Books: “This Could Be Home” by Pico Iyer

A sweet book on the rich history of the Raffles hotel, of Singapore, and of course, of Somerset Maugham. The book made me long to sit in the hotel’s courtyard and sip on a cool gin drink. Pico Iyer’s prose is beautiful, rhythmical yet carries weight, weaving personal accounts and historical facts seamlessly. I am excited to read more of his work.

Four years ago, almost to the day, my family and I moved to Singapore. I hadn’t a chance to visit the Lion city prior to the trans-pacific relocation. Driving along from the airport into the city, I took in all I could see of this new place. I had a then two-year old son on my lap, and his heat was the same heat as the day, (and every day since). I gazed at the tropical greenery intertwined with concrete, the clothes hanging from apartment blocks, and its people taking exercise in community parks. Tandem motorcyclists zipping through traffic, and Uncles with long brooms on their rickety bikes. It all seemed somehow ‘cohesive’, for lack of a better word, and I thought then, “something magical will happen here.” My experience echoes that of the author’s, along with others who share their tale; and perhaps I had the travel-writer’s patron ghost with me. Engulfed in the humidity like a blanket, we thought – “this could be home.”

For those who say they find the city-state unstimulating, I have no time for. Singapore’s magic is hidden, but clumsily, like how a child hides in their game; all you have to do is seek, and it is everywhere.

“The new Raffles is not your grandmother’s Raffles, in short, any more than the city around it is your father’s Singapore. As I look around the Long Bar, I can imagine I’m keeping company with an elegant great-aunt, who’s seated quietly in one corner of a cocktail party, while smooth young executives in expensive suits push themselves forwards to dazzle one another with talk of their futures. The beauty of her presence is that she radiates poise and style and wisdom even when she’s doing nothing. The deeper beauty is that she’ll never be young or old.”

“ ‘There is nothing much to see in Singapore,’ a sailor declares in one story. To which another says, with every kind of insinuation, ‘I’ve found plenty.’ ”