MY SISTER MEDA, A MEMOIR OF OLD SINGAPORE
is based on direct experiences. The book describes growing up in colonial
Singapore in a Sephardic Jewish family in pre-and-post WW2. My family was part of a Sephardic Jewish
community, an enclave of settlers from Baghdad who came to Singapore in the 19th
century in search of freedom and prosperity from persecution in Iraq. My sister was key to our exodus from
Singapore at a time when the island was going through political difficulties.
After leaving Singapore, I traveled extensively as a flight attendant with Trans World Airlines,
studied yoga, and in the 1970s developed a program that dealt with modern
stress. Growing up in early Singapore, I was influenced by the many different
cultures of Singapore’s population. An interest in Buddhism later led to
an exploration of Zen and Chado, practices that continue to influence my
life.
My published books include: Wife, Just
Let Go: Zen, Alzheimer’s, and Love (2017, a duo-memoir with my husband
Robert Briggs (then diseased) of my experiences in caregiving as he struggled
with Alzheimer’s. I’m also the author of Tea and Ceremony: Experiencing
Tranquility with an introduction by Deng Ming-Dao (2004), The
Common Book of Consciousness, Taking charge of your life through diet,
exercise, and meditation, introduction by Kenneth
Pelletier (1991), and Four Hands: Green Gulch
Poems (1987). My poems of haiku and tanka are published
in New Bridges: a Haiku Anthology (2018) as well as other
Journals including Cattails and Moonbathing.
I’ve received many positive reviews on MY
SISTER MEDA, A MEMOIR OF OLD SINGAPORE among them are:
“My Sister Meda, A
Memoir Of Old Singapore, is a story that’s
visual, engaging, and memorable, a story about family, human relationships and
love in a once British colony. Saltoon, who’s family was part of the Baghdadi Jewish
diaspora seeking a safe harbor in Singapore, describes the island’s beauty, its
multicultural attractions and cuisine, from
the bright colors and rich spices of Serangoon Road, to the ritual and solemnity
of the local Synagogue (now a national monument). She then shows a darker side of Singapore, the
Japanese occupation and internment in Sime
Road Camp during WW2 where she and her family were imprisoned. But it is her sister Meda, who later,
through an unusual chance correspondence to a man she falls in love who changes
their lives. Her marriage to an American
in Hawaii paves the way for an exodus of the family to a new life in the Unites
States at a time when Singapore was transitioning from British rule to
independence.”
-
Dr. Kenneth Pelletier
"Diana Saltoon has
accomplished the near impossible: the weaving of family and history without
becoming sentimental. She faces the hardships of pre-war Singapore, all the
while weaving not one but many family stories. My Sister Meda: A Memoir of Old
Singapore sheds light on the little known world of the Japanese occupation of
Singapore. The family's internment in the Sime Road Camp and her recounting of
the Sephardic Jewish experience belongs in every public and school library
across the globe."
- Terry Ann Carter
From Publishers
Weekly:
"With careful research and elegant prose,
Saltoon pays moving homage to her family in this memoir of Sephardic Jews in
the colonial Old Singapore. Saltoon tells the story in evocative scenes (“she
promised him the best satay in Singapore, if not the world, served by a humble
Malay vendor called Jalak out in an open-air site off the road”) and occasional
poetry, tracing the family’s origins and capturing the texture of daily life in
a Short Street townhouse in a neighborhood “of Chinese, Malays, Eurasians, as
well as other Mahalla Jews.
The inevitability of
World War II, though, looms over the island colony, and Saltoon offers
illuminating background about international politics of the era as well as
eye-opening accounts of life in internment camps during the Japanese
occupation. Saltoon’s story opens with the origins of her parents, with mother
Girjee, renamed later as Grace, born in Baghdad, and sent to far-off Singapore
to marry. Little was expected of Nassim, her father, who was afflicted with a
stammer and uncontrollable trembling, as he entered adulthood in a Jewish home
in Singapore. Their union, the result of a matchmaker, produced not only
several healthy children but a confident couple of high standing within their
community. Saltoon beautifully lays out her parents' lives, and Grace stands as
an example of strength as she persists in her sewing, catering, and envisioning
of a grand future despite her worsening vision.
Saltoon’s sister, the
beloved Meda of the title, eventually pulls the family from conflict zones and
camps with the help of her American husband. Readers follow alongside each of
the adult children as they find love and purpose in their lives. Detail into
the family’s transition as they fled the East and transitioned into Western
life comes through insightful correspondence, revealing their feelings about
these changes in real time. This memoir is an act of history and of love."
Takeaway: The fascinating history of a Jewish
family’s life in Old Singapore.
Comparable Titles: Joan Bieder’s The Jews of
Singapore, Marvin Tokayer and Ellen Rodman’s Pepper, Silk and Ivory.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A-
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
Print Date: 05/01/2023
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