The stories' order

•The Father •The Marriage

•Paper •Adeline Ng Ai Choo
•The Teacher •The Chosen One
•Miss Pereira •Monster
•Lottery •The Taiman's Story
•Male Child •The Jade Pendente
•Properly Married •The Ugly One
•The Journey
•Love
•Eggs
The setting is Singapore of the 1950s to the
1970s, before the recent technological and
globalization changes came into effect. Thus,
many of the elements of the lifestyle of
Malaysia, from which came our fair share of
earlier immigrants, are evident in the stories.
Each of the 17 stories is crafted around the
idea of irony, an unexpected turn of events
which exposes the contradictions inherent in
life or human nature.
As for the introduction to each story, Catherine
Lim plunges the reader straight into the
narrative without much preamble, and the
theme is obvious right from the beginning.
“Paper” for instance starts with the direct statements on
Tay Soon’s yearning for a house: “He wanted it; he
dreamed of it, he hankered after it, as an addict after his
opiate”.
STYLE (USE OF VIEWPOINT)
Most of the stories are told from the third-
person point of view where the omniscient
narrator can give the reader a sweeping view
of the events and characters and leave him to
draw his own conclusions.
USE OF HUMOUR
Irony inevitably involves poking fun at people and
situations, very often to the point of caricature and
gross exaggeration.
IMAGERY
As the themes are concerned with survival, materialism
acquisitiveness and the maintenance of customs and
traditions, the imagery is to do with food, money,
houses and jewellery.
The stories' order

•The Father •The Marriage

•Paper •Adeline Ng Ai Choo
•The Teacher •The Chosen One
•Miss Pereira •Monster
•Lottery •The Taiman's Story
•Male Child •The Jade Pendente
•Properly Married •The Ugly One
•The Journey
•Love
•Eggs
Little Ironies of Singapore
• It was first published in 1978, in Singapore, by
Heinemann under the Writing in Asia Series and
earned for the writer much accolade. It is Lim's first
published book of fiction.
Catherine Lim Poh Imm
• Born in Malaysia (March 21, 1942)
• doyenne of Singapore stories
• accomplished and critically acclaimed author who
has published a dozen collections of short stories,
five novels, two volumes of poems and even a
play.
• began as a teacher, then was a project director
with the Ministry of Education, became a
specialist lecturer with the Regional Language
Centre (RELC), and finally became a full-time
writer in 1992.
Catherine Lim Poh Imm
• best known for her collections of short stories, particularly Little
Ironies: Short Stories of Singapore and Or Else, The Lightning God
and Other Stories
• Lim’s work deals largely with Singapore and Singapore Chinese
culture
• inspiration for her stories comes from her ironic sense applied to
her personal life experiences, particularly her childhood in Kedah.
Many characters and stories are drawn from childhood memories,
the people she has encountered and things she reads. She finds
the irony in human relationships and spins narratives from this into
her stories
The Teacher”. Even though this story is one of the shortest, it is easily my favourite narrative from the
entire collection. In summary, it highlights the superficiality of an English teacher who pedantically
focuses solely on his students’ language abilities – revolving around the grammar, structure, et cetera
of their essays – without comprehending the content. His oversight and insistence blinds him to a
student’s indirect distress signals of trouble in her family, and coldly dismisses her ambitions and
honest plans for the future. It sends a simple message of how teachers can – and should – assume
the roles of educators and mentors for their students and kids.
My favourite quote from “The Teacher”. “She was supposed to write a story with the title ‘The
Stranger’ and all she did was write me a great deal of trash about her father … this composition is not
only grossly ungrammatical but out of point … she actually jumped down from the eleventh floor? Such
a shy, timid girl. If only she had told me of her problems. But she was always too shy and timid to
speak up”.
Is there something wrong with the education system? Both “The Teacher” and “Adeline Ng Ai
Choo” revolved around the degree of stress in the education system, and how different individuals
have to juggle varying degrees of pressures and expectations from their families. More importantly, the
rigidity of the system and circumstances stifles ours students, and does not provide sufficient avenues
or platforms for students to speak up and express their emotions. Teachers and parents should not just
focus on results and academic performance per se, and concern themselves more sincerely with the
emotional development and growth of their students or children.