Booked Out: The Singapore Grip’s conflicts remain sadly familiar

J.G. Farrell’s colonial classic mirrors the racial divides that continue to plague Malaysia today.

Certain books, read at a certain time, have a way of paralleling real life to the point of almost seeming prescient. Such was my experience as I read The Singapore Grip, J.G. Farrell’s brilliant novel set in 1939 Singapore, when the unsuspecting British Empire’s rule in Malaya is about to be toppled by the Japanese invasion.