The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Posted: 11 Oct 2011 02:50 AM PDT Inspired by her own search for identity, a young woman establishes a literary prize to encourage stories about young lives in her part of the world. AFRICAN children have something in common with Malaysian children – they have limited choice when it comes to books that reflect their lives. Although the continent has produced many great novelists – three Nobel Prize for Literature winners, for instance: Wole Soyinka (1986), Nadine Gordimer (1991), and J.M. Coetzee (2003) – who have achieved international recognition through powerful accounts of life in the various African nations they hail from, there are no African children's authors of similar stature. Deborah Ahenkorah, 24, co-founder and executive director of the Golden Baobab Prize, grew up in Ghana reading Nancy Drew, the Famous Five and The Babysitters Club books. She says in an e-mail interview: "I didn't really realise the absence of African stories in my reading diet until I went to college in the United States on scholarship and I realised that I couldn't answer any questions on Africa because I didn't know Africa. I wanted to talk about America and Europe all the time, I knew those places ... through my books." *Full story in The Star today Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2011 01:45 AM PDT There are many things to admire about this novel, not the least the fact that the author simply writes extremely well. By Nightfall Author: Michael Cunningham Publisher: Fourth Estate, 238 pages BEAUTY is nothing but the beginning of terror" wrote Rainer Maria Rilke, and they are the words that Michael Cunningham chooses to place at the very beginning of his latest novel, By Nightfall. Some pages later, he presents us with one of the book's most powerful images: the book's protagonist, art dealer Peter Harris, has gone to New York's famed Metropolitan Museum of Art with a rival but friendly gallery owner to see Damien Hirst's infamous 14-foot shark pickled in formaldehyde. Peter's friend Bette stands against the glass case, in a literal sense just "an old woman looking into the mouth of a dead shark". But Bette has cancer and the shark has a sort of transcendent horror and beauty as she gazes past its lethal serrated teeth and into its mouth "which takes on the shade of the solution's blue, grayed and deepened, as it recedes into the shark's own inner darkness" Bette is a woman on the cusp of death, the shark in formaldehyde challenges conventional preconceptions of art gallery beauty, there is the terror of death for Bette and "It's something...," she says and, "It's an impressive gesture", says Peter, neither able to name what moves them but both aware that the strange beauty and the terror give a depth of meaning to their presence. He takes her hand in silent acknowledgement that this is some sort of farewell. Cunningham is by no means the first author to have explored the destructive power of beauty and By Nightfall contains many references to Thomas Mann, whose Death In Venice is the story of an older man destroyed by his love for a physically perfect boy. In one sense, By Nightfall is a reworking of that story. Peter is a reasonably successful New York art dealer, not in the top rank but successful enough to finance a loft in SoHo and the trappings of yuppiedom. His marriage is stable if unexciting and he is locked in the kind of middle-aged angst that is the curse of successful stagnation. Enter Mizzy, his wife's feckless brother. Beautiful, carefree, wandering and lost, Mizzy challenges all that Peter had thought he knew about himself, including his sexuality. Confronted by such beauty, Peter rapidly discovers the terror of his own existence. There are many things to admire about this novel. Cunningham writes extremely well – the dialogue is as sharp, concise and pithy as the city in which the book is set. He is also very good on relationships. The core triangle of Peter, his wife and Mizzy is explored in agonising detail although the focus is always on Peter, the extent of his self-analysis ringing true in the land of counselling and psychotherapy. But to give the impression that By Nightfall is simply a book about a midlife crisis would, I think, be highly misleading. Cunningham is interested in bigger things and the art world is core to the concerns of the book. Peter is perpetually in search of the elusive great artist to represent, an idealist reluctant to come to terms with the view of his gallery assistant that they are simply buyers and sellers of art, players in a global business. Peter's belief remains intact, that "a real work of art ... should radiate such authority, such bizarre but confident beauty (or unbeauty) that it cannot be undone". When Bette decides to close her gallery to enjoy a bucolic existence before death, she hands Peter one of her clients, Groff, an accomplished craftsmen who makes traditional-looking urns that, on closer inspection, reveal the profanities and obscenities that he has meticulously wrought on their surface. Beauty or ugliness? Or both? In another striking image, Peter exhibits an artist whose canvasses are carefully wrapped and varnished, the elaborate packaging hinting at something of value beneath but never revealing it. When the exhibition is taken down, the wrapping of one exhibit is torn, disclosing only an amateurish daub. The wrapping hides only an absence of talent and honesty. But perhaps my favourite artist in the book is the fictional (as far as I know) Victoria Hwang who takes videos and photographs of ordinary people in the street – a middle-aged woman searching for change for a parking meter, a young woman emerging from a bakery with a little white bag in her hand – blows them up large and turns them into superheroes of the hour complete with merchandising T-shirts, action figures, lunch boxes and Halloween costumes, all exhibited to the loud strains of the opening of Beethoven's Ninth. The interplay of Peter's personal and professional life allows Cunningham the opportunity to explore ideas about beauty and art, their importance and the effect they have on us. And if there are no neat solutions, that is only to be expected. I found By Nightfall gripping and thought-provoking, and Cunningham's writing was a constant delight. Even if the art world is not your scene, there is more than enough in his treatment of the central and fringe relationships to make this a stimulating and enjoyable read. Cunningham also wrote the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hours, which was made into an Oscar-winning movie of the same name in 2002 starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2011 01:45 AM PDT STILL looking in vain for high-quality picture books with Malaysian content? There are a handful out there, but until more titles hit the stores, books with Asian content are an alternative to those featuring a predominantly white cast of characters, and American or European settings. Rather than recommend individual titles, here are three publishers responsible for bringing some brilliant Asian content for children to the world. Enchanted Lion (enchantedlionbooks.com) – This family-owned, New York-based publisher has been around for just eight years but has an exceptionally interesting list comprising picture books, and non-fiction titles. On their website, the publishers declare that "books help children to cross all kinds of boundaries and borders long before they begin to grasp the world through actual travel and experience. We thus take as our task that of connecting young readers to the wonderfully diverse modes of expression that exist in the world, so that in the end they will feel that the whole world – with all of its wonderful, surprising and very real similarities and differences – is their home." Among the books with Asian content published by Enchanted Lion are Little Eagle and Me And Mao by Chen Jiang Hong, an award-winning Chinese author and illustrator who now lives in Paris. To order the books, click on the titles and you'll be directed to Amazon. Lee & Low Books (leeandlow.com) – Another family-owned company, Lee & Low was founded in 1991 with the intention of meeting the "need for stories that children of colour can identify with and that all children can enjoy." This publisher actually makes a special point to work with non-Caucasian writers and illustrators. Lee & Low have four imprints, each specialising in different types of books, including books created specially for classroom use. On the website, you can search for books under the "Asian & Asian American Interest" section. Here, there are books set in Cambodia, India, Japan, China and many other Asian countries as well as Asian communities, or simply featuring Asian characters. You can order books directly through the website. Kane Miller Children's Books (kanemiller.com) – Kane Miller's tagline is "Award-winning children's books from around the world" and you can search the website according to country. Asian countries on the list are China, India, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, and you may recognise some of the authors and illustrators published by this publisher. Taro Gomi's hilariously matter-of-fact Everyone Poops is one of their most popular titles, and the understated On My Way To Buy Eggs by Chih-Yuan Chen is one of my all-time favourite picture books. To order go to usbornebooksandmore.com. ■ 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 the above address and check out her blog at daphne.blogs.com/books. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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