent girls, where she faced abuse by the strict Sisters.
When the opportunity arose for her to hop off to Sydney with her friend, she left. Here began her ordeal of rape, pregnancy and an unfulfilling marriage to a Singaporean student who gambled uncontrollably.
In Singapore, she had to contend with the unfamiliar tradition, culture, values and taboos of a Chinese family. She recalled with humour the shock of discovering squat toilets, bed bugs, and corpse-eating rats but also painted the uglier side of a society fraught with racial prejudices and hostility.
Judith’s stranger-than-fiction account of her life weaved through the fabric of Singaporean and Malayan culture during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is a refreshing new look at history from the eyes of a foreigner.
Painting a backdrop of a patriarchal society where race, status and gender govern daily life, she revealed how women had to struggle for survival.
Judith’s writing would not pass off as a great literary work; at times, the descriptions of events and circumstances are clumsy. The pull factor here is the honesty with which she tells her experiences. Hers is a tale of raw emotions rather than inspirational or extraordinary feats.
To think that this is a true story can be depressing for readers, but it is also intriguing. If you seek to be provoked about the issues of the world or need to be reminded on how lucky you are, this could be the book for you.
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