Interview: Shih-Li Kow, on ‘Ripples’

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First published on 5th July, 2009 in The Star

shih-liIN 2007, Silverfish Books published News from Home, a collection of short stories by three Malaysians, Chua Kok Yee, Rumaizah Abu Bakar, and Shih-Li Kow.

The writers were participants of the Silverfish Writing Programme, and had been chosen to contribute to the anthology because they showed promise and commitment. Each had a different style of storytelling, but Kow’s stories stood out as the most original and interesting, and also because her voice was the most confident and natural of the three.

A year later, Kow published Ripples and Other Stories, a collection of her own, to critical acclaim locally. On Monday, that acclaim became international when Ripples was shortlisted for the world’s richest short story prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.

The winner of the £35,000 (RM175,000) prize will be announced on Sept 30, at the culmination of the annual Frank O’Connor International Short Story Festival in Cork, Ireland, which begins on Sept 16.

The other titles shortlisted are An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah; Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower; Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy;Singularity by Charlotte Grimshaw; and The Pleasant Light of Day by Philip Ó Ceallaigh.Read More »

Book Review: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr

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hitlerFirst published on 19th April, 2009 in The Star

IT’S funny how one sometimes avoids reading a book for no reason other than it’s not yet the right time to read it. I know other avid readers will know what I’m talking about. It’s what keeps one buying books although dozens sit unread on one’s shelves.

I’m forever in pursuit of the perfect read – the trouble is I keep recognising potential perfect reads, future perfect reads. It’s impossible to tell which book will keep me riveted on any given day until it actually does.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Puffin Books, 192 pages, ISBN: 978-0142414088) by Judith Kerr is a book that I have “avoided” for years. I love Kerr’s picture books, but somehow never felt inclined to pick the book up. I didn’t even see it as a “potential” good read. Goodness, was I wrong!Read More »

Book Review: Anonymity by John Mullan

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AnonymityFirst published on 23rd November, 2008 in Star2

ANONYMITY
By John Mullan
Publisher: Faber and Faber, 374 pages

AS a journalist (lately a freelance one) I have never published work anonymously but have done so using various pseudonyms. My reasons have included the desire to disassociate myself from what I consider hack jobs, and to avoid trouble in instances when the subject matter might be deemed controversial. Pseudonimity may be as effective as anonymity when used to hide the identity of the author.

Many classic works of literature were first published without their author’s names or under false names. It was so common to publish anonymously or puedonymously in the 18th and 19th century that a Dictionary of the Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature of Great Britain was published in 1882 – begun in the 1850s, it ran to four volumes when finally completed. In 1934, additional volumes were published and in 1962, the final edition numbered nine volumes in all. Even so, the book does not list works whose authors’ identities have not been revealed – and a quick search online will reveal that there are many famous quotes that remain anonymous.

In Anonymity, John Mullan explores why many authors of English literature chose to publish anonymously. He looks at the different circumstances and motives behind authors’ decisions to hide who they were; the effect an author’s anonymity had on his or her readers; and the reaction of the public and press when the author’s identity was finally revealed.Read More »

Book Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

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graveyardFirst published on 12th Oct, 2008 in StarMag

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK
By Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell
Publisher: Bloomsbury, 289 pages

THIS BOOK opens with a murder – three murders, actually – and yet, I would call it a comforting book. A man, Jack, is sent to kill a family of four, including two children. The opening paragraph contains the description of a knife, its handle and blade wet with blood. But, yes, on the whole, a warm and fuzzy book.

The title doesn’t suggest a cozy story. Neither does the cover (a thin and ghostly woman astride a pale horse haunts the back).Read More »

Book Review: At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman

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At LargeFirst published on 9th September, 2008 in StarTwo

AT LARGE AND AT SMALL: CONFESSIONS OF A LITERARY HEDONIST

By Anne Fadiman

Publisher: Allen Lane

(ISBN: 978-1846140433)

MY FIRST and only other encounter with Anne Fadiman was several years ago when I came across her essay collection, Ex Libris, at a warehouse sale. Priced at RM6, the slim red paperback volume, which bore the gold-tooled picture of a girl reading while seated on a pile of book, was impossible to resist, not least because its backcover blurb described it as a “book of essays in celebration of bibliophilia” (I bought 10 copies to distribute to book-loving friends).Read More »

Interview: Bernice Chauly, on ‘The Book of Sins’

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An edited, shorter version of this interview was first published on 31 August, 2008 in The Star

 

bernice 2By DAPHNE LEE

SOME of her poems make me feel uncomfortable,’ said a friend of mine to whom I’d given Bernice Chauly’s poetry collection, Book of Sins.

She didn’t mean that the poems were bad, simply that she felt that they revealed things about her – secret, painful things that she never thought any one else would share let alone understand.

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, not simply imagined emotions, and of course 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.Read More »

Book Review: A World of Wonders by J. Patrick Lewis

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First published on 13th July, 2008 in The Star

world of wonders

I NEVER enjoyed geography lessons when I was in school. All those names! All those terms! They didn’t seem to have anything to do with my life. If only I’d had J. Patrick Lewis’s A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme to bewitch and encourage me!

What an excellent resource for those who wish to introduce children to geography. Hmm … how dubious that sounds! Would any child be interested in the ‘study of the earth and its features and of the distribution of life on the earth, including human life and the effects of human activity’ (www.dictionary.com)? Put that way, probably not.Read More »

Book Review: Sayang Pantun, compiled by Azah Aziz

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sayangSAYANG: PANTUN & SELOKA KANAK-KANAK
Compiled by Azah Aziz
Illustrator: Dzulkafli Buyong
Publisher: MPH Publishing, 96 pages

A LARGE colourful book caught my eye in a local bookstore last week. Sayang: Pantun & Seloka Kanak-Kanak is a collection of old Malay nursery rhymes and songs, compiled by Azah Aziz and illustrated by Dzulkafli Buyong.

I recognised many of the rhymes in this book (for example Timang Tinggi-tinggi, Oh Bangau! andGendang Gendut) from my childhood, , but I also noticed the exclusion of some of my favourites, like Waktu Fajar Saya Bangun, Bangun Pagi and Tek-tek Bunyi Hujan.Read More »

Book Review: Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls

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ways to liveFirst published on 6th April 6, 2008 in StarMag

WAYS TO LIVE FOREVER
By Sally Nicholls
Publisher: Marion Lloyd Books, 200 pages

IT was hard for me to read this book because it’s the story of a little boy who’s dying of leukemia. Not only do I suffer agonies reading anything that describes children suffering, I also happen to have a son who has congenital heart disease. He has already had several operations to correct his heart deffects, and he is on longterm medication, but he’s not an invalid and you wouldn’t guess, to look at him or watch him play, that he has a problem. He was diagnosed at birth and has lived his 11 years knowing that he isn’t like his friends. He is quite matter of fact about it, only ocassionally expressing irritation that he has to remember to pop pills thrice a day and not to exert himself physically. When he was born, his dad and I were told that he wouldn’t survive for more than a month if he wasn’t operated on right away. But even after corrective surgery, Elesh’s chance of survival isn’t certain.

I guess one of the worst things about being the parent of a child who has a serious health problem is knowing that you might well outlive him. Because of how I feel about Elesh, I could totally identify with Sam’s dad who is in denial. For a parent of a sick child, denial could be seen as a form of hope even if it is hope that’s not based on reality or hard facts. It flies in the face of the truth or, rather, it turns its back on the truth. It waits for a miracle or to wake up one morning to find, like Pamela Ewing did in Dallas, that it was all just a bad dream.Read More »

Interview: Sufian Abas

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sufian-abas1First published on 30th March, 2008 in The Star

SUFIAN Abas is a sulky young man who smells like freshly-pressed laundry. He takes stunning photographs … but (it is said) they are nothing compared to his beautiful, detailed work in cross-stitch.

He tap dances. He enjoys skinny-dipping. And climbing trees. He loves horses, especially unicorns. He dislikes children, but thinks they might be delicious curried, or roasted and served with carrots and potatoes.

Sufian claims that he was once nearly murdered by a witch.Read More »