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    Sarong Party Girls: A Novel
    Sarong Party Girls: A Novel
    Sarong Party Girls: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Sarong Party Girls: A Novel

    Written by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

    Narrated by Angela Lin

    3/5

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    About this audiobook

    A brilliant and utterly engaging novel—Emma set in modern Asia—about a young woman’s rise in the glitzy, moneyed city of Singapore, where old traditions clash with heady modern materialism.

    On the edge of twenty-seven, Jazzy hatches a plan for her and her best girlfriends: Sher, Imo, and Fann. Before the year is out, these Sarong Party Girls will all have spectacular weddings to rich ang moh—Western expat—husbands, with Chanel babies (the cutest status symbols of all) quickly to follow. Razor-sharp, spunky, and vulgarly brand-obsessed, Jazzy is a determined woman who doesn't lose.

    As she fervently pursues her quest to find a white husband, this bombastic yet tenderly vulnerable gold-digger reveals the contentious gender politics and class tensions thrumming beneath the shiny exterior of Singapore’s glamorous nightclubs and busy streets, its grubby wet markets and seedy hawker centers. Moving through her colorful, stratified world, she realizes she cannot ignore the troubling incongruity of new money and old-world attitudes which threaten to crush her dreams. Desperate to move up in Asia’s financial and international capital, will Jazzy and her friends succeed?

    Vividly told in Singlish—colorful Singaporean English with its distinctive cadence and slang—Sarong Party Girls brilliantly captures the unique voice of this young, striving woman caught between worlds. With remarkable vibrancy and empathy, Cheryl Tan brings not only Jazzy, but her city of Singapore, to dazzling, dizzying life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJul 12, 2016
    ISBN9780062472434
    Author

    Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

    Born and raised in Singapore, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan is a New York–based journalist and author of A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family, and edited the fiction anthology Singapore Noir. She has been a staff writer at the Wall Street Journal, InStyle magazine, and the Baltimore Sun.

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    Reviews for Sarong Party Girls

    3/5

    25 ratings4 reviews

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    • 2/5
      fiction--sort of a "sex in the city" for Singapore, except that the women don't really have any opportunities for high-powered careers--none of the characters, male or female, are portrayed all that favorably, though the narrator does progress a little at the end. It's also written in kind of a pidgin-like "Singlish" vernacular which is kind of annoying until you get used to it.
    • 2/5
      I went into this book not expecting a super developed plot but a fun beachy read. Unfortunately this book is just not my cup of tea. Nothing grabbed my attention, I didn't love the main character, and the whole book felt a little aimless. I did like the setting of Singapore, and there were elements that I usually enjoy (20-somethings who party all the time and deal with drama), but overall it just lacked oomph.
    • 3/5
      Sarong Party Girls is the first fiction novel by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, a New York City-based food and fashion writer who was born and raised in Singapore.The term ‘Sarong Party Girl’ is a largely derogatory reference in Singapore to women who exclusively pursue Caucasian men as romantic partners, spurning ah bengs (Chinese/Singaporean men), whom they generally hold in low regard. Tan’s protagonist is 26 year old Jazelin (aka Lin Boon Huag) who is on the hunt for the ultimate Singaporean status symbol, an ang moh husband, but competition is fierce, and Jazzy isn’t getting any younger. She, along with her closest friends Imo and Fann, spend almost every night in Singapore’s exclusive clubs and bars hoping to meet the man of their dreams. Provocatively dressed, they dance, flirt, drink, and sometimes sleep, with any western man who looks sideways at them. But as Jazzy steps up her campaign to win the affection of a suitable ang mah, she is slowly forced to reconsider the lifestyle she has chosen.Not being familiar with the Singaporean culture I appreciated reading a book set in the country. I have heard a few stories from people who have spent time in Singapore that seems to confirm at least some elements of Tan’s portrayal of the city’s nightlife, including the behaviour of Sarong Party Girls, and the exploitation of women in both personal and professional arena’s. I was surprised to learn of the apparent social acceptance of girlfriends, mistresses, and even second families, for married Chinese/Singaporean men.I really don’t see any similarities between Jane Austen’s Emma, and Sarong Party Girls as suggested by the publisher, other than the general desire of the women for an advantageous match in marriage. If there is an Austen character whom Jazzy resembles at all, it’s probably Lydia in Pride and Prejudice who is so focused on the idea of gaining status and wealth via marriage, she ignores the reality of the choices she makes in pursuit of her goal.The element I probably most enjoyed about Sarong Party Girls was the Singlish patios used, which I found easy to decipher with context. The rhythm seemed natural and helped to illustrate both character and setting.A glimpse into a culture quite different from my experience, I liked Sarong Party Girls well enough, it’s well written, and entertaining.
    • 2/5
      Razor-sharp and vulgar but also vulnerable, almost twenty-seven-year-old Jazzy comes up with a plan. By the end of the year she and her three best friends, Imo, Fann and Sher, will, following spectacular weddings, be married to rich ang moh (Western, white expat) husbands, be living in luxury and be looking forward to designer (“Chanel”) babies. As this story follows her quest to make these dreams a reality, it explores the political, cultural and social divides in Singapore and the aspirations of a young woman who doesn’t want her life choices to be limited by her background. I hadn’t expected to struggle as much as I did with this book and have to admit that I picked it up and put it down on several occasions and seriously considered just giving up on it, mainly because I found it difficult to feel anything other than irritated by the main character! I recognise that although in many ways she was well-portrayed, her superficial, frivolous attitudes throughout most of the story were far too reminiscent of the distorted expectations which are fuelled by celebrity culture and “reality” television shows! I also disliked the many ways in which Jazzy’s attitude towards other women was so often judgmental – there was little sense of much sisterly solidarity! Towards the very end of the story she did show signs that she was beginning to value what’s really important in life and in relationships, but I would have liked to know more about how she would go on to develop her newly-acquired insights! Much of the story is told in Singlish (a mixture of English and Singaporean slang) and although I soon adapted to its distinctive cadence and was able to understand most of the Singlish words by the context within which they were used, there were some words which I needed to look up in order to be sure of their meaning. I’m sure that this contributed to my difficulty in feeling able to enjoy a “seam-free” reading experience – a glossary would have solved this particular problem! What I did come to enjoy were the rather cutting observations of life in multi-layered Singapore, with its deeply entrenched social and gender divisions and the exploration of the difficulties faced by anyone, but particularly women, who want to break free from such well-established restrictions. Unfortunately, there were times when I felt the author was inclined to hammer home these frustrations and difficulties – “less is more” is usually a more effective approach! Also, the fact that the frothier, chick-lit aspects of the story-telling often felt equally over-stated, meant that this was a book which held a lot of promise which it didn’t quite manage to deliver. However, there are several themes which could make this an interesting choice for groups to consider.My thanks to Readers First for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.