National Day Books

Malaysia is enjoying a long weekend for the 51st National Day, so Sunday's newspapers are, predictably, full of talk of nation building. It was a lovely surprise to see my friend and erstwhile writing group buddy Soo Choon on the pages of the Star, talking about her cross-cultural marriage.

In a very packed-with-good-stuff ReadsMonthly section the Starmag team journalists compile a list of their 51 best reads esp for Merdeka.

Daphne Lee interviews Bernice Chauly about her work (You can find the full interview on Daphne's blog.) :

Chauly’s poems are deeply personal. They may or may not be autobiographical in detail, but the stories they tell feel like they were shaped by real emotions and memories.

They are Chauly’s emotions, memories and stories, but they also speak to and for women the world over. They are familiar tales, but filtered through the voice of an individual, they defy the cliches of everyday experience and become significant, compelling and unique.

and Ahnaf reviews her collection of poetry The Book of Sins.

There's a write up by Rouwen Lin about the Read While Waiting flashmob event of last weekend.

Janet Tay review Nam Le's collection of short fiction The Boat (and there's a 25% off token!), and KayKay enjoys David Sedaris' When You Are englulfed by Flames.

Vernon Adrian Emaung crossed the causeway for Kee Thuan Chye's The Swordfish, Then the Concubine, which sounds as if it was beautifully staged :

Set in minimalist staging that featured a serambi or open platform for village gatherings, 15 Singaporean actors tackled a story that called for a cast of thousands across two generations – you couldn’t get more epic than that, right? Especially so when you have a gamelan orchestra providing for the peaks and troughs of human drama, the deafening clamour of war, and the crescendo of divine retribution. Music composer Joyce Teo and the Gamelan Asmarada group delivered proficiently on that aspect. The underlying political commentary linked current issues to these ancient myths quite commendably in the writing. Similarly, it was truly fascinating to watch the production draw stylistically from bangsawan (Malay opera), dikir barat, and silat to facilitate and vibrantly colour the storytelling.

It was quite an honour to have a Malaysian play kick off a Singaporean Theatre Festival. How sad I am I missed it. But I do hope it is staged here soon.

Marquez's Tapestry

Verbose, overtly descriptive with meagre smatterings of dialogue, irritating flashes forwards and backwards through time, an annoying amount of foreshadowing, inhumanly long paragraphs leading to chapters of unholy length and what is surely the death blow for a love story: Unlikeable Romantic Leads (She's Cold, He's Creepy)-By all accounts, this reader should have hated Love In The Time Of Cholera.

But surely, slowly and insidiously, Marquez worked his magic, reeling me in when I had no idea of being hooked, an Omniscient narrator not so much creating a world, but convincing me that one exists and inviting me to partake of it's peoples' lives and loves as they live through a change of century, civil wars, modernisation and the titular epidemic.

Our last book club read was Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in The Time of Cholera, and I'd like to point you in the direction of this review on our member KayKay's blog.

I think I have a problem with Marquez. I can acknowledge that he's a wonderful writer and find a delight in the humour, colour and detail. But when I read him I feel as if I have been sucked into a huge and overcoloured tapestry where we are expected to appreciate each stitch. The prose is so cloying he gives me a headache. This isn't my thing. I run screaming for simpler, more straightforward prose.

But KayKay - a lover of the fast-paced thriller - constantly surprises me in his responses. And this is the great thing about book clubs - you let yourself be surprised by books that you would perhaps not have chosen yourself.

Of course the film of the book is now out :

Eight Pages of Booknews!

Wah! The Readsmonthly supplement in StarMag has doubled in size this month. What a great Sunday treat for the book addicted! (Next month we demand 12 pages.)

There's a story by Daphne Lee about a remarkable young man called Gerald Chuah who wrote a book about his favourite actor and films when he was feeling down and depressed in his early '20's. In the Eye of the Tiger: Survival Principles from Sylvester Stallone's Life and Films has finally been self-published by Chuah to coincide with the release of Rocky Balboa, the sixth film in the Rocky series.

The article tells how Chuah managed to pass the manuscript to Stallone when he was in Singapore, and how Jackie Stallone (Sylvester's mum) supported the project, even appearing at the launch with Chua. And now famous motivational speaker and author Bob Proctor has offered to publish the book internationally.

But Tan Siow Chin reviews the book in the supplement but seems decidedly underwhelmed by it. And while I'm so glad that Chuah has the courage to believe in his dreams, I'm horrified to think that anyone would put out a self-published book which isn't properly proofread, let alone carefully edited.

Among the other reviews: Dina Zaman's I Am Muslim is reviewed by Farish Noor, Amirul B. Ruslan reviews Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski (and whilst I don't think the book sounds like my cup of tea, am impressed with the 17 year old reviewer! Keep writing, kid!); Ooi Si Min reviews No Dram of Mercy - Sybil Kathigesu's memoir detailing how she gave medical aid to both civilians and members of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army; and (surprise surprise!) Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil talks about her reading, reveals herself to be a Hanif Kureishi fan (me too!) and reviews very nicely Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb. My dear friend Kaykay seems now to be writing under his real name as Krishna Kumar, and reviews Hannibal Rising.

And there's much much more!

*(The book is also included in Faces of Courage which was until recently a "restricted" book).

Kongrats Kaykay!

Was so happy to spot Kaykay's first ever published book review in StarMag today, giving his take on John Connolly's Lost Things. I poked, prodded and provoked him into sending in a review because he writes so well and I love to hear what he says about books in our Book Club meetings ... particularly when he doesn't like 'em. You really should hear him on Kiran Desai!

You want to write reviews too? Just get to it! The more of you the better.

Related Posts:

Reviewing the Reviewers (19/12/06)

High as Kites

Ugggh! It can't be after 10 a.m. already, can it? I don't know what Sham put in the (delicious!) chocolate mousse last night, but I've only just crawled out of bed feeling like yesterday's left-overs reheated.

(This after two different people told me yesterday "I don't know how you get up so early to post on your blog, day after day"! Sorry to sully my unblemished record. )

Maybe it was brain-burn-out brought on by all the intellectual discussion generated by our reading group meeting last night when Fiction&Friends met to discuss our book of the month at Sham's house - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

For those of you who don't know the book, it is the story of two motherless boys (Amir, the son of a wealthy buisness man in Kabul, and Hassan who is the son of their Hazara servant ) who grow up as inseperable friends. Then an act of violence, which Amir makes no attempt to stop, shatters the friendship. Amir's cowardice continues to haunts him, even after he has fled to America, married, and built a successful career as a writer. He is finally given the opportunity to confront the demons of his past in a perilous journey into war-torn Afganistan.

Extremely readable, the book got a firm thumbs up from everyone. Most had had an emotional journey through it, and used up plenty of tissues. (Though not cynical old me.) We loved the setting, which showed us prewar Kabul and gave us cultural insights into a country most of us know only from news bulletins.

(If you've enjoyed the book, you might like to read Khaled Hosseini's fascinating account of his real-life journey back to Kabul to find his father's house after the book was written, only to find how much art imitiates life.)

The dramatic "sin and redemption" theme, the almost stock-villain Aseef, and the obvious contrivance of the plot twists were explained neatly by my reading group buddies. "It's just like a Hindi movie," they all agreed, and being Bollywood fans loved the book even more for that.

Krishna provided the biggest laugh of the evening when he started talking about the events in "the third-half of the book" and couldn't see why we were all falling about. He should have been born blonde.

Ouch! Let Me Go!

Warning: if you belong to a book club, never ever ever be absent on the night when everyone is discussing the book that YOU chose to inflict on them. Your reputation will be in tatters.

It happened when Sham's choice The Secret life Of Bees came up. It happened Tuesday night when it was the groups turn to discuss my choice Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro which I had thoroughly enjoyed ... and Fiction&Friends ... apparently did not greatly care for.

The following work of fiction was posted on our e-group by our (up that that point) solitary male, our thorn among roses, Krishna Kumar:

In the dimly lit, smoky lounge, 2 women clinked their margarita glasses as jazz music played softly in the background.

"Cheers,darling!" said Sharon.

"To another successful mission accomplished," said Sham, her petite companion.

"Can't wait to hear what they thought of the book."

"Must be ripping it to shreds by now."

"And ripping into me, I shouldn't wonder. Told Krishna I have a do at the British Council. Wonder if he bought it."

"Oh! I'm sure he did. He thinks I'm in Kuantan. A bit gullible that one."

"What is taking that woman so long?" said Sharon with mild irritation.

"Relax. You know.We could have just gone for the book meet and spared ourselves all this suspense."

"Don't you start! Whose brilliant idea was this in the first place? 'Oh Sharon! Let's recommend a book we're sure everyone will hate then not show up but send a spy who reports back everything that was said!' Whose devious brain did this spring from?You started it with the Bee book and I thought I'd get into the act for fun."

"Guilty!" admitted Sham with a sheepish grin.

"Oh! There she is!" said Sharon as Sham turned to see the attractive woman with a traffic-stopping figure* enter the bar, scan the room and then head straight for their table.

"Must have got them fixed," thought Sham glancing at her breasts which were just a tad big in relation to the rest of her.

Hot Babe kissed Sharon and Sham, pulled up a chair and fixed the 2 women with a mega wattage grin. The wattage did not dim when she turned to the waiter and ordered her drink,ensuring its arrival in half the time it would normally take getting to the other patrons.

"Ok girl spill it! We've waited long enough!" said Sharon.

"Aww! Can't I have my drink first?" said Hot Babe who had a voice made to induce erections, but for obvious reasons, had no effect on the impatient women.

"No! You can bloody well start while the waiter with a partial hard-on brings your bloody drink and hope he doesn't drool into it!" said Sharon, visibly annoyed now.

"Chill,sweetie. Ok, here goes. For starters, as you suspected, most of them thought the book sucked."

"HaHa!As expected!" said Sharon triumphantly as she and Sham toasted for the second time joined by Hot Babe a second later, her glass of Long Island Drool clinking the margaritas pleasantly.

"How close were you?"asked Sham.

"At the next table enough to hear most everything," said the babe and then proceeded to pull a notebook from her handbag and started reading:

"Well,Sandra did a good job leading although it was a bit of a chore getting this group to pipe down. Very loud and boisterous with frequent interruptions,especially from the guy."

"Oh, Krishna?" asked Sharon.

"Yeah,pompous windbag who's obviously got an ongoing love affair with the sound of his voice. Sandra had to tell him to shut up at one point."

"Told you we should have kicked him out,Sharon," said Sham.

"He's the only guy we have, darling. And the only one who shows up regularly."

"Well, you may have an alternative. Joanne showed up with her husband.Pleasant, erudite and well spoken chap."

"You're digressing darling, get on with it," said Sharon.

"Sorry,well anyway, Sandra gave some background on Kazuo Ishiguro, his previous books, how they've all been nominated or won some prize or the other but having finished the book she wonders what the fuss is all about. She made an interesting point: There's a seed for a very gripping tale in this book which never comes to fruition. Windbag added that in the hands of a better writer,this tale of students in a boarding school who find out they are clones bred for the purpose of harvesting their organs could have been so much more riveting.Both Muntaj and Sandra agreed that the pace was excruciatingly slow. A major gripe for a lot of people especially
Sandra, Jessica, Uma and Krishna was the passivity of these people. Why doesn't anyone rebel against their fate? Why are they so accepting of the fact that their very purpose of existence was to donate their organs and then die?There followed some comparisons then to the movie "The Island" where a group clones bred in isolation discover their true purpose and 2 of them rebel against the system and how that was a more natural thing given the strong survival instinct inherent in most people."

"The Island huh? That must have come from Krishna.Typical of him to compare a literary work to a brainless Hollywood Blockbuster!" scoffed Sharon.

"Anyway, an interesting insight was given by Joanne and husband,both of whom loved the book: It's a type of Post Modern fiction that doesn't confirm to the linear style of storytelling with a beginning, middle and end.It's a mood piece meant to evoke a feeling, a feeling of helplessness on the part of the reader which could then prompt said reader to question the unsavoury things in his or her own lives which they accept: Bad jobs,relationships,traffic jams, corruption, police brutality, things we know are implicitly wrong but still accept with a passive air of resignation."

"Interesting! Must ask him to come for future meets".

"And then Jessica and Krishna argued that we WILL rebel if there is a direct threat to our own existence, we would fight if we knew our lives or the lives of our loved ones were at stake. As long as things like corruption and bad jobs don't threaten our lives,we'll put up with it. Animah then countered with a point that there ARE people who put up with threats to their lives like illegal immigrants who are frequently harassed and extorted but don't fight back out of fear that they will be deported or killed in a foreign land whose laws they know little about."

"What else?" asked Sham.

"Let's see," said Hot babe turning her pages and scanning them," The characters left most of them cold except Fiona who identified with the narrator and Joanne's husband who could relate to the boarding school environment,having been in one himself ... Animah made a point that she assumed the writing was simplistic, almost childlike as Ishiguro wanted to show the naivety of the narrator, her innocence but expected the writing to mature as the protagonists discover their true fate but somehow the prose never rises above its basic simplicity. Joanne countered the argument that the writing was simplistic by saying that it was a deliberate attempt by Ishiguro to write about something that was truly appalling in a matter-of-fact way, thereby making it even more chilling. Alina was still half way through but likes it so far."

"This lot may put her off finishing it" mused Sharon.

"Sarab and Uma didn't like it as well, wondering what the fuss was about. But Uma said this was still better than the Secret Life Of Bees."

A visible sigh from Sham at this point.

"Oh! One last thing, everyone unanimously agrees you owe a round of margaritas to all, Sharon, as the book didn't walk away with the Booker as you predicted. And Sandra reckons the margaritas better come in jugs on account of the book itself and its failure to engage her in any way," Hot Babe said, getting up.

"Thanks darling, fancy coming to our next reading?" asked Sharon.

Turning on the mega watt smile yet again, Hot Babe replied,"Sorry darling too busy to sit around yakking about books," blew both the ladies a kiss and sailed out of the bar. "Yes, being a tart is a full time occupation," retorted Sharon to the retreating form.

Sham, with a wicked gleam in her eye asked, "So,what do you think girl? Should we pull this stunt again?"

"Let's discuss this over another round of margaritas darling."

*Hot Babe to be played in the film version by Ms. Fishlips Jolie, no doubt.

Jesus Lived in India!

Kumar (our only Book Club guy) sent me a review of a book which is bound to spark some daVinciCode-esque controversy. (How's that for a word coining?)

German author Holger Kersten asserts that we've been getting it all wrong about the life and crucifixion of Christ for a couple of millenia - actually, as the title of the book states: Jesus Lived in India. I leave you to unravel the debate and to make up your own minds about the scholarliness and veracity (or otherwise) of Kersten's claims, but will slip in this link to a dissenting voice.

Intriguing theory though and a book I'd sure like to read.