THE LAW OF SECOND MARRIAGES

THE LAW OF SECOND MARRIAGES
poems by Christine Chia
published by Math Paper Press

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If I had to do it all over again, I would lie to my father. I think he wanted me to lie to him too, but I hadn’t quite perfected the art of lying yet. I’ve been trying to make up for it ever since. Good liars always tell a mixture of truth and lies, and the very best believe their own lies in the end.

“Dark and damaged, and yet so hopeful all at the same time.”

— Cyril Wong

“This has to be one of my favourite poetry collections in recent times: The Law of Second Marriages by Christine Chia. I noted: ‘The poems are wound and compact, speak of various cruelties not with woefulness but almost crystalline dispassion. Even if an episode was histrionic, its narration was shrewd and sober.’ This is a poet who can write about pain like a draughtsman using pin on skin.”

— Alfian Sa’at

“Although I knew it wasn’t ‘the unequivocal truth’, I was moved by Christine Chia’s ‘family psychodrama’ which was engaging, entertaining and at times a little shocking.”

— Suchen Christine Lim

“Spare, honest, coherent yet uncalculated, emotionally unrelenting without the emo, this is Singapore’s best recent example of the poetry of memoir.”

— Alvin Pang