Foreign Bodies

Tan's lucid and wide-ranging first novel is a memorable portrait of disenchanted and feckless youth, a narrative that gains indelible resonance as the plot unfolds. Mei, a young Singaporean lawyer, is called upon to defend her British boyfriend, Andy, an English teacher who has been unjustly identified as the head of a gambling syndicate and may face a severe prison sentence. The only conclusive evidence found in Andy's apartment is a Filofax listing the names and phone numbers of the key operatives in the alleged syndicate. We discover, through Mei's narration, that Andy is a failed womanizer, and that their mutual friend Eugene, who comes to Singapore to protect Andy's innocence, is dangerously amoral. Mei shows a tough but caring attitude as she struggles to rectify the mistakes of both her boyfriend and her fiscally irresponsible mother--and to preserve her own ethics in a mercurial world. Andy, who alternately narrates, is intelligent but apathetic, enthusiastic but unfocused--a hapless lighting rod for the injustices awaiting him. Tan shifts tones expertly as she jumps back and forth between these two dominant voices. Eugene also narrates, contributing his own disturbing commentary to the trickle of revelations that soon indicate a host of secrets (foreign bodies) that each character hides. These rudderless figures pick up--and drop--various panaceas for their angst, including Christianity, Taoism and drug abuse. Their casually bandied references to such Western cultural icons as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Beavis and Butthead and George Michael give a rich texture to this multilayered work. Tan's worldly wise, dark humor animates every page, but she runs the risk of betraying characters' integrity, as when Andy complains that his imminent incarceration will keep him from his favorite video game. Are today's youth this out of whack? After Mei confronts a searing memory from her past, this seductive novel moves with furious grace to a transcendent conclusion. (Jan.)