The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| As long as they’re read again ... Posted: 09 Sep 2012 12:32 AM PDT PUBLISHERS, as you might have noticed, are always publishing new editions of old books (classics?). It's a way of getting their backlists noticed – it attracts faithful fans, as well as new readers, and even those who buy books just for their covers. When Penguin got Kazuko Nomoto to illustrate Jane Austen's books for their Penguin Red Classics range, I bought the whole set. They remain my favourite covers for Austen (one of my favourite authors) and I'm still looking for the perfect hardback (with jacket) of Persuasion, the Austen title I love best. I admit I am frequently tempted by new covers and I can imagine how an attractive cover might draw a reader to a book she's never noticed before, or how it might beguile a reader into buying a book that she would not have purchased otherwise. I also know that people buy books they already own just for their new covers – when I bought the Nomoto Austens, I already owned two full sets of the six books. And I bought new copies of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy when they were illustrated by Eric Robinson for Yearling – just because I disliked my Del Rey editions with their futuristic-looking depictions of Lyra and Will. Recently, the 70th anniversary of The Famous Five resulted in new covers (illustrated by famous illustrators like Oliver Jeffers, Quentin Blake and Helen Oxenbury) for the first five books in the series and, while I didn't like all the illustrations, I wanted the books anyway ... because I'm a Famous Five fan. Now Vintage has launched a Children's Classics series that features (as described on the website) "illustrations, maps, 'backstory' content" and is "beautifully designed throughout". Well ... I don't have much of an eye for design, but as far as cover illustrations go, I think some of the books are really quite ugly. For instance, the cover for Alice's Adventures In Wonderland features an Alice who looks like she might be a Korean girl band reject (owing to botched reconstructive facial surgery), while Katy Carr, on the cover of What Katy Did, looks a fright and makes me think of Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking, a fictional character I particularly detest. Some of the illustrations look like the work of amateurs. I feel the Nesbit titles (The Railway Children and Five Children And It) look like they could have been knocked off by any fifth former who's signed up to take Art for SPM, and the colours and textures in the cover for Treasure Island seem influenced by Andy Warhol's pop art posters (I'm not a fan). There are, however, a few attractive covers in the mix. I do think the two Arthur Ransome titles (Swallows & Amazons and Swallowdale) are a great improvement on the Red Fox editions a few years back. I also like the dramatic red cover for Ian Serraillier's The Silver Sword, and the grinning wolves against the stark white background on the cover of Joan Aiken's The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase. Covers aside, I think the books have been packaged to add value for money and with the aim to appeal to teachers and parents. Hence the "backstory" content, which includes author biographies, quizzes, activity guides and fact sheets. Ah well, if it gets books bought and read, why not? I'm looking forward to seeing what they think of next, and, as always, I'm keeping my eyes peeled for that perfect hardback copy of Persuasion. By the way, I've just been told that this column turned 10 a couple of days ago, on Sept 7. Blimey! I can't believe it's been that long. Well, Happy 10th Anniversary to Tots to Teens. May we have another 10 years of good books to share and talk about. > Daphne Lee reads to wonder and wander, be amazed and amused, horrified and heartened and inspired and comforted. She wishes more people will try it too. Send e-mails to star2@thestar.com.my and check out her blog at daphne.blogs.com/books. |
| Posted: 09 Sep 2012 12:31 AM PDT This is a must-read for anyone who wants to be touched once again by humanity, and for all of us who have inevitably become blinded by economic superiority. Behind The Beautiful Forevers INDIA will never become the next superpower. At least not for now. If we look beyond the glamorised images of rich Indians globetrotting and corporate buying, and the middle class purchasing fancy cars and gadgets, such a proclamation is not at all derisive. All one has to do is to take a drive to Annawadi where millions of Indians have built makeshift homes in swampy plugs of cesspools. Such is the reality, and reality is what Katherine Boo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, promulgates in this wonderful book, Behind The Beautiful Forevers. But to report what her eyes see would be to simply give way to glib moral outrage, for after all, what she sees is not what India wants the world to see. That is why, along the road leading to Mumbai's sleek international airport, there is a high concrete wall covered with advertisements for Italian floor tiles called Beautiful Forever. Behind that wall, hides Annawadi where Boo spent her four years detailing, recording, scrutinising and witnessing a part of the wretchedness of India. The title of the book calls to us to look behind the extravagant Beautiful Forevers advertisements and asks us to become voyeurs of misery enumerated at a narrative pace with a novelist's eyes and a reporter's ears. Boo's cast of characters is original and real. They are subjects of endless interviews and translations. By taking up residency in the slum and by bearing witness to the life of a handful of Annawadians, Boo presents stories that are meaningful, real and honest. Individually, these stories bear different degrees of heartbreak and absurdity, but together, they share an equally bottomless grief. Annawadians dump everything into the sewage lake nearby, "most recently, the decomposing carcasses of twelve goats. Whatever was in the soup, the pigs and dog that slept in its shallows emerged with bellies stained blue. Sewage and sickness looked like life". Across the sewage lake is the Intercontinental Hotel, its opulence standing in contrast with Annawadi's extreme destitution, as if India has run out of means to hide the disparity between wealth and poverty. Wealthy Indians accuse slum dwellers of shaming the nation, while slum dwellers complain about obstacles the rich place in their way to prevent them from sharing the new profits. But these rich-against-poor scuffles (whether verbal or physical) are not a consequence of the nation's new wealth. They are aged and deep-rooted due to myriad factors – the entrenched caste structure, the increasing wealth disparity and corruption. As one of Boo's subjects puts it most aptly, "We try so many things but the world does not move in our favour." Among the powerful Indians, distribution of opportunity is typically an insider trade. Without a fair chance to compete, coupled with a criminal justice system that works like a market in which innocence and guilt can be bought and sold, each step forward is possibly followed by a plunge down an entire floor. In the end, it is better to just let go. So, some Annawadians resolve to hide in their huts where "Hut walls grew green and black with mold, the contents of ten public toilets spewed out onto the maidan (public meeting space), and fungi protruded from feet like tiny sculptures – a special torment to those whose native customs involved toe rings". In her reporting, Boo finds that young people feel the loss of opportunity most acutely. Children like Abdul, the central character among Boo's subjects, have little power to fight injustice or to act on their own ideals. By the time they grow up to become men, they may have become the same waste-pickers, wasting away in garbage and dying in the lake contaminated by slime or the bile of corpses and animals carcasses. Abdul wanted to be ice in Mumbai's dirty water. In the end, he too succumbs to reality and becomes a puddle of dirty water like everyone else. "I tell Allah I love Him immensely, immensely. But I tell Him I cannot be better, because of how the world is," Abdul mutters in the year he legally turns into a man. Just as Abdul is not a representation of every underprivileged child in India, Annawadi is not symbolic of the state of poverty in the entire country. But Boo's revelations – based on interviews, live video recordings, photographs, and counter-checks against public records – illuminates very well the lives of this particular group of poor people, encroached by the nation's feverish desire to achieve modernity and prosperity. Her exquisite prose, crystal clarity, honesty, passion and talent have made Boo a superb writer, crisscrossing between fiction and nonfiction. In the guise of reportage, she narrates a story, and that story is told straight from her heart. Boo's flawless work is a must-read for people watching India, for everyone who wants to be once again touched by humanity, and for all of us who have, inevitably, become blinded by economic superiority. |
| Posted: 09 Sep 2012 12:30 AM PDT A publisher produces a series of books with 'stories about us', stories from the roots of our literary traditions. SILVERFISH Malaysian Classics is a new series produced by independent Malaysian publisher, Silverfish Books. So far, four titles have been released, namely Marong Mahawangsa, Sejarah Melayu, The Epic Of Bidasari and Malaysian Fables, Folk Tales & Legends. The books are in English, transcribed (and translated) from Jawi texts, or, in the case of Fables and as described by the book's transcriber and translator Walter Skeat in his introduction, "from the lips of the Malay peasantry". Because Silverfish did not have to pay for publishing rights for these old stories that are in the public domain, the books are priced most affordably at RM30 each. That's great news for readers who used to have no choice but to fork out RM165 for the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society's (MBRAS) box set of the Malay Annals (Sejarah Melayu). We learn more about the series from Raman Krishnan, owner of the bookstore and the publishing company. How did you come up with the idea for Silverfish Malaysian Classics? I have been interested in history since I was in Standard Four – I had a very good teacher. Later, I became fascinated with the intersection of history and myths. The latter is often dismissed as something untrue while history is all about the truth. Unfortunately, the more history I read, the more untruths I uncover and, conversely, the more myths I read, the more I wonder if some of them are based on truth. History and myths are like first cousins. Myths feed off history and create stories that people like to hear, and some of them then become irrefutable historical facts even if they're not true. We see this happening all over the world, all the time, often in real time. Far too many discussions – arguments – in this country take place from positions of total prejudice and ignorance. These are books with some stories about us. Malaysia, the country, is like a tree which has had all its roots cut off, and is currently buttressed by prosthetics. Few seem to remember these stories. These books are tiny bits of root material that have been salvaged in the hope that they will regenerate and create a stronger, more organic foundation, and the basis for more meaningful debates about our culture. But these books give only us one version. One hopes they will become the catalyst for more discoveries. The four books that have thus far been published are all translations. Did you consider rewriting the material to make the books more accessible, in terms of language, to modern readers? Yes, I did consider a re-telling, but decided that it's more important to preserve the primary source (albeit in translation). Others are more than welcome to use them for re-telling and reinterpretation, hopefully from the original Jawi text. All versions are subject to the translators own interpretations and prejudices; hence, the more there are, the better. There are two English translations of texts from Sejarah Melayu currently available (both are included in the MBRAS box set). Why did you choose Leyden's translation over C.C. Brown's? I found many omissions in C.C. Brown's. When in doubt or there was contradiction or conflict, he left it out. Whereas Leyden translated everything as it was. Why did you decide not to provide an index for this book? We have produced the books as they appeared originally, and the version of Sejarah Melayu we worked on didn't have an index. Our aim is to preserve the original as far as possible – warts and all. Do the Jawi texts for Bidasari and Marong Mahawangsa still exist? Would you consider publishing a romanised Malay version of these two titles? Would a Malay version be a case of translating the English back into Malay? I have not seen the Jawi version of either, but I hope that after publications of this series, there will be some interest in retrieving them from a Borgesian cemetery of lost books! As for retranslating them back into Malay, why not? Stranger things have happened. How important do you think these books are as reference material for those interested in regional literature and history? These books have been produced with the lay reader and student in mind, considering the dearth of books about classical Malaysian literature and history. Academics could use them as starting points. They'll know what to do after that. For someone coming to such mat-erial for the first time, which book would you recommend they start with? Folk Tales is the most accessible. My favourite is Marong Mahawangsa for its Homeric scope – one can almost sense the presence of Odysseus. Bidasari is a charming fairy tale without pretensions or hidden meanings. The books are numbered on the spine. Was this done as a means of compelling completists to buy the whole series? The books are aimed at the collector who is also a serious reader, and libraries, universities and colleges. Is it a way of making one buy all the titles? Maybe. Still, I think people are smarter than that. We have also chosen the same black-and-white theme throughout for differentiation, and to make them look handsome on the shelf. What other titles can we look forward to in this series? We have a few in mind, but if we come across something more exciting, they could go onto the back burner. So it's better for me not to mention any titles now. What else can we look forward to from Silverfish Books? Frankly, I have no idea. I like serendipity. Let's see what comes up. We often surprise ourselves as much as the public. Do you like the way our local publishing scene is developing? What would you like to see more of in terms of the kinds of books and writing being published? Our local writers are developing, and that's good. Whether I like it or not, is not important. I'd like to see as many different types of books written and published as possible – both great literature and trash. I believe, going back to the original metaphor of roots, a beautiful tree only grows on manure. > Silverfish Books is at No. 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur (contact: 03-2284 4837 / info@silverfishbooks.com / silverfishbooks.com). |
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