Book Review: Tropical Madness by Marc de Faoite

15228 +00002014-02-09T07:07:52+00:00282014b+00:00Sun, 09 Feb 2014 07:07:52 +0000, 201611031 +00002021-07-08T03:10:10+00:00312021b+00:00Thu, 08 Jul 2021 03:10:10 +0000, 2016 Daphne LeeLeave a comment

First published on 2nd february, 2014 in The Star

TROPICAL MADNESS

Author: Marc de Faoite

Publisher: Fixi Novo

I OFTEN tell the Malaysians who come to my creative writing classes to write about Malaysians and to give their stories a Malaysian setting. To me, not writing about ourselves is a wasted opportunity. There is not much Malaysian literature in English and I feel that fiction about Malaysians and Malaysia should, by and large, be written by us. We can’t expect others not to tell our stories but we must do so as well.

When a foreigner writes a Malaysian story, the focus shifts. And I feel the same about Malaysian stories published by international publishing houses. In the latter case, the books are being written with a foreign audience in mind. The authors (and publishers) might feel compelled to over-explain some things, play up others. In the former case, foreigners naturally don’t think and feel the same as Malaysians. They don’t have the same insight or concerns or baggage so it’s not possible for them to create convincing Malaysian characters. When I read a Malaysian story written by a non-Malaysian (be it Frank Swettenham or W. Somerset Maugham, Anthony Burgess or Paul Callan) I feel that they are telling their version of things and it makes me wish that there were more Malaysian versions to redress the balance. As Chinua Achebe said, ‘Although the work of redressing which needs to be done may appear too daunting, I believe it is not one day too soon to begin.’Read More »

Book Review: Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales

14028 +00002014-02-01T05:54:40+00:00282014b+00:00Sat, 01 Feb 2014 05:54:40 +0000, 2016 Daphne LeeLeave a comment

First published on 26th January, 2014 in The Star

RAGS & BONES: NEW TWISTS ON TIMELESS TALES

Author: Various

Editors: Melissa Marr & Tim Pratt

Publisher: Little, Brown

I DO love a good re-telling of an old tale, and I like collections of reinterpreted stories because it’s interesting to see how different writers tackle the task of re-presenting classic stories. In fact, I would like to read a collection in which the focus is just one story. For instance, the legend of Mahsuri told by the 12 different authors. How unique would each version be? What aspects of the tale would each author choose to highlight? From whose point of view would each account be told? Would readers recognise the source of these reinterpretations? Would the stories be repetitive and boring? I think not, so long as the authors are chosen for their distinct styles and perhaps even according to the genre they specialised in. Just imagine, the versions might include a sex-and-shopping Mahsuri by Jackie Collins; a murder mystery by Michael Connelly; and maybe something with vampires from Anne Rice. How about it, Little, Brown? Random House? Fixi Noir?

Interview: Isa Kamari

12731 +00002014-01-19T05:22:27+00:00312014b+00:00Sun, 19 Jan 2014 05:22:27 +0000, 2016 Daphne Lee1 Comment

First published on 14th January, 2014 in The Star

isa-kamari IN mid-2013, Silverfish Books published three books by Singaporean author Isa Kamari. These novels, A Song of the Wind, Rawa and 1819, were originally written and published in Malay (Memeluk Gerhana, Rawa and Duka Tuan Bertakhta), and the Silverfish editions were translated by editor and publisher Raman Krishnan (Song, co-translated with Sukmawati Sirat).

All three books are set in Singapore: 1819, which focuses on the relationship between Sir Stadford Raffles and the Muslim saint Habib Nuh, depicts the island at a time usually described (in much less lively and colourful detail) in text books; while readers under 50 would find it hard to picture the Singapore (of the 1950s, 60s and 70s) portrayed in Song and Rawa.Read More »

Purple Prose

10131 +00002014-01-13T06:37:01+00:00312014b+00:00Mon, 13 Jan 2014 06:37:01 +0000, 2016 Daphne LeeLeave a comment

uncle1 Gosh, I can’t believe I forgot about this reprint of all six of J.P. Martin’s Uncle books.

We have Marcus Gipps to thank for this edition. Read more here. You can get your copy at Amazon

If you’re not familiar with His Purple Highness, here’s a a piece I wrote for my column:

First published on 8th February, 2009 in The Star

“UNCLE is an elephant. He is immensely rich, and he’s a B.A. He dresses well, generally in a purple dressing gown, and he often rides about on a traction engine, which he prefers to a car.

He lives in a house called Homeward, which is hard to describe, but try to think of about a hundred skyscrapers, all joined together and surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge over it, and you’ll get some idea of it.”Read More »

Book Review: The Hole by Øyvind Torseter

15331 +00002013-12-08T06:50:53+00:00312013b+00:00Sun, 08 Dec 2013 06:50:53 +0000, 2016 Daphne LeeLeave a comment

First published on 1st December, 2013 in The Star

A HOLE is whole with something missing, and not just the letter “w”. When my best friend leaves after a long, food-filled visit, she leaves a Jenny-shaped hole in my life. When I left my desk-bound job I felt, acutely, a desk-shaped hole in my life, the desk-shape representing a regular routine, a steady job, financial security.

We see holes as empty spaces needing to be filled. Our initial reaction to them tends to be negative. Better to be whole than to have a hole, right? Who wants to be empty, to be missing something or someone, a purpose or a plan?

There is a hole in Øyvind Torseter’s book. Literally. It’s die-cut right through, from the front cover to the back. You can peep through it and, no matter how sophisticated you think you are, you will find it hard to resist playing peek-a-boo. Read More »

Book Review: More Than This by Patrick Ness

12330 +00002013-11-01T04:50:23+00:00302013b+00:00Fri, 01 Nov 2013 04:50:23 +0000, 2016 Daphne LeeLeave a comment

First published on 27th October, 2013 in The Star

NESA, my friend and fellow-book junkie, said recently that the right books always come along just when they’re needed: “I wonder how they know?”

More Than This by Patrick Ness was the right book for me last week. I received a review copy a month ago but only started reading it when I remembered the review (which you’re reading now) was due. Incidentally, Ness’ A Monster Calls is always the right book. It makes me cry. And cry. And cry. And it always feels so good, so cathartic.

More Than This … it turned out to be an unexpected antidote to a psychic punch in the solar plexus. It’s about a boy, Seth, who drowns and then wakes up in the house he lived in as a child. At one point he wonders if he’s in hell: Something happened to Seth when he was eight years old and living in that house, in England. It was something terrible – so terrible that the place might well qualify as the setting for Seth’s own, personal hell.

Book Review: Open This Little Book by Jesse Klausmeier, with illustrations by Suzy Lee

15131 +00002013-10-31T06:39:51+00:00312013b+00:00Thu, 31 Oct 2013 06:39:51 +0000, 2016 Daphne LeeLeave a comment

First published on 24th October, 2013 in The Star

I LOVE matryoshka dolls, those Russian dolls of decreasing size that fit one inside the other; Chinese boxes, and any nested containers, including those colourful plastic ones that are a staple of most modern playrooms. The concept appeals to me because it’s practical and neat. Everything fitting together is artful yet ingenuous, and there’s something very cosy and safe about the nesting concept. However, there is also that suggestion of complexity, of layers, of stories told from different points of view, of narratives within narratives.Read More »

Book Reviews: The Day the Crayons Quit & If You Want to See a Whale

12330 +00002013-09-30T06:42:23+00:00302013b+00:00Mon, 30 Sep 2013 06:42:23 +0000, 2016 Daphne LeeLeave a comment

First published on 23nd September, 2013 in The Star

THIS week, two picture books published this year that are my favourites so far and seem unlikely to be beaten by any late contenders (it’s already September after all, and I rarely like Christmas books). The first is laugh-out-loud funny and plain adorable. The second is a quiet, gentle story that’s perfect for bedtime. Both are, partly, about a child’s capacity to imagine and dream.Read More »

Book Review: A Song of the Wind by Isa Kamari

13730 +00002013-09-15T05:57:37+00:00302013b+00:00Sun, 15 Sep 2013 05:57:37 +0000, 2016 Daphne Lee1 Comment

a song of the wind First published on 8th September, 2013 in The Star

FINALLY, a local (regional) coming-of-age story teenagers can really sink their teeth into!

A Song Of The Wind by Isa Kamari probably wasn’t written for teenagers, but this book, translated by Sukmawati Sirat and R Krishnan, and recently published by Silverfish Books, is just the sort of “young adult” book I’ve been waiting to see on Malaysian bookshelves.

It’s set in Singapore, spanning the 1960s to 1980s, and tells the story of Ilham, the eldest of four children who live in Kampung Tawakala, a village near the Brown Hill cemetery, which still exists although it closed in the 70s – there’s even a Bukit Brown MRT stop.Read More »

Book Review: The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr

11031 +00002013-08-01T04:53:10+00:00312013b+00:00Thu, 01 Aug 2013 04:53:10 +0000, 2016 Daphne LeeLeave a comment

First published on 28th July, 2013 in The Star

YOU may know that one of my favourite books of all-time is Virginia Euwer Wolff’s The Mozart Season, and that I love reading all books about the performing arts (or any of the arts, really). Call it the wishful thinking of an adult who did not have the typical opportunities afforded most middle-class, urban Malaysian children, including music and/or ballet lessons.

The lives of young dancers and musicians fascinate me: The talent, the passion, the dedication, the discipline. The Mozart Season is about a young violinist, Allegra; and I have also reviewed here, Four Seasons, the story of Ally, a conflicted teenage pianist. Two years on, and we have Lucy Beck-Moreau, the 16-year-old protagonist of The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr.

daphne lee

writer * editor * coach