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Posted: 04 May 2013 11:43 PM PDT

No, we're not talking about dry academic tomes. These are powerful fictional tales that make telling political points.

DESPITE being fictional, novels can often make as strong a statement about life as their non-fiction counterparts. As our nation goes to the polls today for our 13th general election, we look at some defining works of fiction that deal with politics, governance and society (arranged in no particular order)

1984 by George Orwell (1949): This classic dystopian novel talks about a society where compliant citizens are subjected to omnipresent government surveillance and mind control, and independent thought is criminalised. Though penned in 1949, Orwell's story feels ever-more plausible in our age of social media, electronic surveillance and online personal data collection.

All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946): Often touted as one of the best novels ever written on American politics, this Pulitzer Prize-winning work traces the dramatic political career of Willie Stark, who is said to resemble the real-life Huey "Kingfish" Long of Louisiana. An unvarnished look at how politics can alter one's convictions, Stark starts off as an idealistic "man of the people", but soon becomes corrupted by success.

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (1981): An allegorical novel that uses the story of its protagonist, Saleem Sinai, to examine India's transition from British colonialism to independence and the subsequent Partition of the country into India and Pakistan, this book was awarded the Booker Of Bookers Prize in 1993. Born at the stroke of midnight at the very moment of India's independence, Saleem finds that his life is mirrored in events that happen to his country, and remarkably, that he is linked with all the other children born in India at that same time.

Wag The Dog by Larry Beinhart (originally published as American Hero, 1993): This conspiracy novel uses satire to examine the role media propaganda can play in aiding the political process. Suggesting that Operation Desert Storm, the 1991 US invasion of Iraq, was scripted and engineered in order to get George H.W. Bush re-elected to a second term as US president, the book makes what initially seems like an improbable premise increasingly likely.

Blindness by Jose Saramago (1995): In this story by the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese author, a mysterious mass epidemic of blindness strikes the citizens of an unnamed city, creating a rapid breakdown of social order. The fractured government responds by quarantining more and more people. Mirroring the horror of many real-world events, this is a searing look at oppressive governing systems.

V For Vendetta by Alan Moore & David Lloyd (comic book series, 1982-1989): This celebrated graphic novel depicts a post-nuclear Britain, where a fascist party called Norsefire rules the country as a police state. Working to bring down this totalitarian government is a masked revolutionary known as V, who starts a violent yet highly theatrical campaign. Widely regarded as one of the best comic books ever written, this is an excellent examination of anarchy and freedom.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726): The book recounts the voyages of ship surgeon Lemuel Gulliver, who lands on four fantastical lands, each with its own races of people with unique systems of government and societies. This political parody uses fantasy and humour to examine themes that continue to be relevant today, such as government systems, corruption, discrimination and religious divides.

Big Breasts And Wide Hips by Mo Yan (2012): Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his stories that use magical realism to reflect on very real issues, Mo Yan traces China in the 20th century through the story of one person in this book. This tale of an ineffectual man who cannot wean himself from his mother's milk, is faced with constant bad luck and poverty, finds himself incarcerated, and then finally in the midst of a capitalistic society, is highly symbolic yet painful in its realities.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961): Set during World War II, this satirical historical novel follows a US army captain as he and his squadron struggle to keep their sanity amidst war and fulfil their duty so that they can return home. A darkly funny critique of bureaucratic reasoning and spurious legal processes, the book has also made "Catch-22" an oft-used phrase in the English language.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960): This Pulitzer Prize-winning classic is renowned for its themes of racial injustice set against the backdrop of a small town in the American Deep South during the Great Depression. Seen through the eyes of the six-year-old Scout, the story examines the trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman, and Scout's father Atticus who defends him. Besides laying bare issues of prejudice, the book also gives us, in Atticus Finch, one of the most famous fictional heroes ever written.

Bestsellers

Posted: 04 May 2013 11:42 PM PDT

FOR week ending April 28, 2013:

Non-fiction

1. Limitless: Devotions For A Ridiculously Good Life by Nick Vujicic

2. The Defining Decade by Meg Jay

3. Unstoppable: The Incredible Power Of Faith In Action by Nick Vujicic

4. Only 13: The True Story Of Lon by Julia Manzanares & Derek Kent

5. Chicken Soup For The Soul: The Power Of Positive by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Amy Newmark

6. Syed Mokhtar Albukhary: A Biography by Premilla Mohanlall

7. Creating A Purposeful Life by Richard Fox

8. Reclaim Your Heart by Yasmin Mogahed

9. Mummy's Little Helper: The Heartrending True Story Of A Young Girl Secretly Caring For Her Severely Disabled Mother by Casey Watson

10. Ninja: 1,000 Years Of The Shadow Warriors by John Man

Fiction

1. I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

2. Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

3. The Host (movie tie-in) by Stephenie Meyer

4. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

5. The Garden Of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

6. Best Kept Secret (Clifton Chronicles #3) by Jeffrey Archer

7. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

8. Manuscript Found In Accra by Paulo Coelho

9. Warm Bodies (movie tie-in) by Isaac Marion

10. Taken (Give & Take) by Kelli Maine

> Weekly list compiled by MPH Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur; www.mphonline.com.

Truly special books

Posted: 04 May 2013 11:41 PM PDT

ANOTHER great writer is lost to us. E.L. Konigsburg died on April 19, aged 83, from complications arising from a stroke.

She was the author of 21 books and won the Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honour for the very first two she published. They were perhaps her best known novels, From The Mixed-up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William Mckinley, And Me, Elizabeth. And 30 years later, Konigsburg won the Newbery Medal again, for my personal favourite, The View From Saturday.

I have only read five of Konigsburg's books – Mixed-Up Files, Saturday, The Second Mrs. Giaconda, A Proud Taste For Scarlet And Miniver, and, her last novel, The Mysterious Edge Of The Heroic World. I should really read more as I love and regularly re-read all but Mrs. Giaconda, which I don't own.

Konigsburg once said that the children in her books want to be like everyone else, but at the same time different too. They are real kids, and they are like us all. Don't we want to be special and yet accepted at the same time?

The Konigsburg children I know are ordinary kids with the usual fears and insecurities, but they are all also extraordinary people. Perhaps we are all extraordinary and simply need to be put in a novel for our gifts and special qualities to be noticed and recognised.

The View From Saturday is about four children who are chosen to form a team for an academic quiz. The story is told from the perspective of each of the children in turn, with Konigsburg looking closely into the lives, hearts and minds of each child, revealing more about individual characters as the story progresses by showing more about them, or, at times, the same details from different perspectives.

Like the other Konigsburg books I've read, Saturday is an easy and straightforward read in terms of language but a more complex one in terms of ideas and plot – Konigsburg's characters are usually in the process of finding themselves, grappling with questions of identity, trying to make sense of the roles they play in the world. And they are always trying to make connections – with people and places, needing to belong, and longing to live lives with meaning and make memories worth recalling.

A Proud Taste For Scarlet And Miniver is not a coming-of-age story but about Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was the wife of King Louis VII of France in the 12th century and, following the annulment of that marriage, she married King Henry II of England and bore him eight children, including two future English kings: Richard the Lionheart and John.

In Konigsburg's book, Eleanor has been in heaven for eight centuries, awaiting the admission of her husband, Henry II. While Eleanor waits, she is joined by three people from her life: Abbot Suger, friend and counsellor to King Louis VII; her mother-in-law, the Empress Matilda; and the soldier and statesman William the Marshal, who served the kings Henry II, Richard the Lionheart, John, and Henry III. The abbot, the empress and the marshal take turns to narrate their stories and, in this way, life in the royal courts of 12th century France and England is presented, along with Eleanor's role as the most important woman in both these worlds.

Konigsburg portrays the queen as an extraordinary and intelligent woman, full of grace, vitality, courage and imagination. Most of all, Eleanor is shown as a drily witty and headstrong woman who does not suffer fools.

Scarlet may sound like a book that would appeal more to adult readers, but it is written in a lovely, frank and friendly style, without the graphic violence or a great deal of the political intrigue one would find in a historical novel set in that period and written for adults. Kids who have to study that branch of history might find this book helpful.

There, Scarlet and Saturday are most definitely the Konigsburg books I like the best, but as there are 16 others (including three picture books and two short story collections) I have yet to read, perhaps I'll find myself with new favourites before too long. Whatever the case may be, Konigsburg has given the world some truly special books that I hope will continue to remain in print for many years to come. If you haven't already, do give this author's work a try.

> Daphne Lee is a writer, editor, book reviewer and teacher. She runs a Facebook group, called The Places You Will Go, for lovers of all kinds of literature. Write to her at star2@thestar.com.my.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 5 Mei 2013

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

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