Blog Archives
A Captivating Fictional World
Pivot Turns to Freedom follows a Singaporean ophthalmology trainee who builds a life in 1990s England beyond the expectations of his family and profession. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
We live in a society where reputations are built through public recognition. In the Asian society in which I grew up (Singapore), taking risks is frowned upon. People have ceased making their own decisions since it’s simpler to listen to their relatives or meet their imagined society expectations.
This inspired me to create a young protagonist who is following a typical professional career, which is frequently viewed as a secure and respectable path, but tries to prove to his family and the rest of the world that he is capable of more than what they expect of him. Life’s choices can be devastating, and picking a fig from a tree can mean forgoing the others. Someone attempting to avoid making a decision might be viewed as unmoored or daring, and either way is fascinating to me.
What first drew you to combine the worlds of ophthalmology and competitive ballroom dancing in the same novel?
Combining two improbable settings results in a captivating fictional world. Ophthalmology is the most competitive area of medical/surgical training. Competitive ballroom dancing, at least in the 1990s, was the most elite, ostentatious sport I knew of. Blackpool’s champions rarely change until they retire. They have more than just technical skill and stamina, and newbies have little chance of reaching the top at this level of competition.
At the same time, no team sport requires more mutual understanding and collaboration than ballroom dancesport. These are attributes that are diametrically opposed to my protagonist, who is defined by one-upmanship. Thus, his voyage is certain to be lonely and exciting, and finding a suitable dancing partner will be the most difficult thing he has ever attempted (particularly before the internet). By putting him in an improbable confluence of these realms, he will undoubtedly experience the type of tension that makes for a compelling story.
Leonard often misjudges the people around him before gaining greater self-awareness. Why was it important for his growth to come through those mistakes?
Leonard makes poor judgments because he lacks communication skills and is overly self-absorbed. Many individuals in the actual world are wondering, ‘What does it mean for me if I do this with you’? This self-centered viewpoint is even shared by world leaders.
With each defeat, Leonard simply thinks that he isn’t working hard enough, which is a prevalent attitude among people in our generation. In the narrative, this continues until the conclusion, but his arc is foreshadowed by little episodes in his interactions with others. These gradually strengthen his realization, but it is not until the “dark night of the soul” that he sees that true triumph comes from working with others rather than beating or controlling them.
If Leonard could offer one piece of advice to his younger self, what do you think it would be?
Hey, friend, winning is more than just medals.
Pivot Turns to Freedom
Louis Tong’s Pivot Turns to Freedom is a coming-of-age novel about Leonard Pan, a Singaporean ophthalmology trainee who moves to England in the 1990s and starts building a life beyond the expectations of his family and profession. Leonard’s work takes him through hospitals in Great Yarmouth, Sunderland, and Nottingham, but ballroom dancing becomes the real thread holding the story together. What begins as a private interest grows into a competitive ambition, complete with demanding coaches, changing partners, financial strain, injuries, and a troubling sponsor who turns encouragement into control. The novel follows Leonard across four years and thirty-nine chapters, giving his search for freedom plenty of room to develop.
Leonard is an entertaining narrator because he’s restless, observant, vain, insecure, funny, and frequently wrong about other people. His medical training shapes the way he sees everything, so dance movements become anatomy, hospital routines resemble choreography, and personal problems are treated like conditions he can diagnose. That habit creates much of the comedy, but it also reveals his central weakness. He’s so intent on proving himself that he sometimes treats dance partners, colleagues, and friends as pieces in his personal success story. The book’s most satisfying movement comes when Leonard begins to understand that freedom isn’t simply getting away from his father or winning medals. It’s learning to make choices without being ruled by pride, resentment, or someone else’s approval.
The novel has something in common with Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, since both stories follow a protagonist who leaves familiar surroundings to pursue a dream and gradually discovers that the journey is changing him in ways the original goal couldn’t predict. Tong’s approach, though, is grounded in the awkward details of adult life: temporary contracts, immigration limits, petrol costs, aching feet, difficult personalities, and the challenge of finding someone willing to practise on a Tuesday evening. Leonard’s dream isn’t presented as a clean spiritual calling. It’s tangled up with ego, family history, loneliness, attraction, and the desire to be noticed. That messiness makes the book feel more like a personal memoir shaped into fiction than a polished fable.
The book’s strongest quality is its specificity. The medical scenes, British regional settings, Singaporean family dynamics, and technical descriptions of ballroom dancing give Leonard’s world a distinctive texture. At times, his elaborate observations slow the pace somewhat, and the late psychological mystery involving Joseph adds an unsettling note that I didn’t feel was fully resolved. Still, that ambiguity suits a novel about a man who’s spent years misunderstanding both himself and the people around him. Pivot Turns to Freedom is ultimately a warm, eccentric story about ambition becoming perspective. Leonard reaches the competition he’s chased, but his more meaningful achievement is recognizing that a full life depends on collaboration, gratitude, and the freedom to value the people beside him.
Pages: 280
