The utterly gushing e-mail below was posted in two of the e-groups I subscribe to. It was honestly too much to deal with before breakfast and if I sent back a lees-than-polite reply, then I'm sincerely sorry, but it was a bit like holding a red rag up to a proverbial bull.
You see, I gave
The Rice Mother a more than fair chance. I paid good money for a copy and pushed my friends in the reading group to include it as out next must-read. We must support Malaysian writers, I said. And I was frankly thrilled that a local writer had managed to make good.
But the book was a terrible disappointment.
As I remember (its's more than two years since I put it down) the characters were shallow, the storyline melodramatic, the plot sagged so badly about two-thirds of the way through that all of us found it an uphill struggle to finish, and for a novel that was supposed to be set in Malaysia, there was damn little local colour - it was clearly written by someone who didn't know the country terrbly well and hadn't bothered to engage a researcher to plug the gaps in her local knowledge. And the factual errors which littered almost every page - she even gets the name of the country wrong, the currency of the time wrong, species of wildlife that don't exist ... (I scribbled notes all over my copy - the first time I've felt angry enough to actually deface a book!). Our reading group meeting that night was hilarious, I don't think we've ever had so much fun rubbishing a book.
How did the thing get published? And how on earth did it get nominated for a Commonwealth Writer's Prize?
What sells clearly is exoticism. The West want to see Malaysia as a place of mystery and magic, and if a writer can pander to that, then so much the better.
And then this exoticism is shrink-wrapped and packed and sold right back to an Asian audience.
Better still if the writer looks suitably exotic herself (as we've seen with writer such as for e.g. Zadie Smith, Jhumpa Lahiri, great looks don't hurt when it comes to selling copies.)
Hmmmm .... all the above is of course sour grapes, particularly from a writer who has no hope of selling a book based on her exoticism 'cos she looks like the back end of a bus.
The one thing that I must not forgot is that she actually did it: she put in the slog and hardwork and she got her novel finished. She believed in it enough to submit it for publication, and she worked to pull the rabbit out the hat again with a second novel. Congrats are due for that certainly.
I believe that there are many much more talented writers in Malaysia ... but the talent needs to be grown and encouraged.
Truly happy for the Malaysian author Rani Manicka that her second novel,TOUCHING EARTH has been placed on Borders (Oxford Street),London branch's limited list of inspired Christmas gifts which means, her book is currently being displayed in steady piles, right up front on Border's celebratory showcase.
And her book is also on Waterstone Picadilly's listing of Christmas gifts. You also spot numerous TOUCHING EARTH book covers, first thing when you walk into Blackwell's on Charing Cross. I haven't been anywhere else yet. Just got here last week. But you can't miss these fabulous sights. Just how much an author in Britain would long for such coveted shelf space and our Malaysian novelist has got hers as easily and smoothly as a hand sliding into a fitted glove.
Besides, lots and lots of people in England buy books for Christmas stockings.
In fact, the shopping's started already.
Of course, Rani knows nothing of TOUCHING EARTH's delightful journey
skywards.
Or the fact, that she is doing so ok on the british book scene.
She is currently, on a remote beach in Malaysia, putting the final touches to her third novel, which commands a looming London deadline.
Recently, a profile/literary book review/photo story of Rani Manicka appeared in Waterstone's highbrow quarterly magazine (autumn'04issue) where the journalist welcomed her on board to its crowd of literary (literary AND NOT commercial/general)writers in London.
The book reviewer also good-humouredly suggested that the Malaysian Tourist Board consider recruiting Rani as its ambassador as she is recognished as the sole writing voice in Britain at the moment, from malaysia.
I'm glad the journalist pointed out this fact.
Some of us do tend to claim accolades that aren't there.
A couple of Malaysian authors who did try to make it on the British book scene a few years back appear to have quite significantly been snuffed out like hesitantly-flickering lamplight, sadly leaving a trail of ambers and ashes that (where even those remains) are quickly swept away, within months of a debut arrival. Not
surprising when you understand how excruciatingly competitive the publishing industry is, in England and Europe today.
I read that the the Malaysian author Aneeta Sundararaj of THE Banana Leaf Men had claimed in a portal for self-published authors called, Authors' Den that her book had met with worldwide success and had been sold out throughout the world.
I think allegations like these can prove highly dangerous especially if someone like me, decides to do a little detective work.
Let me clarify that if you're published in New York, your agent needs to sell the rights separately to the UK which happens consistently except that the period of publication differs.
Vice-versa if you're in London. Literary agents have twin offices on both sides of the coasts nowadays so this is easily done. They hire staff just to handle American rights while another one may handle foreign rights.
When you say, foreign rights, its often Europe or the Americas(South/Latin) etc. This is done at book fairs like the famous Frankfurt Book Fairs or the London Book Fair where european publishers come over to strike/negotiate good deals for british
publications. They deal with literary agents who would have set up booths at these fairs. This is how books get published in so many places, at one go.
So how can a self-published author (one-man-show) make such an outrageous claim?
It is a bit like the tale of King Solomon, trying to discover the rightful mother of an abandoned baby. Two women made the same claims.
So here in real life, how does it lend credibility and integrity to the authors whose books may really have been sold out throughout the world with regards to those who own self-published efforts but have yet to see the light of day beyond a few curious onlookers and loyal enthusiasts.
There should be a prominent distinction between one who avoided agents/publishers like medicine and the other who dared.
And with regards to this, I do believe that local journalists, should check on facts, before publishing such claims.
When I was in Australia, no one in Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide had heard of the Banana Leaf Men. The book wasn't stocked anywhere.
Also, in London, no prominent bookshop I know has heard of it.
I believe, to this day, Rani is still recognised as the sole Malaysian writing voice, fast making her name in Brtain and Europe.
THE RICE MOTHER has been sold in the USA and also translated into 13 European languages. TOUCHING EARTH which has only recently been published has already been bought by four european countries.
Where actions speak louder than words perhaps the safest line to draw credibility/integrity to an author's accomplishments where a certain distinction has been called is to let the journey/sale of a book speak for itself. And not for an
author to make claims without the right numbers, statistics, dates etc.
I'm glad for us as Malaysians, that the worldwide sale/display of TOUCHING EARTH as it was with THE RICE MOTHER before it, speaks louder than words to achieve a unique and successful identity here in Britain, even without the efforts or knowledge of the author herself."
By
Susan Abraham
Travel Writer
Current Destination:
London, England.
The regional winners of the Commonwealth Prize have been announced, but are not yet up on the official website. (Will append them as soon as.)
The region's best novel prize went to Australian Christos Tsiolkas who won against some very stiff opposition. His novel The Slap :
Jhumpa Lahiri won the Europe and South Asia Heat Best Book Award with Unaccustomed Earth, her collection of stories which has been sweeping all before it, and was praised by the judges for its :
Mohammed Hanif won in the first book category for his novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes :
