Present In The Past

Award-winning Singaporean writer O Thiam Chin’s latest novel, The Dogs, chronicles history will always stay with us even as time passes.

- Derrick Tan

“It’s human to live life your own way, ignoring everything else. Sometimes the choices you make to live in a certain way can screw the other stable things in your life, but what can you do?” O Thiam Chin regards the mechanics of existence.

In his newest long-form fiction, The Dogs, O maps out life’s purpose through Guan—the middle-aged man revisits his childhood after moving back into a flat that once belonged to his late father who sold it off before his demise. Flashbacks follow and Guan reminisces a friendship with Heng Chong and the stray dog they’ve adopted.

Set in 1950s Singapore, this tale focuses on Guan’s perspective and his desire to tie loose ends that baffled him back then. In doing so, he also unexpectedly attains a clearer understanding of his present predicament and learns to cope with his own losses and find ways to redeem himself from his past acts. Through this exploration, Guan finds optimism in solitude faced currently and a new life he’s rebuilding with hard-won resilience and fortitude.

Unlike O’s past acclaimed novels that involve a number of protagonists, The Dogs centres on a solo lead that allows him to fully realise the retrospective idea of this story. Details aren’t perfunctory. Although he first conceptualised it in 2017, O has constantly returned to this piece and honed its narrative intricately before sending it to publishers.