Book review of "No Man is an Island: a portrait of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew" by James Minchin, Allen and Unwin, Sydney

Abstract

[Extract] James Minchin's No Man is an Island is based on a thesis he presented to the University of Melbourne. First published in 1986, the version reviewed here is an update with most of the new material in 35 added pages under the heading "Postscript: Five Years On." It purports to fill the gap between Alex Josey's "hard to digest" Lee Kuan Yew l (1968) and T.J.S. George's "hatchet job," Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore 2 (1984). For this reviewer, reading No Man is an Island has proved easier for his first having read the others. Minchin tends to assume a level of familiarity with Singapore politics and society by his readers which is unlikely to be possessed by all but a few specialist scholars and, of course, inevitable in such a small nation, the gossip loving Singaporeans. However, Minchin does not expect his book to be on sale in the City State, which is surprising because the more directly critical Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore is.