SOURCE: “A People's Poet,” in World Literature Written in English, Vol. XVII, No. 2, November, 1978, pp. 598-603.

In the following laudatory review of Gods Can Die, Singh deems Thumboo “undoubtedly the most powerful voice of literary consciousness in his part of the globe.”

Those of us who are familiar with the literary scene of Singapore will applaud the appearance of Gods Can Die. Edwin Thumboo is today undoubtedly the most powerful voice of literary consciousness in that part of the globe, and it is gratifying to note that after a lapse of twenty-one years he has once again decided to put his poems together in a book. Rib of Earth (1956), his first collection of poems, revealed a poetic talent rare in one using an acquired language to express himself. Over the years Thumboo has not only ably fulfilled the promise so clearly shown in that first volume, but has...