samj 's review for:

The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew

5.0

---

This was kind of nuts. An incredible oeuvre and a tour de force. The fictional biography of hypothetical Singaporean artist Charlie Chan becomes a lens through which Malay cartoonist Sonny Lieu is able to explore the history and development of post-war Singapore in a truly unique manner- a series of period comic homages. Liew's artistry and storytelling prowess is on full display-- he executes picture-perfect parodies of every art style from pulp science-fiction to Pogo to Little Nemo, MAD magazine and Frank Miller. The story itself is heartbreaking, and fundamentally intertwined with the emotional loss of a national identity has been suppressed. I don't think any dry account of Singaporean politics could ever have made me empathize with their history quite like this novel. This is a dense masterwork worth returning to again and again.

Also I just realized that I read a uncorrected proof edition of the book and the published edition is in FULL COLOR. Now I'm definitely going to have to read it again.