exemplified the dull rigidity of Singapore’s old colonial fantasies about itself. - Jonathan Lethem

Her fiercest sincerities were translated by the male ego, on arrival, into daffy flirtation. (p. 24)

This was before cell phones. The desolate spaciousness between humans, between human moments, not yet filled in with chattering ghosts of reassurance. You could hear yourself not think.

I guess they needed a maze in Japan, where everything's neat and tidy. In America everybody's already wandering around lost.