Okay.[Review 1 - 05/05/17.]

An anthology of stories through time and places in Singapore, with stories from different decades from the lenses of people of all ages. I enjoyed some shorts over some others, but they generally left a sense of bookish emptiness (that I liked) in well written prose. Nostalgic for people who've seen Singapore through the ages (especially with frequent notes on construction) and rather eye-opening for youngins like myself. Would definitely check out the other anthologies in the series!

This book is a collection of short stories, collected by, and edited by Verena Tan. The criteria for authors is that they have lived in their respective Singaporean neighbourhood for over a decade. Most are Singaporean authors, at least two are expats who have lived long term in Singapore.There is no specific central theme, but most recall childhood, or memories of the neighbourhood and how they change over time.As usual with these types of collection, there are a little hit and miss.The ones wh...

I've visited Singapore few times and wondering how the people and places actually are. All I know, Singapore is business country, or well-designed country, or country for out-comers. But, somehow I feel there is something missing about Singapore as a place.I recommend to feel it as much as possible when reading this book. They (the writers) gave stories about space where they used to be -something that missing and where still exist in the present time. All of that are written in fictional short-...

Balik Kampung 2A is a strong entry within my favourite Singlit short-story series, anchored in the individual relationships forged with space. Unlike other books in the Balik Kampung series centered on a particular region, stories here need not reference any individual neighbourhood, even as the reflexology parlours (Joshua Ip’s ‘Peace is a Foot Reflexology Parlour’) or police stations (Shelly Bryant’s ‘Enough’) are necessarily bound by their localities. This entry does not feel like a residual

I read one review that said wrote that the stories all resemble one another and I got a little apprehensive about reading this. The rating when I looked it up on Goodreads was also less than 3.5 (one of my criteria when deciding whether to start a book), so I'm doing my part rating it a 4/5, to bump it up a bit.Some of the stories each succeed in capturing the atmosphere of a particular part of Singapore. I can't confirm all of them because I'm not familiar enough with some parts of Singapore. T...

Warm and heartfelt :)

Balik Kampung - "return to village" - a phrase that's existed in the aural landscape of my life since I was little. In many ways, returning to Singapore after being abroad is difficult. There is disconnect, there is confusion about what building a home means, and whether the country I find myself moving through is still that - my home? This is something I struggled with coming home on my breaks from school, and though there was normally a period of adjustment, I always found it funny how as soon...

Ostensibly, the motif for the eleven short stories in this book is based on several districts around Singapore. If there is a unifying theme to be found, it is probably somewhere between nostalgia and loss. The authors' vignettes are competently written, but almost universally decline to address the bigger question that they all seem to raise, that is, how is a personal connection to a location altered when that area undergoes a drastic transformation? Through these stores, we see protagonists c...

I thought this was a mediocre collection of short stories, or a collection of mediocre short stories – while the writing quality was mostly decent/good across the board, the stories didn't vary much in tone, subject, setting, or quality. Additionally, I thought the stories lacked good editing – scenes in the stories didn't feel thoughtfully chosen, and in many of the stories I found myself questioning the point of scenes / events that didn't seem to add to the piece.

Simple stories that evokes memories of my growing up years and also reflecting the situation I am in now...returning for the family and always feeling lost at all the changes and developments that has happened and still happening all around!

Even in a country as small as Singapore, it amazes me how much you can be ignorant of despite growing up there and spending more than half your life there. However, that's probably true of most people. We traverse the same circles most of our lives. It's also fascinating to see my birth country from different perspectives and time frames. Many of the stories are well-written little gems of fiction. A few are mediocre but altogether a lovely collection. Highly recommended for its nostalgic factor...

Lovely as always <3 I think this is the second book from the Balik Kampung series that I read, yet I never got bored of it! There's always comforting presence in every story, as if I'm hearing a story around the corner of my neighborhood. I guess I'll never get bored of these 'neighborhood tales' :)

A collection of 11 short stories that started out really impressively. The first 6 stories were powerful reads, but I think this book peaked after Cyril Wong's sharply poignant "The Mistake" . I felt like the remaining half of the book simply lost steam, with stories that slowly faded into forgettable, clichés about Singapore. A disappointing end for what otherwise started as a very promising read about this strange island.

I couldn't find the first edition of Balik Kampung (prior of this book) when I visited Singapore last time. But to read the 2A could make your heart feel content. Why I said so? All the stories are related between people and places. Something to Remember, the last title of 11 short stories even could bring up your memory on how to rekindled time and space and the limited of memory. However, my favorite one is written by Cyril Wong. She could bring her childhood memory when she lived in Bedok. A

I thought this was a mediocre collection of short stories, or a collection of mediocre short stories – while the writing quality was mostly decent/good across the board, the stories didn't vary much in tone, subject, setting, or quality. Additionally, I thought the stories lacked good editing – scenes in the stories didn't feel thoughtfully chosen, and in many of the stories I found myself questioning the point of scenes / events that didn't seem to add to the piece.