Another Pile Of Books

On Monday, all the full-time editors made a trip to the book distribution arm of the company for books. I never knew the third floor of the complex had a warehouse.

Walking past boxes of The Da Vinci Code and other assorted books, we arrived at the office, an air-conditioned enclave partitioned from the warehouse area.

Something tells me I won't have to go far to get some review copies.

It was good to see another part of the company, and even better to get free, no-strings-attached books. Some of what I got were galley proofs, but that's okay. Better than lying on the floor covered in dust and what I suspect is guano.

• How to Lose a War
  edited by Bill Fawcett
  Harper (2009)
  356 pages
  Non-fiction
  ISBN: 978-006-135844-9
• War
  Sebastian Junger
  Fourth Estate (2010)
  286 pages
  Non-fiction
  ISBN: 978-0-00-733770-5
• The Sherlockian
  Graham Moore
  Twelve (2010)
  350 pages (galley proof)
  Fiction
  ISBN: 978-0-446-57588-1
• Rescue
  Anita Shreve
  Little, Brown and Company (2010)
  291 pages (galley proof)
  Fiction
  ISBN: 978-0-316-02072-5

How to Lose a War was okay, though the humour was somewhat deflated towards the end. Perhaps it would've been better not to retain much of the original authors' voices.

I also learnt that I won't have to do Ann Patchett's State of Wonder for the papers; they ran a wire review for it on 23 September.

Well, these things happen.

"Subsidies" Is Spelled With A "Die"

November already? Which means I've been with this outfit for a whole year.

But it's little cause for celebration.

This morning on the radio, news of "independent" power producers (IPPs) crying havoc over depleting gas supplies and the possibility of sourcing gas elsewhere at five times the price.

Then, the following:

The government has allocated RM15.9bil for petrol and diesel subsidies this year ... spending on the subsidies last year amounted to RM9.6bil.

. . .

Restructuring of petrol and diesel subsidies which saw reduction of RM0.05 per litre twice last year saved more than RM1.7bil in subsidies.

Arguably, allocated amount isn't necessarily the same as spent amount. But it's still worrying.

A radio ad said it: When energy (and by extension, everything) is subsidised, nobody feels the need to use it wisely. The public loves subsidies. Anything to take the edge out of market forces. But as some parts of the world now realise, they can't buy their way out trouble forever.

Nobody likes taxes, but if the money is well spent and is seen to be well-spent, the public should take pride in being a taxpayer. But years ago, in Greece, tax evasion evolved into what some call a "national pastime". The laws were lax, and few dodgers were punished, if ever. Pile that on top of huge public spending, and you have a ticking financial time bomb.

For me, Greece's financial meltdown resulted from failures at about every level. The government didn't check tax dodging; bad apples among bankers, politicians and businesspeople set a bad precedent; and the public adopted some of those bad habits. Nobody felt the need to save for a rainy day when the sun was still shining.

I don't know how serious our tax-dodging situation is. But the subsidies can't go on forever, not if they keep getting higher each year. And the government seems to cower every time we complain about rising prices.

...Well, they're certainly not going to fall any time soon.

Instead of more handouts, or looking to the various government bodies or departments (who aren't exactly paragons of frugality or prudent spending), we should probably start thinking of ways to help keep the country afloat? You know, before we end up like Greece?

Plotting Marriage With Eugenides

Weeks ago, I jumped the gun at a quasi-review of this book. I wasn't impressed with it the first time around. A colleague's e-mail prompted another go at it. Though my overall verdict on the book hasn't changed, the book wasn't as bad as I first thought.

I'd only punched this out and submitted it several days ago. Didn't expect it to be out so quickly.

---

Love and marriage

Do they go together like a horse and carriage, as the old song would have it? Persevere through the many details in this exploration of the theme and you will find a good love story.

first published in The Star, 30 October 2011


The "marriage plot" categorises a storyline that typically centres on the courtship between a man and a woman and the obstacles faced by the potential couple on their way to the altar. You'll find it in the works of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters, in most rom-coms and Bollywood productions.

But with the hallowed halls of the institution of marriage sullied by gender equality, rising divorce rates and the like, whither the marriage plot in modern times?

That's the question explored in a thesis by bookworm and Brown University English student Madeleine Hanna, the heroine of Jeffrey Eugenides's The Marriage Plot.

Though it's the 1980s, one of her lecturers has already, apparently, pronounced the marriage plot in literature more or less dead, except in places where traditional cultures are still strong. (A Malaysian might start thinking about rice mothers, mango trees and silk factories....)

Thing is, Maddy soon finds herself navigating a love triangle with two fellow students in a version of the trope she's studying.

Though he's the one who gets to hook up with Maddy, manic-depressive Leonard Bankhead's status as a fluffy grey ball of gloom threatens the relationship – again and again.

Her old friend Mitchell Grammaticus is a spiritual hippie-type who's immersed in Christian mysticism – and the idea that Maddy's destined to be his wife.

The Marriage Plot offers wit, humour and fine storytelling.

The author displays a certain degree of sensitivity for his subjects, who go through the usual painful motions of the young in love: sometimes happy, often funny, and at times heartbreaking.

But we get too much background on characters we don't care about.

For instance, do we need to know that Maddy's semiotics lecturer is a former English department renegade who's hygienically bald, has a seaman's moustache, wears wide-vale corduroys and has a reading list comprising Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco and Roland Barthes?

By page 28, I was desperate for a drink of water and an open window.

But had I put down the book and never picked up again, I'd have missed out on some pretty good stuff.

Like the story of the mystery stain on Maddy's borrowed dress.

Why Maddy hooked up with Leo, the walking stormcloud. And how crazy Leo can get.

The drama that set Mitch and his friend Larry on their Big Fat Greek Adventure and Then Some.

The drama that is Mitch and Larry's Big Fat Greek Adventure and Then Some.

The realisation that hits you when Mitch asks Maddy if there's an Austen-esque book that ends happily, even if the girl doesn't end up with the right guy.

Mitch's time in Mother Teresa's Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart in India. And what sends him fleeing from there in a rickshaw, repeating the "Jesus Prayer" over and over again in his head. Oh, that bit was hilarious.

The author of Middlesex, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 , seems to be having fun in attempting a smart and entertaining rewrite of the marriage plot for an era where the very definition and idea of marriage itself is being rewritten. A little too much fun, perhaps, as I feel the book is about 100 pages too long.

Throughout history, courtship and marriage are often tricky affairs. If anything, they should be simplified, rather than complicated. And, as Maddy would learn, no amount of reading can prepare anyone for the pitfalls.

Stripped of the reading lists and textbook extracts, The Marriage Plot is a good love story that would also translate well into a screenplay.

---

The Marriage Plot

Jeffrey Eugenides
Fourth Estate (2011)
360 pages
Fiction
ISBN: 978-0-00-744128-0

MPH Quill Oct-Dec 2011 Delayed

This quarter's MPH Quill (October - December 2011) has been delayed.

Things were held up by about a fortnight after resources were temporarily diverted elsewhere. While the issue was being put together, the editor went on her much-needed Deepavali break.

I'd guess that it would be another week before the whole issue has been put to bed, which means it would only be out around the middle of next month. I'll put something up when the issue is, hopefully, out.

On behalf of the crew at Quill magazine, apologies for the delay.

Party Pooper Party

With protests like this cropping up so predictably, it wouldn't surprise me to hear foreigners saying that Malaysians don't know how to have a good time.

Laying aside all the usual arguments pro- and con- Elton, there are several reasons why I think the objections to this concert are irrelevant.

First, the venue: it's the Arena of Stars in Genting. Second, tickets for that concert are priced between RM380 and RM1,380.

You'd have to be someone of a particular stripe to pay that much to attend an Elton John concert at the Arena of Stars. Would it include the demographic whose souls or morals Pahang's PAS Youth intends to save? I'm not so sure.

These days I bet you'd get more information about gay sex in our local papers, thanks to the extensive coverage of Sodomy I and II, than a night (or two) with Glambert and/or Sir Elton.

The man will be here to play his music. The man is known for his music. He's been a musician - that's his job description - for decades. That he's married to a man does not make him a gay marriage advocate.

Buang yang keruh, ambil yang jernih. This is an old saying, which meant that we once knew how to take the good and leave the bad. When did we forget how to?

It's Just Piling Up

I really shouldn't be doing this, but the compulsion to is strong. If I delay any further, it'll only grow stronger.

The need to "update" viewers.

I'd just completed a second round of edits for a rather tricky manuscript, but nothing like what I've done previously. But it should be mostly done. Once the author comes back with comments, it's going straight to the designers.

I've also completed a review to be published; another is being put together. The book wasn't as bad as I'd thought it'd be.

And of course, there's the pile you see opposite. There are books to be reviewed for the papers and the blog, but I've decided not to separate the two groups.

It's just as well. Both feel more and more like work these days.

I'm finding it difficult to review books without a pen or pencil and some paper in hand. I've found it quite fast to get all the points down with non-electronic means of note taking. Putting it all together - that's still the hard part.

Did I say "work"? Feels more like school.

"Best years of your life"? Like hell they were.

At least the words are flowing again. Just have to keep it up.

What Happened Last Week

...Nothing much.

A doozy of a week saw me doing some heavy editing and finishing off a three-book review - finally! The latter left me so relaxed I didn't feel like doing more than the usual for the rest of the week. But I'm hoping things will pick up again.

I've been making toast. Toast bread. With lots of butter. Unsalted butter. Never use salted butter for toast. Salted butter tastes funny. An odd smell will manifest at the back of your throat, near the smell receptors. Does that happen to you? It does to me.

I bought salted butter by accident. For that brand, salted and unsalted butter has very similar packaging, except for a tiny word at the top. "No.1 in Singapore"? Who cares? And how can they tolerate that odd smell? I may have to throw out a whole block of good butter. I'm depressed. The butter is innocent...

...Correction: I bought only nine books at last week's big bad book event, still a modest haul. About half are non-fiction titles, an indication of where my interests lay.

• 10,001 Timesaving Ideas
  Reader's Digest (2008)
  447 pages
  Non-fiction
  ISBN: 978-192134415-2
  
  Reader's Digest churns out some of the most amazing non-fiction titles. Although time and the Internet have lessened the need for these volumes, it's nice to have a handy guide to nearly everything under the sky that doesn't require electricity, electronic hardware and an Internet subscription. This title is just the thing.


• The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge
  A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind
  St. Martin's Press (2007)
  1320 pages
  Non-fiction
  ISBN: 978-0-312-37659-8
  
  You'll feel like a good editor with one of these on your desk. Though it isn't incumbent on the editor to be an expert on everything, he should at least check up on facts, names, etc that look dodgy on a manuscript. A pity this edition is a bit out of date, but at RM20, this monster is worth it.


• Vintage Singapore
  Souvenirs from the Recent Past
  Editions Didier Millet (2006)
  191 pages
  Non-fiction
  ISBN: 978-981-4217-01-9
  
  At least one other person agrees that there's something about the cover that screams, "Buy me!" No mean feat, considering that hundreds of other books in the venue were doing the same. A testament to Didier Millet's expertise in coffeetable books.
  
  This one is, as the title suggests, is a museum display in a book of all old things in Singapore. That it invokes a sense of nostalgia for old things in Malaysia is no surprise.


• The Book of the Dead
  Lives of the Justly Famous and the Undeservedly Obscure
  John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
  Faber and Faber (2009)
  435 pages
  Non-fiction
  ISBN: 978-0-571-24491-1
  
  A witty, informative volume about some of the world's most famous and notorious personalities. Because you just need to know. ...Ah, George Psalmanazar! Greetings old friend. Haven't seen you since that Reader's Digest Amazing Facts book.


• Word Fugitives
  In Pursuit of Wanted Words
  Barbara Wallraff
  Collins (2006)
  192 pages
  Non-fiction
  ISBN: 978-0-06-083273-5
  
  The Internet age has, arguably, seen the coining of new words, some of which are amalgamations of and extrapolations from existing words. But not all of them have been corralled into a single, easy-to-reach source; ever tried looking up urbandictionary.com? Though not an exhaustive guide to (more like an exploration of) strange new words, lexophiles will love this slim little thing.


• Little Hut of Leaping Fishes
  Chiew-Siah Tei
  Picador (2008)
  389 pages
  Fiction
  ISBN: 978-0-330-42391-5
  
  I had... no idea why this ended up in my bag. Probably leapt inside when I wasn't looking. Or perhaps I absentmindedly chucked it into my bag for no reason other than the price tag. A balmy Saturday afternoon is waiting for this novel.


• Much Obliged, Jeeves
  PG Wodehouse
  Arrow Books (2008)
  203 pages
  Fiction
  ISBN: 978-0-09-951396-4
  
  One of two books by Wodehouse I managed to pick up at the sale. It's also, it seems, one of the only two books by Wodehouse on sale at the sale.


• Pigs Have Wings
  PG Wodehouse
  Arrow Books (2008)
  253 pages
  Fiction
  ISBN: 978-0-09-951398-8
  
  This book was how I learned that Wodehouse had written other than the Jeeves series. Not sure if it's reputed to be just as witty and engaging.


• The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency
  Alexander McCall Smith
  Abacus (2008)
  250 pages
  Fiction
  ISBN: 978-0-349-11675-4
  
  I've been curious about this author for a while, but sadly, the first of McCall Smith's novels about Mma Ramotswe appears to be the only No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency novel on sale. Finished this one. It has a certain charm.

Also, some things have happened in the last week which I've been too distracted to write about. And a whole bunch of books to review, with several more candidates in the pipeline.

So, no Occupy Dataran Merdeka™ for me. Not when my own time is so Occupied™ already.