Karim at Times

Karim Raslan will appearing at Times, Pavilion KL this Sat (24th) at 3.00pm to talk about his books, Ceritalah 3 and sign copies. (My previous post about the book is here.)

Dark Prognostications?

Karim Raslan very kindly invited me to the launch of his latest compilation of essays at Valentine Willy Fine Arts last night. This, the third book in the Ceritalah series is subtitled A Dream Deferred, and is a compilation of columsn from The Star, Sin Chew Jit Poh and Sinar Harian. This from the publishers blurb :

(It) charts Dr Mahathir Mohammad's departure from office and the rise of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. it goes on to chronicle the latter's astounding victory in the 2004 polls followed by the gradual decline in his administration's fortunes, concluding with the historic March 8, 2008 general election and its epochal implications. Traversing the country, Karim chronicles the hopes, dreams and fears of Malaysians from diverse backgrounds, weaving their views into his frank, unsparing essays. The nation possesses enormous potential but the current challenges are just as great. Karim talks about the dream of better, fairer and more open politics - a dream as yet, deferred.

At the press conference Karim described the book as more gloomy, much darker than the previous volumes. Malaysia wants change, needs change, but is still waiting for that change to happen. And it isn't easy for the politicians to deliver it. Malaysians expect to be able to deliver their views more, Karim said, but the government are not used to people speaking out, and he believes that we are entering a time of more control. Malay and Chinese versions of the book wil be launched soon, and he will be compiling another book - this time about Indonesia. He is now also writing for The Jakarta Globe. The guests at the launch included politicians from all sides including Nik Aziz, Zaid Ibrahim, Nik Nazmi, Khairi Jamalludin, and Nurul Izzah whom I was chatting to for a while before I realised who it was. (Me socially inept.) It was very nice to meet friends, including from publishers Marshall Cavendish. The nibbles by Alexis were very good too.

Asia House Festival and Tash's UK Launch

Britain will be celebrating its first major literary festival dedicated to Asian writing in May. The Asia House Festival of Asian Literature runs 11-22 May and features over over 25 authors,
highlighting writing from ten Asian countries.

Some of the writers appearing :

Amit Chaudhuri, Sir Mark Tully, Hardeep Singh Kohli, Ziauddin Sardar, Kamila Shamsie, Nadeem Aslam, Christina Lamb, Alice Albinia, Kenan Malik, Patrick Cockburn, and BBC journalists Frank Gardner, John Simpson and David Lyon.

There are also some pre-festival events and these include the UK launch of Tash Aw's book Map of the Invisible World on May 7th, where the author will be interviewed by Karim Raslan. If you happen to be there (and I hope to be) let's go give the fellow a big cheer.

Kam the Cover Boy!

Kam Raslan is today's cover boy in Starmag, interviewed by Dzireena Mahadzir. The book is doing very well indeed for a locally published work of fiction. (I believe that it has sold about 4,000 copies to date and is still on the best-seller lists.)

The secret of its great sales? According to the publisher (Marshall Cavendish) the blog-coverage has a lot to do with it! Yipee!

But Kam has also worked incredibly hard to promote the book through readings in bookshops and writers' gatherings (the most recent being the readings Bernice organised at No Black Tie last Sunday) and he's about to launch the book in Singapore. (The bookshops down there seem to feel the book belongs in the social anthropology or history section!)

His new website has been brought into being by Reza and Chet, and I'm sure you will agree is excellent. (As I was saying, every author needs web-presence.)

Kam's response in the article to a question about whether non-Malays were equally well able to relate to the book interested me:

... Kam says the book isn’t just popular with the Malays. ... “One of the reasons why non-Malays get annoyed with Malays is because there is actually something very attractive about the Malays – they are graceful and gracious people, very likeable and civilised.

So when non-Malays see Malays acting ugly and aggressively, it’s a double disappointment. So I wanted a character who, in many ways, embodies the very civilised traits and qualities that non-Malays find attractive.”

Still, non-Malays see their own versions of Datuk Hamid, and many have told him so. “There are a lot of Indian and Chinese Hamids too, because back in that time, due to the education system, people had the same values and tastes, regardless of their race.”

It was really nice to see the family photos accompanying the piece.

I think Kam looks like his father (Mohamed Raslan Datuk Abdullah, who was tragically killed in a car accident in 1971), and I love this photo of the brothers together as kids in London 1969. (From left to right, Karim, Johan and Kam.)

The Kam Karim Konundrum

Kam Raslan's much awaited first novel Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato’ Hamid Adventures is due out next month. Chet got the first pic of the book cover, while Antares interviews the author on Kakiseni.

Kam mentions in the interview that he is often mistaken for his two older brothers, Johan who is the chairman of PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Malaysia, and Karim, who is also a successful journalist and fiction writer:

All three of us look quite similar, so I’m constantly being mistaken for one or the other. If somebody says they’ve read one of my articles in the paper, I’d wait to see if they liked it. If they did, then I’d take all the credit -- but, if they didn’t, then I’d say: “I think you’ve mistaken me for my brother.” Sometimes I don’t bother to correct them at all, because it might embarrass them. On one occasion, I happened to be standing next to a notable Tan Sri, who told me that he had decided to award his company’s business to me. I really didn’t know what to say. Unless he wanted me to wash his cars, I really couldn’t have been much use to him. I think I shouted “Fire!” and ran away.

One of the organisers of the Ubud Readers and Writers Festival was totally confused when I mentioned Kam in an e-mail and wouldn't believe that Kam wasn't Karim until I sent photographic evidence that there were indeed two author brothers with very similar names!

Okay, now the quiz question for you is which is which?