Book Review: Readings from Readings

Readings from Readings: new Malaysian writing
Bernice Chauly & Sharon Bakar, editors
Word Works, 2011

 

I'm an avid follower of Sharon Bakar's blog. She provides wonderful insights on Malaysian English writing scenes. I've met her in person, when I read an excerpt of my story at Readings@Seksan's back in December 2010. I used to be horrible at public speaking, but I shed most of my jitters--most, not all. Sharon welcomed my whole family with warmth rivaling the sun's. I also met Amir Muhammad there, and it felt good to finally meet the people behind their internet presence.

But this is not about me, nor is it about my reading session. I'll start talking about the book. Yes, sir, ma'am, sir! I found this little book in Kinokuniya, where I almost always find storybooks that I end up buying. I love supporting local publications (and so should you), so I bought the book, priced at RM29.90, along with other titles (not local). As far as fiction goes, this book is sold at a good price.

The cover by Shahril Nizam is clean and simple, but most of all, beautiful. The pages are made from thick, high grade paper, and the layout is clean. I can't say I dig the scent of the pages, though. You know those storybooks with brownish, textured pages? God, I love their scent. Not that I'm being overly critical, mind. I'm just saying. By the way, this book is bilingual--most of the works are in English, but some are in Malay.

Having read numerous Malaysian-English anthologies, I've come to expect a certain pattern of storytelling that, in my opinion, has got to be Malaysian. Cynical stories that meander using elements that don't really contribute toward the climax, with twist endings that reveal how rotten people really are. Rapists, cheats, unfaithful partners,  and bullies, to name a few. And I wasn't disappointed--or, in actuality, I was disappointed to find such stories in this book. The opening story, "Moon Scars" by Lydia Teh epitomizes this. The first three quarters of the story tells the superstition of some villagers regarding the dangers of pointing at the moon, but ends with the uncle molesting/raping the niece, partly as a revenge toward his elder sister who used to be tough on him when they were younger. It's well-written, don't get me wrong; I just don't like this kind of stories, with the meandering and misleading plot device, and the trick/clever ending.

The second story, "It's All Right, Auntie" by Saras Manikam, continues this thread. The narrator is a little boy whose parents have marriage issues. His mother chooses to stay with her brother, while his father is always out, presumably working. The narrator's aunt feeds him, nagging on and on about his irresponsible parents. When his father finally arrives home after working all night, the narrator greets him, catches a whiff of perfume, but happily ignores it and agrees with his father about fetching his mother from his uncle's house.

Dipika Mukherjee tackles this trope with a much-refined grace, though. Her story, "The Rules of Chess" is about a young boy, who's a chess prodigy, whose parents live in separate countries because of work. Like most geniuses he is socially awkward and vies people like objects, pieces of chess. His father has plenty of mistresses, a fact that his mother is well-aware of, but she overlooks his vice because she refuses to lose him. Somewhere in the beginning of the story, the narrator mentions about his maid's mysterious death, but the real culprit is revealed in the climax, where a sacrificial chess move is made in order to save the king. Beautifully written, with a great story arc, and of which all the elements are used to progress and end the story.

In Malaysia, sex is taboo. No, strike that. Taking about sex is taboo. And for a woman to openly talk about sex? People usually brand them with vulgar labels. It came as a pleasant surprise when Nora Adam tells a story about a woman craving for sex from her husband in "Waiting". The husband is not cheating on her; he's just not that into her anymore. I don't normally like second-person point of view narration, but this one is well done, and is highly entertaining. Dina Zaman's story, "How to Stay Married" is also about sex life from a wife's perspective. The story unfolds at an almost lazy pace, taking its time to tell itself. It also reveals how far a woman is willing to go to keep her husband happy and loyal. To tell you the truth, these two stories are eye-openers. I didn't know Malaysian women can talk about their sex life (or lack thereof) so openly. I'm not talking about the authors, but the main characters in the stories.

Karl Hutchingson's "Harding" is one of those quiet stories ends up tearing your heart open. A beautiful literary piece about parents who still mourn over their firstborn, a toddler who had been killed during WWI. I love this one.

Kam Raslan read his story "Betrayal" the same day I read my story, but it was an excerpt. Luckily the story is included in this anthology. The narrator's voice is rich, and I can easily imagine him with his tailored clothing and ruler-straight back, and a slight British accent (he's Malay). His exchange with a couple of perfume promoters is hilarious, but like most comical stories, it ends with a tragedy.

If I'm not mistaken, Jordan MacVay's "The Six Maidens" is part of something longer. It's about a young man, lost at sea after a tsunami wrecked his home, who encounters six naked women stranded on a tree-top. Instead of getting excited and aroused, he is only curious, and cannot help the women as he and his friend are equally helpless. He turns to God for strength. The story, although well-written, doesn't quite work for me. One, it feels incomplete--but I'll overlook this because this story is a small piece of a whole. Two, I'm not so sure about the narrative voice. The story is told in first-person point of view, but there is no indication about his education level. He's pious, that much is clear. The narrative voice is that of someone well-educated and well-read. It's a bit out of place, given the context of the story. Not among the stronger pieces in this book.

Brian Gomez's "a/p" is one of the strongest ones, though. The story is about twin girls, separated when they were still infants. Both parents are Indians, but the father married a Malay woman and converted to Islam. He wanted both his daughters and he wanted them converted as well, but the girls' mother struggles for her own right. It's a story about acceptance (or the lack of it, rather), and the story also shows how mean the community (even children) can be. Rich voice, memorable prose, and subtle but poignant messages. A definite asset in this volume.

"The Third Man" by Bernice Chauly and "Weather or Not" by Muslin Abdul Hamid are...weird. And disturbing. Definitely disturbing. That's all I can say. Sharon Bakar's "Homunculus" is entertaining, in a morbid way. The narrator's mother has this obsession for articles and pictures of cancerous growth, and when she develops terminal cancer, she becomes a subject for a cancer-related article, without her knowledge. The story's too short for me to empathize with any of the characters, but it's entertaining.

"Eh, Saya Orang Islam! Tak Boleh!" (roughly translated: "Eh, I'm a Muslim! Cannot!") by Reza Rosli is about and eighteen-year-old boy who's eager to be independent and to explore the wonders of city life, but ends up getting pinned against an alley wall by a passive-aggressive man. The man wanted the boy to give him a blow job, but when the boy refuses and explains how wrong homosexual acts are in Islam, the man just gets confused and offers to blow the boy instead. I really don't see where this story leads. I've read excellent GLBT stories; this just isn't one of them.

Another story that I don't see where it leads is "Chicken or the Egg?" by Shanthini Vanugopal. A group of university students in Toronto, and one of them finds a cluster of eggs at the front door arranged in a semi-circle, and cooks them. When the friends find out (after taking a bite), they get all kampung and superstitious and act like village idiots, seeking a priest's blessing. But the mystery of the eggs is never solved. The narrator even asks the readers for theories. WTF?!

I am thankful that there is a beautiful story named "Strolling Between Two Latitudes" by Chiew-Siah Tei to save the day. It is a simple one; a woman who grew up in Tampin spends her adulthood in Glasgow and compares the two places, both worlds apart. At first she notices how Glasgow is not quite like home, but later on it's the other way around, and then the differences blur and no longer matters. A simple story, but with a deep connotation. A solid piece.

I don't normally like politics-laced fiction, but I like Rafil Elyas's "Progress Report". It's a satirical piece about the racial divide in Malaysia between its independence in 1957 and the year 2007. But it's written as a progress report by the demon Mephistopheles to the lord of the underworld. The demon's also not subtle about his desire to climb up the administration ladder. Wonderfully depicted, complete with graphs and charts. Funny as hell (pun intended).

There are two stories in Malay, "Pada Hari Fatimah Comot Bawa Sayap Pari-Pari ke Sekolah" ("The Day Fatimah Comot/Grubby Fatimah Brought Fairy Wings to School") by Sufian Abas, and "Cat" (I still can't figure out it's "Cat" or "Paint"--both elements are featured in the story) by Uthaya Sankar SB. Both of them are from children's perspective, but while the first story is a solid piece about how mean and jealous children can be, the second reads like something a ten-year old would write for his essay exam. It's a thinly-veiled satirical piece about the administrative office, but stylistically it's awkward and immature. Then again, the story is told in first-person point of view, and maybe the author had intended to pull the story off this way. Whatever it is, the story feels weird.

Peter G. Brown's "Blackmail" borders preachy, which isn't always a good thing. Wait. Preachy is never a good thing. A man commits adultery, but eventually learns the err of his ways and wants to do commit his mistress toward the right path--only she rejects that path. And he gets blackmailed, so he's seeking God's mercy and grace. The plot is common enough, but the presentation is preachy.

I think Ellen Whyte's "Why Malaysian Cats Have Kinky Tails" is an anecdotal non-fiction. I don't see that many factual citations to back this piece, but it's good to know that Malaysian cats' twisted tailbones don't come with a genetic defect like with other cats. Thank God. My cat Keeno has a stumpy, twisted tail.

"Airport" by Janet Tay uses second-person and third-person points-of-views. I'm holding the book in my hands, but I'm still glossing over the story. Very eh.

My favorite story, hands down, is "The Girl With Ruby Red Shoes" by Jade-Yi Lo. It's about a father's love that transcends death, about a daughter discovering her father whom she never really knew, and about a mother whose quiet strength, though underplayed, is not left unnoticed. It's a story about hope and a family's love toward each other. God, why can't there be more stories like this? Why won't Malaysians write stories that showcase the beauty of a relationship between loved ones? Why can't there be hope for a better tomorrow, a better place? This is one beautiful story. Read it.

 

As for poetry, I on occasion read it, and sometimes write it. But since I haven't learned the craft, I cannot truly appreciate the lines behind the curves. So I won't comment much on the poems in this book. A quick glance, sure. I love Alina Rastam's first piece, "Pantun", but I find the other two ("My Lover's Hands" and "Brickfields: One Saturday") a tad pretentious and overreaching. Although Jerome Kugan's poems ("Jellyfish", "Salt" and "Joy") are blatantly sexual--well, maybe "Jellyfish" isn't blatant--they are tastefully written, as opposed to Azwan Ismail's "Misteri Zakar", which is plain crass. There's art, and there's vulgarity. This particular piece is the latter.

Sharanya Manivannan has two beautiful pieces in this anthology, "Frida to Sharanya" and "A Minute Thing", but to me, these pieces are meant to be read aloud to be fully appreciated. Same goes for Liyana Dizzy's "Grand Parents".

As for the rest? They don't leave an impression on me, and I'm not trained enough to be discerning. Rather than saying bad out of ignorance, I find it wiser to not say anything.

 

There are typos scattered across the volume, but not that glaring to be annoying--unlike a certain anthology that I refuse to finish reading in view of the abysmal editorial effort. This book proves that brilliant writers exist here in Malaysia, writers who evoke emotions, who make me laugh, who make me reach for the characters. Just like the reading sessions at Seksan's, this book provides a platform for Malaysian-English writers to showcase their talent, to be noticed, to be appreciated.

I hope you'll buy this book. Or you can borrow mine (just remember to return it. I'm absent-minded). I also hope there will be more anthologies such as this, that include voices both old and new.

Bernice and Sharon, if you ever read this, be proud of what you have achieved.

Comments

[Zen]

Great review, Fadz! I like how frank you are. :) Brian Gomes's story was the reason why I picked up "Body 2 Body" and it was IMO the strongest story in the book, so am pleased to hear he's in this as well.

I saw Liyana Dizzy perform once and enjoyed it a lot, though I'm not big on poetry and have a prejudice against spoken word. Agree that her poetry needs to be heard to be appreciated.

[Fadzlishah Johanabas]

Thanks, Zen. I have Body2Body too, and I like Brian's story. As for the rest of the book, it's what I expected out of most GLBT anthologies. Persecution, lack of acceptance (even from the MC themselves), and mainly anger. It's difficult to find stories that celebrate the beauty of relationship.

Have you read David Levithan's "How They Met, and other stories"? Beautiful.

[bibliobibuli]

Thanks Fadz for taking the time to write a review of our book and to do such a thorough job. It was really nice to see what you think of the pieces. You write really well too.

[Lydia Chai]

Thanks for the casual and enjoyable review.

I think all poetry should be written with the intention of being spoken out loud. The words on the page are like a music score to the recital. IMHO!

Lydia

[Fadzlishah Johanabas]

Thanks for publishing the book, Sharon. It's a product of love, I can tell. Is it OK if I submit prose AND poetry for "Readings from Readings 2"?

Thanks, Lydia. Though some poems are content on the pages (and some should remain in written form), there are those that just stand out when recited, especially with instrumental music accompaniment. I love such poems.

[bibliobibuli]

Sure it is, Fadz. Looking forward to your entries.

[UGG Boots]

Two star-crossed lovers in perfect harmony Just give me a chance and you will agree.
I was meant for you.
And you were meant for me.