Readings From Readings: New Malaysian Writing by Sharon Bakar


Readings From Readings: New Malaysian Writing
Title : Readings From Readings: New Malaysian Writing
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 9671029205
ISBN-10 : 9789671029206
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 198
Publication : First published February 1, 2011

An indonesian man is swept out to sea by the tsunami and encounters a floating tree filled with naked girls; a cat is successful in his application to become head of a government department; and a senior demon writes a progress report for his master on the state of the country. Elsewhere, characters struggle to make sense of mysterious events: a hungry student finds a clutch of eggs left on the doorstep; a child receives paintings of herself on her birthday each year from her absent father; an elderly uncfle claims the moon-shaped scars on his ear lobes are of supernatural provenance. There are pieces here about longing and loss, quilt and betrayal, and the struggle to stay afloat in difficult relationships. Anf of course about how it feels to return home.

Readings From Readings: New Malaysian Writing Reviews

  • Anna Tan

    I'm rather ambivalent about this book. I'd rate it somewhere between "it's ok" and "I liked it".
    There were some outstanding gems, such as Brian Gomez's "a/p", Jade-Yi Lo's "The girl with the ruby red shoes" and Rafil Elyas' "Progress report", and some pretty good pieces, such as Dina Zaman's "How to stay married", Clarissa Tan's "The visit" and Janet Tay's "The airport" but the overall feel of the book was an underwhelming meh.

    The second anthology, Readings 2 is a much better read and it was a good thing I picked that one up first. If I had started with this I would most likely have given that one a miss.

  • Nicole

    I picked this up for research and while I love the idea of Readings from Readings overall the stories left me feeling depressed. The stories that I identified with are It's all right Auntie, Salt and The girl with ruby red shoes. Some of the poems and stories I could not read as it was in malay.

  • Johnny B. Rempit

    Good mix of short stories and poetry. Since poetry isn't really my thing, I can't really fully appreciate the whole collection. 3 stars out of 5.