Book Marks: Peninsula, BookShots, And Mystery Book Stacks

"...I loved writing A Malaysian Journey, it was like euphoria, and I'm happy to say it felt like that again now. Except that people had to die," Rehman [Rashid] said [to The Star]. "It's not a happy story. I'm sorry, I wish I could give you a fairy tale with a happy ending, I can't. It's a sad, reflective book of failure."

Here's more about Peninsula, Rehman Rashid's new book. I think a paperback edition will be launched sometime this month.

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James Patterson thinks shorter books will get more people reading. From the report:

"The idea of individually-packaged novellas is either really new, or the return of something not new at all. As the Times notes, many of the 'most beloved American literary classics are novella-length works — John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and Truman Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffany’s," ' to name but a few. It isn't a format that publishers have been willing to embrace for decades, though, largely because it's less profitable than hardcovers."

Here's hoping that it will, to some degree, take off.


Also:

• So it seems the government's BB1M book vouchers are being used for stuff other than books. For some, the money was more important - and not for entirely good reasons. One student used the vouchers to feed his cigarette habit; another said the scheme "should be safe" since "everyone is doing it".
• The Afghan conflict still burns, and its people's stomachs aren't the only things that are starving. Some Afghans are working to address that.
• From author Mary Roach's keynote address at Boston University's 2016 "The Power of Narrative" conference, seven bad habits towards highly effective narrative, according to Sharmilla Ganesan. I think I've blundered through all of these and, yes, it was stressful.
• Putrajaya's Cybersecurity Malaysia has published a book on cyber crime - which probably underscores Malaysians' poor awareness of online security and whatnot. A sequel is being planned.
• Someone is leaving stacks of books from his personal library around places in new York City and is apparently planning "to leave stacks outside of NYC and mentions Malaysia and Brazil as two places he has in mind".
• "Nobel prize winners and stocking fillers": The Guardian looks at Souvenir Press's 65 years in London publishing. The company was "founded in 1951 by 21-year-old Ernest Hecht in his bedroom in Bayswater, London; still run in 2016 by 86-year-old Ernest Hecht OBE from his charmingly dotty HQ opposite the British Museum, where it has been for the past 42 years."
• A dissident Hong Kong book publisher has returned home, after being allegedly abducted by Chinese agents. Lee Bo has also pledged he "will no longer publish or sell books that are 'sheer fabrication' ", which might refer to books containing "tabloid-style tales about political intrigue and love affairs within the Communist leadership." Naturally, critics of China think the Middle Kingdom got to Lee.
• You'd think that the models on the covers of romance novels would be killing it, considering how popular the genre is. But according to The New York Times, "Few romance models, if any, make enough money to eke out a living."
• Some writers and scientists think creatures deserve better than the pronoun "it". Some editors feel different. Sounds like Animal Pronouns: Civil War.
• Self-published e-books, according to one source, made up 22 per cent Of e-book sales in 2015. But I wonder: is it really because of rapidly growing e-book popularity, or a surge in new digitally published titles?

Kedai Fixi's First Birthday, Jepun and PJ Confidential

Last Saturday afternoon, Fixi launched two books as part of a celebration of Kedai Fixi's first year in business. According to Fixi boss Amir Muhammad, the do couldn't be held on the actual date, 11 April, because he'll be in London for this year's London Book Fair.

Fixi boss Amir Muhammad emceed the event

There was cake, curry puffs, doughnuts and seri muka. Some of the contributing writers were asked questions about the book by Amir and walked off with a goodie bag. Two absent contributors even got their representatives to read their very brief "acceptance speeches".

The two books were PJ Confidential, an anthology of shorts set in the city of Petaling Jaya in Selangor; and Jepun ("Japan"), a novel by Lokman Hakim based on his travels there.

Terence Toh, the editor of the anthology, noted how interesting the submissions were. Fixi's collection includes some of the most mind-bending, disturbing stories, many involving elements criminal, supernatural and surreal, and I guess many contributors went with that.

Terence Toh, editor of PJ Confidential

Probably why I don't feel like contributing, apart from my laziness and inability to tell stories.

Here were the contributors who made it to the event. Strangely, I remember almost nothing of the first half, and online searches yielded almost nothing (15/04/2016: fixed most of it and, boy, was my memory SHIT that day). Apologies for this bunch of poor photos.

The first contributor to step up was Heidi Shamsuddin. I think she's already an author with several books out. In her own words, her story, "Neighbourhood Watch", is "a disturbing tale of domestic devilry".

Heidi Shamsuddin

Leon Wing wrote his contribution ("The Outing") in a way that didn't state what race the characters were. Amir congratulated Leon on finding the building, because people still mistake Jaya Shopping Centre for Jaya One.

Leon Wing

Next was Catalina Rembuyan, who'd just been traumatised (not in a bad way) in acting class with Joe Hasham and had completed her first acting role. "So if anybody wants to be a thespian, regardless of gender" Amir cracked, "maybe she can hook you up with Joe." Or something like that. Hers is called "The Sick Man and the Satellite" - or something similar.

Catalina Rembuyan

Catalina could only sign a few copies before she had to leave. As she'd expected, she fell sick later that day. Get well soon, Cat.

Tan Jee Yee - at least, I think it was Tan Jee Yee. My memory
was spectacularly rubbish during the first half.

Maybe he was Tan Jee Yee, I don't know. His story, "A Desire is a House in Bukit Gasing", is the closest thing to erotica, Amir divulged, "so if that's your thing you can skip to his story." Tan denies it is in any way autobiographical; he decided to write something about Bukit Gasing, which he said was among the least visited parts of Petaling Jaya.

Lee Ee Leen - I think her story was about rats- no, sorry, that's
Angeline Woon's, which is titled "The Rats of SS2".

Lee's story is called "City As a Mammary", and odd play on the word "memory". I think it was about milk. Probably not of the squeamish - or lactose-intolerant.

Linges - I think he wrote about dogs in PJ Confidential ("Stray") and how
the dog in his household would stare at passers-by

Chris Quah's story, "Snatch Me If You Can", is about a snatch theft victim's desire for revenge, I believe.

Chris Quah

May Chong's story, "Flush", revolved around a school that sounds like a PJ-based missionary school (AHEM) but is not related to said school (AHEM). I think it's about a toilet ghost, and, according to Chong, any school of repute (AHEM) will have a toilet ghost. What, like Hogwarts and Moaning Myrtle?

May Chong

Then there was something about how she'd gone to a primary school for six years without realising that its toilet was said to be haunted. It sounded like she was dismayed over missing out on something cool.

Tilon Sagulu came from East Malaysia for the launch, joked Amir. But turns out the guy studies at nearby Universiti Malaya and lives in Section 17.

Tilon Sagulu

Amir noted the characters in his story are so vivid, as if part of something bigger. Tilon confirmed it, adding that the story could become part of a novel, perhaps.

Amir also pointed out how he liked the way one story segued into another. So it's not just editing but also the curating, Terence. Good job.

Masami Mustaza's story - involving panties and a cockroach - inspired the cover for the anthology. After mulling several concepts, Amir put out a call for photos he could use for the cover. In the end, Julya Oui's submission made the cut.

Masami Mustaza

No offence, but I'd be nervous with this in my house. I imagine swatting or spraying my bookshelf every time I glance at it. How do you spell it ... katsaridaphobia?

Masami-san stayed - or tried to stay - hidden until after Lokman Hakim's spot on stage, when someone pointed her out to Amir. Of course she deserves her time in the limelight.

Jepun was the second work by Fixi where a writer is sent to a destination to write about it - that's how it works, right? For Lokman, it was a music festival in Japan. It sounds normal compared to the first, Brazil by Ridhwan Saidi, where several threads were going on and I couldn't tell which one I was reading at times, so I stopped.

Lokman Hakim, author of the Malay-language novel, Jepun

Lokman wrote it as a novel because he felt more at home with the format; Jepun is his eighth. He claimed he wrote frequently because of his wild imagination.

Among the absentees were Foo Sek Han and Angeline Woon, who got their reps to read their speeches for them.

Selamat harijadi pertama, Kedai Fixi

Here's to more birthdays for Kedai Fixi.

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Get your copy of PJ Confidential from Amazon, Kinokuniya, MPHOnline.com, or direct from Fixi. Kedai Fixi at Jaya Shopping Centre has the books in stock.

The Young 'Uns Are Doing Fine

Recently, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP, or the National Institute of Language and Literature) announced its concerns about the influence of indie works on young writers.

From the short report, I'm guessing the organisation is frowning - again - on street Malay and envelope-pushing stuff that often appear in such works. The statements were made during a literary event, so it looks like another appeal to nostalgia.

In a Facebook post, Silverfish Books wondered what took DBP so long to wake up to the reality. Not of the "dangers" of indie works, but that its role as trendsetter and promoter of Malaysian literature has seemingly been usurped by these rebel upstart outfits.

Nature (and literature) abhors a vacuum. Yes, many have complained about the (often crude) language and poor editing in the indie publications.

Well, that didn't stop the current surge of popularity of indie material. And the coarseness of one's tongue (or pen) may not reflect one's character.

Like some, I feel that, as a defender and developer of language and literature, DBP dropped the ball years ago. Its presence in bookstores seems to have ebbed as well. "Where are the DBP books in Malaysian bookshops (apart from the dictionary)?" asked Silverfish.

Also interesting is Silverfish's statement that DBP publishes books "to fulfil KPIs; not sell them." If that's the reason books are being published, it's not even a business. Assuming there's useful content in these publications, how is it going to reach the public without efforts in marketing? Books don't sell themselves.

Indie lit is growing, and its purveyors are making strides across the publishing industry and connecting with their readership like I've never seen before. It's all peer-to-peer and so, so warm and energetic, unlike how the elders at some institutions talk down to others at the foot of their ivory towers.

The nimble young 'uns are getting around limitations imposed by governments, institutions and firms. With a bit of luck, it'll be the millennials and their street Malay that will make the national language more global.

The latest and perhaps the loudest shot from across the bow is the news that several indie outfits have helped set up a country booth for Malaysia at this year's London Book Fair. And these were among those tarred by the National Civics Bureau as masterminds of an anti-establishment movement.

According to the report, "the Malaysian booth is entirely self-funded: Buku Fixi, DuBook Press, the Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency and Clarity Publishing are doing this without any help from the public or private sector." The set-up and other related costs is over RM100,000 - a fraction of the allocations for some government projects. I found the possible reasons for the official bodies' "lukewarm" response to collaborate in the LBF quite telling.

(Here's what some of the indie publishers have to say about the establishment. Still an interesting read.)

I was tickled by Silverfish's challenge to DBP; I thought it had Dewan's back to the wall. "...are you going to compete with them (you are a big organisation with almost infinite funds), or sit around and whine? Or use your muscle and 'ban' them? The last would be easy. After all, it is quickly becoming the Malaysian way.

"Or, God forbid, work with the indies?"

Rather than waste energy on "Malaysian ways" or wheezing "not our culture" (as if culture never evolved), the old fogeys might as well try to keep up, or just watch the kids do their thing from the sidelines if they don't want to help out.

Carnage And Calamity: Inspector Singh In Beijing

I'd read this novel during the Chinese New Year break. Months ago, I'd gone into the A Curious Indian Cadaver, which was published earlier, but I got this one out instead, veering dangerously close to China-bashing. Though China could, I suppose, be held responsible for some of the outrageous things it has been linked with, from disappearing booksellers to prawn-pillaging tourists, and the goings-on at the South China Sea.

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Carnage and calamity: Inspector Singh in Beijing

first published in The Malay Mail Online, 29 March 2016


Shamini Flint does not like China.

That's what I could gather from Inspector Singh Investigates: A Calamitous Chinese Killing. This instalment in Flint's Inspector Singh series sees the character looking into the death of a young Singaporean, seemingly from a botched robbery, in the Middle Kingdom.

Through the dead youth — Justin Tan, the son of the First Secretary of the Singapore Embassy there — we are introduced to modern-day China, and the emptying of the famed hutongs of Beijing, driven by development and greed, and enabled by corruption and class disparities. It is soon clear that the victim's end is tied to the land grab.

The good inspector's circumstances haven't changed much, six books into this series and counting. Despite his successes as Singapore's globetrotting gumshoe and growing reputation, he still gets no respect at home. His wife still nags him, and his superior can't stand him. One suspects that Singh was shipped to China with the hope that it'll be a one-way trip.

In keeping with the novel's vibe, Mrs Singh raves about the expendability of anything "Made in China" and the influx of Mainlanders into the island republic.

"Up to no good until proven otherwise!" she says, echoing the sentiments of a neighbour about the gold-digging China dolls said to be infiltrating the Lion City. Which is also what some governments might feel about non-conformists.

Maybe it's not just China that Flint dislikes.

This novel isn't short of villains: corrupt businessmen, corrupt cops, heavy-handed members of the security forces, and even one of China's spoiled-rotten princelings. But the identity of the actual big bad — the country itself, one is led to believe — is always in sight.

Other victims abound as well. Dreaming of a better life, a factory girl plots a get-rich scheme with what she witnesses at a crime scene, potentially dicing with death. Professor Luo, Justin's mentor, is arrested for practising falun gong in public and incarcerated. The professor's daughter (and Justin's girlfriend) fends off the unwanted advances of the aforementioned princeling, who can't seem to tell the difference between loving and owning someone.

But all that is nothing compared to how a prisoner's organs are harvested and for whom — spine-chillingly horrid and infuriatingly unjust.

The perfect backdrop for a calamitous killing.

Though I find it odd that a Singaporean policeman can be sent off, seemingly at a moment's notice, to solve a crime involving Singaporean citizens abroad, even if certain strings were pulled.

It's been a while since I last caught up with Inspector Singh; the other one I read was about "a curious Indian cadaver." By now, I've come to accept that Flint's are a different kind of detective story, where the pieces of the puzzle come together slowly towards the end, with few clues as to the identity of the culprit. You don't get the sense that Singh is driving the story, but I suppose it works here.

Singh tends to think his way through a case (not hoping for action-hero acrobatics with his size), letting other able-bodied sidekicks and allies pick up the slack. In this case, it's a former police officer assigned to him, probably in a dual role as cultural attache to keep the portly Singh from stepping on too many toes.

One gets just enough of everything: detective work, scenery, socio-political commentary and the occasional quote and flash of wit that convinces one that this is a crime novel and not a laundry list of things in China that need fixing.

Still, I couldn't help picking up on the disdain for the unsavoury aspects of modern China sprinkled throughout the book. Maybe it's because I share some of those sentiments.

Or, in Flint's case, maybe it's a case of "we hate the things we love." One can't help but wonder whether, deep down, she is railing against the injustices depicted in her books with the nanoscopic hope that she might in some way get people thinking, and then moving, to start changing things for the better.

Just as her obese, unloved crime-solver tries to do the right thing, despite his own doubts and the odds stacked against him.


Inspector Singh Investigates: A Frightfully English Execution, the newest in Shamini Flint's Inspector Singh series, will be released in April 2016.

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A Calamitous Chinese Killing

Shamini Flint
Piatkus (2013)
309 pages
Fiction
ISBN: 978-0-7499-5779-7

Book Marks: Eka's Kurniawan's Wound, Self-Publishing, And Jalan-Jalan

Eka Kurniawan has won the inaugural World Readers Award with Beauty is a Wound.

The award, "organised by the Hong Kong and Australia-based Asia Pacific Writers and Translators association, was given out in Hong Kong." Kudos was also given to the translator for her work on the Indonesian original, Cantik Itu Luka.

Before receiving the grant to publish the book from the Yogyakarta Cultural Academy, Eka had offered Cantik Itu Luka to four publishers, but to no avail.

"A major publisher included a note [with the rejection letter], saying 'the novel is too literary'. I have no idea whether that's a compliment or something else," he recalls, laughing.

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"Self-publishing? It generates a lot of noise on social media. It results in many flashy-looking websites from authorpreneurs keen to sell success secrets to other aspiring authorpreneurs. With Amazon's Kindle and CreateSpace as the major outlets, it continues to put money in the coffers of the company largely responsible for destroying author incomes in the first place. But it isn't a route to financial security. For those who prefer orchestrated backing to blowing their own trumpet, who'd privilege running a narrative scenario over running a small business, who'd rather write adventures than adverts, self-publishing is not the answer."

I'm still trying to decide whether the writer of this piece is for or against self-publishing.


Meanwhile:

• In The Guardian, the interesting story of Mike Stoner's self-published novel, Jalan-Jalan, a tale about "a heartbroken young Brit through Indonesia, where he finds himself embroiled in a murky world at the bottom of the expat barrel after accepting a teaching job at a dodgy language school after a five-minute telephone interview."
• Parnassus Books is now mobile. Bookmobile, that is. "The bright blue bookmobile, which hit the road this week, is a roving offshoot of Parnassus Books, a popular independent bookstore ... co-owned by Karen Hayes and the novelist Ann Patchett," wrote The New York Times/ "The store’s name comes from Christopher Morley’s 1917 novel Parnassus on Wheels, about a middle-aged woman who travels around selling books out of a horse-drawn van."
• Bloggers and social media people in Singapore now have to pay tax for freebies they receive. According to the report, "The rule applies to not only blogging website but social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the likes. Payments are taxable regardless whether they are received directly from the advertisers, or indirectly through a social media influencer companies."
• Sabah-based artist Tina Rimmer launched her memoir, A Life on Two Islands "The memoir tells the story of Tina's life in the United Kingdom and British North Borneo where she arrived in 1949 as the Colony's first female education officer," according to The Borneo Post. Sounds like a good read.
• RIP Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall, and Barry Hines, author of A Kestrel for a Knave. Still a bad year for the arts.

The "First Time"? Maybe Not

This year, a couple of local (Malaysian) novels were nominated for the 2016 Dublin International Literary Awards (DILA, formerly the Dublin IMPAC International Literary Awards): Tree of Sorrow, by Malim Ghazoli PK and The Michelangelo Code by Nazehran Jose Ahmad. Both, I understand, are English translations of the originals in Malay.

An official from the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (National Institute of Language and Literature), told The Malay Mail Online that "both the novels were nominated by the Malaysian National Library and that this is the first time that local novels have been included for the awards."

Well... if they're the first local novels included for the awards after the name change in November 2015, yes. If the DILA is a new award that's different from the Dublin IMPAC, with different criteria and categories, yes.

But it doesn't look that way. For one, why are the previous longlists still archived?

A search shows that in 2015, John Solomon and The Fifth Island (Samuill Tiew/Monopoly Publications) was longlisted; and in 2013, DUKE (Rozlan Mohd Noor/Silverfish) and The Dulang Washer (Paul Callan/MPH Group Publishing) got in. These were published by Malaysian publishers and also nominated by the National Library of Malaysia. Aren't these local titles?

Also: two titles by Khoo Kheng-Hor: Taikor (2006) and Sifu (2011). I think these were published by Pelanduk. Tunku Halim's Dark Demon Rising made it as early as 1999. Aren't these local too?

So I don't think it is the first time local novels have been included for the awards. Was someone misquoted? Did someone transcribe something wrongly? Or has somebody not been doing homework?

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As it turned out, IMPAC, the American company that jointly sponsors the award with the Dublin City Council, had apparently gone defunct in the late-2000s and the trust fund that supports the award had been wound up. The 2015 prize was entirely funded by the Dublin City Council while a new sponsor was being sought.

One of the councillors, Mannix Flynn, suggested the name of the title be changed to relect the departure of IMPAC as a sponsor. From the Irish Times:

"It should be called the Dublin City Council City of Literature award or at least it should denote that the city backs the award [FINANCIALLY]," he said, adding the money might alternatively be spent in other areas.

"There is absolutely no sign of a [NEW]sponsor whatsoever on this. It's a grandiose gesture when you have a city that is suffering from great austerity and the vast majority of artists are living well below the poverty line."

So it's now the DILA, minus the IMPAC. It's kind of like how the Orange Prize for Fiction became the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction, when Bailey's (yes, that Irish Cream one) stepped up after the telco firm Orange withdrew.

But if Councillor Flynn is correct about Dublin's situation, the future of the award, once described as "the most eclectic and unpredictable of the literary world's annual gongs", looks bleak without backers. How long can Dublin's city council be able to keep the award going by itself?

Unfair as it may sound, many prizes and awards in the arts are propped up by private sponsors. The implications of this - and the question of what makes somebody's work "world-renowned" and whether this needs to be redefined - is probably better explored in another post or forum, if it isn't already.

Book Marks: Newton, Apple, And Tweeting To Sell Books

Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica, "arguably the most important scientific work ever published", was almost scuppered by a book about fish. Imagine that.

So the story goes that not only Newton was afraid of being criticised for the stuff in Principia, the Royal Society also refused to fund the book because it nearly bankrupted itself, publishing something called The History of Fish.

And it was astronomer Edmund Halley who stepped in - a couple of times - to ensure the publication of "the revolutionary work – which proved mathematically that the same set of laws govern everything in the universe, from small objects to the Earth".

Unfortunately for Halley: "After the publication of Principia, the Royal Society informed Halley it could no longer afford his annual £50 salary, and instead paid him with left over copies of 'The History of Fish.'"

Oh yes, The Telegraph brought us this interesting titbit to tell us that an exhibition at Cambridge University - Lines of Thought: Discoveries that Changed the World - is now open to the public and runs until September 30, in conjunction with Cambridge's 600th anniversary. Do drop by if you're in the neighbourhood.

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Apple owes as much as US$450m for conspiring with five publishers to raise the price of e-books years ago, in response to Amazon's book-pricing policies. Most of the money will go to those who bought books between April 2010 and May 2012 as reimbursements for the higher prices they had to pay.

I'd been following this saga for a while because I'd thought it would have some bearing on how we read, buy and price books in the long run, Yet, it's 2016 and I still prefer physical books and can't find an e-reader I like or can afford. But it seems unceremonious to drop this apple without some acknowledgement.

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Here's an interesting story about a "Twitter book hustler". Shea Serrano used the social media platform to make a book viral, including his own. So apparently, it's all because he's "real". "His tweets give off a dude-down-the-street vibe that seems to resonate with his followers," the Marketplace article goes.

Serrano's editor also said his way of communicating with his fans "feel like he made them a part of something, and they are a part of something." Doesn't this sound like how some indie publishers network with their followers?

On a related note: at a tiny gathering of aspiring writers, literary agent Jan Kardys spoke about, among other things, "the need to focus on creating public platforms and using social media to spread the word about themselves and their work". She also stated that publishers these days "want authors to prepare an advertising campaign" before reaching out to them.

Of course, she also suggested getting the help of a lit agent, but stressed that "It's not the job of an agent to teach you how to write."

She suggested connecting with people who would promise to be 'brutally honest' in their evaluations of the work.

Kardys didn't promise that it would be easy.

"You have to get your book in great shape," she said.

Elsewhere:

• Shutters are coming down on the long-running book blog Bookslut. So far no reason has been given for the impending closure.
• RIP Anita Brookner, whose novel Hotel du Lac won the 1984 Booker Prize for fiction.
• Have a gander at this review of The Gun by Fuminori Nakamura, "a taut tale about a university student's obsession with a pistol in a country where private ownership of firearms is virtually unknown." Will we see more translations of Japanese crime fiction?
• "What is the point of critics?" New York Times film critic A.O. Scott makes his case for criticism in his book, Better Living Through Criticism (I mentioned it here somewhere). The piece in The Guardian includes some views from other critics.
• "I would like to set fire to the term 'serious reader' and throw its ashes into the sea." Over at Book Riot, Maddie Rodriguez makes the case against the "serious reader" and suggests some other types of readers we can be.
• Who is Elena Ferrante? The guessing game goes on as writer Marcella Marmo, professor of contemporary history at the University of Naples Federico II, is forced to deny she is the mystery pseudonym known for a series of acclaimed Neapolitan novels, as claimed by a peer.
• "We Israelis tend to forget that we are a nation of refugees." Israeli novelist, screenwriter and psychologist Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is interviewed at The Guardian for her novel, Waking Lions. Despite her objections to some of the things her country is doing, she's not ready to pack up and go. "I think that to really love your country is to stand there and to fight when you think what it's doing is wrong."