The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Book review: Auditor to author, from fact to fiction Posted: 04 Dec 2012 05:17 AM PST Auditors and authors don't seem to have much in common, do they? Ah, but there is always an exception to every stereotype. THEY SAY our experiences shape us – for Hemingway it was war, and for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest author Ken Kesey, it was his experience acting as an unwitting LSD guinea pig for the CIA in America. But if the themes that emerged from these conditions were, respectively, love, war, wilderness and loss; and madness, manipulation, freedom and confinement, then what comes of two decades working as an auditor in Malaysia? Meet E.S. Shankar. Retired in 2010, his career of embroilment-in-numbers spans 22 years as a senior manager, executive director and consultant, in both private and publicly listed companies in Malaysia. And as is evident in the debut release of his thriller-science fiction-satire, Tiger Isle, Shankar is drawn to themes of greed, control, corruption and the inevitable rise of the underdog. His personal aspirations for society seem to be reflected in the central theme of his new book, where, whether through individual self-empowerment or a man's subjection to external forces, when systems go out-of-whack, nature will correct itself. His interest in literature began at an early age. The 59-year-old Shankar hails from an era when literature was taken as a compulsory subject in the post-colonial remnants of an English school system – Shakespeare, Camara Laye, Gerald Durrell are names he mentions. "With that kind of education system, something had to rub off on you about reading," he laughs. Over coffee recently, we talk about his itch to write and where it has taken him. "It started in the 1990s, I would go back to the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98, when (then Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr) Mahathir (Mohamad) sacked his deputy prime minister (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim), that got me to thinking that I need to take a closer look at what was happening in the country and the region." Shankar was never active in politics, never the member of any party, but was by nature politically minded. "My thoughts and feelings about events around us began festering, but at the time, the only outlets for such things were (online news portal) Malaysiakini. You couldn't write about your political opinions to any of the newspapers, it would never get published." Not long afterwards, Shankar felt himself pulled by the heady tide of unsolicited discourse when the Internet began unleashing a generation of influential bloggers; a pioneering source of inspiration for Shankar was the no-holds-barred exposes of people like Raja Petra Kamarudin, aka "RPK". In 2006, Shankar started off by writing articles, commentaries on society and politics, and satirical pieces reflective of the times, albeit not for publication. However, "I always knew I was writing them for someone, and that one day I would want them to be read, or published," Shankar says. Finally, in 2007, when he got the hang of the Internet, he started posting his work on his blog, donplaypuks.blogspot.com. But the postings were not enough to satisfy the writing bug, and so he dove head first into his first novel despite the fact that his only prior writing experience was as editor of his school paper when he was at the Victoria Institute, and what he calls "fancy auditing reports". He finished it, a 500-page historico-fictional epic, but was unsuccessful in finding himself a literary agent (this was a time before publishing moved in any significant way online – when every manuscript had to be posted via snail-mail). An interim publication of memoirs gave Shankar his first taste of seeing his words in print. Let Us Now With Thankfulness tells of his formative years at the Victoria Institute, a time of his life which he holds in great esteem. Then, after his retirement, the characters of Tiger Isle began to call out to him irresistibly. The itch occupied his brain at all hours, plot-lines would intrude into his life at odd moments, and he would find himself typing out entire chapters at two or three o'clock in the morning. "I'd go to bed, and then think, argh, I need to change that, and then get out of bed again, sit at the computer and change it." Shankar's world is coloured deeply by politics; because of his work, he sees life through a political lens – which is why he chose to frame his novel with his personal passion, politics. But when it came to Tiger Isle's main character, a woman named Rekha, he smartly stuck with what he knows thoroughly professionally: auditing. So Rekha is an accountant. "I wanted to write something I was familiar with – so making the heroine an auditor meant that I didn't have to struggle to figure her out. If she were a nuclear physicist, for example, you know, I wouldn't know where to start!" Another reason he decided on an auditor as a protagonist is because, that way, she – and the reader – gets to understand what's going on in the financial circles of the government. "I knew I was going to be making up the story in terms of accounts and types of financial fraud." His plot involves devices that you couldn't really talk about without being familiar with high finance or having a financial background or were involved in some aspect of government auditing. Tiger Isle is set on a fictional island where one strong woman and her friends are all that stand between its despotic leader and a slide over the precipice towards third world status and bankruptcy. His story touches on patriotism, too: "What is true patriotism?" he asks. "Beware of patriotism, the last refuge of the scoundrel! People wrap themselves in a flag and hide behind the problems of the country." And then there are the science fiction aspects in this multifarious novel. "I am a fan of science fiction, and in a scene from (the 1993 movie) Jurassic Park, someone asks the character played by Richard Attenborough, what would happen if any of the dinosaurs escaped from their enclosures? And he smugly replies that they have engineered the dinosaurs' DNA so that they cannot reproduce. "I like Jeff Goldblum's line after that; he says 'life will not be contained'," says Shankar. That line stuck because, to him, it describes that precarious place humanity puts itself in, when we let greed and ambition infect our rules and systems of governance. "We can do all these experiments – cloning, Dolly the sheep – but, mostly, we don't really understand what we are doing, and nature has its own way of looking at things. "It has its own plan, we don't realise we are just visitors here." |
| Book review: Beyond travel guides Posted: 03 Dec 2012 04:10 PM PST Although renowned for its travel guides, Lonely Planet is increasingly putting out travel-related titles that aren't just guide books. MENTION the words "lonely planet", and I'm sure an instant image of a blue-spined book with a country's name emblazoned across it in white print will appear in your mind. Perhaps with a picture of scruffy-looking backpacker earnestly consulting it in the middle of an exotic locale. Although there are plenty of travel guide publishers out there today, Lonely Planet has established itself as the largest and most well-known of them all. Founded in 1973 by the footloose husband-and-wife team of Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the company is now wholly owned by BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation. While Lonely Planet's core business has always been its travel guides, Asia Pacific sales and marketing director Chris Zeiher shares that its trade and reference titles have been rapidly increasing over the past five years. "Lonely Planet has been creating beautiful coffee-table pictorials, travel literature and gift titles for more than 15 years, but in the last five years, our output of such titles has significantly increased. "We believe that publishing an inspirational and reference list of titles will create more frequent engagement with our travellers, and potentially reach a new audience, or a non-travelling market, for example, the armchair traveller," he says in an exclusive e-mail interview recently. Zeiher explains that the initial idea to publish something other than a travel guide arose out of the large portfolio of images they had accumulated over the years. "We had an idea to pack these stunning travel photographs in book format for consumers to enjoy. "This is when titles like Chasing Rickshaws and One Planet were created back in the late 1990s and early 2000s." The success of One Planet made the company realise that there is a demand out there for inspirational titles. This resulted in Lonely Planet investing in, and creating, its most successful non-guide book to date: The Travel Book. Having sold over 750,000 copies, this title, which contains profiles of every country on Earth, spawned a series of similar books like The Cities Book, The Europe Book, The Asia Book and The USA Book. Other inspirational titles include the 1,000 series, eg 1000 Ultimate Experiences and 1000 Ultimate Sights, which package the years of experience, content and recommendations of Lonely Planet authors into individual volumes. Not forgetting the need for practical travel tips, Zeiher shares that Lonely Planet also produces reference books geared towards specific groups of travellers. "Our Travel With Children title is into a fifth edition, and covers advice on travelling with infants, toddlers and school-age children, on all kinds of travel from short weekend breaks to long multi-month country hops. "Our successful Volunteer Handbook is a comprehensive directory of the world's volunteer organisations, which also includes practical advice on how to choose and plan your volunteer experience. Another quintessential travel topic, food, is also covered in books such as The World's Best Street Food and The Food Lover's Guide To The World; both contain recipes and photos good enough to eat for cuisine explorers. The company is also reaching out to the younger demographic with its Not-For-Parents series launched just last year. "This series was developed to showcase destinations to young enquiring minds. "These titles are not guidebooks for children, but fascinating, quirky and fun volumes for children to get inspired about the world around them," says Zeiher. For example, the Not-For-Parents London title includes interesting information on topics like Cockney rhyming slang, locations from the Harry Potter books, and the London Underground (it might be haunted!). Using a mix of photography, cartoons, illustrations and fun text, the series has 11 titles out already, with another six more planned for next year, marking its popularity. The brand also has an eye for the quirky as can be seen from books like Signspotting, Happy and How To Land A Jumbo Jet. Says Zeiher: "Lonely Planet has always looked at how we can put a travel spin on hot or popular topics. Two such examples of this are our gifting titles, Happy and How To Land A Jumbo Jet." Described by Zeiher as Lonely Planet's response to the interest generated by Elizabeth Gilbert's 2007 bestseller Eat, Pray, Love, Happy collects in one volume secrets to happiness from cultures and societies around the world. Meanwhile, How To Land A Jumbo Jet utilises infographics to present travel facts and ephemera, covering practical topics, like what to carry in your backpack, to random ones, like exotic places to run marathons, and facts, like top five countries for crimes of assault and theft, to survey results for topics like "How proud are you of your nationality?". Says Zeiher: "This book was so successful with our audience that this year we'll be doing a second infographic title called The Book Of Everything. "By creating products such as this, and delivering them in quirky, unique and alternative styles, we're impressing on our audience that travel can be viewed via themes, topics, genres and formats." The company also hasn't forgotten about the storytelling aspect of travelling. "Moving into travel literature seemed obvious for our brand. Lonely Planet releases one anthology of travel literature every year. "Our angle is to gather authors to write under a particular theme, and deliver a travel angle to that theme. "In 2010, we produced A Moveable Feast, which gathered food critics, celebrity chefs – such as Anthony Bourdain – and food bloggers to relay their most amazing food experience while travelling. "In 2011, our focus was on the film and TV industry, and our title Lights, Camera, Travel had celebrities such as Alec Baldwin, Brooke Shields and Paulina Porizkova describing their most fascinating travel stories while on set for work," says Zeiher. He adds that this year's anthology, the recently-released Better Than Fiction, collects real-life stories from fiction authors, including Booker Prize winners D.B.C. Pierre (Vernon God Little) and Keri Hulme (The Bone People) as well as bestselling authors Alexander McCall Smith, Joyce Carol Oates, and Isabel Allende. Currently, these non-guide books comprise approximately 17% of Lonely Planets' volume, and Zeiher expects this to continue rising in the years to come. "Whatever genre we publish in, we'll always ensure that the publication has a travel angle, and that the traveller is at the heart of the content. "We believe that publishing in other genres will inspire our travellers, and our loyal community, to think about destinations in different ways, and want to experience genuine connected travel experiences. "This is at the core of what it is that Lonely Planet does; connecting travellers to the heart of a place." |
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