Category: Lit Review

What’s the next best thing to eating good food?

Why, to read great writing on food, of course! Here at Lit Books, we have a growing selection of delectable food books. Evocative and vivid, these six delicious reads will give you much to chew on.

 

Super Sushi Ramen Express: One Family’s Journey Through the Belly of Japan by Michael Booth
From the author of The Almost Nearly Perfect People comes a fascinating and funny culinary journey through Japan

Japan is arguably the preeminent food nation on earth; it’s a mecca for the world’s greatest chefs and has more Michelin stars than any other country. The Japanese go to extraordinary lengths and expense to eat food that is marked both by its exquisite preparation and exotic content. Their creativity, dedication, and courage in the face of dishes such as cod sperm and octopus ice cream are only now beginning to be fully appreciated in the sushi and ramen-saturated West, as are the remarkable health benefits of the traditional Japanese diet.

Food and travel writer Michael Booth takes the culinary pulse of contemporary Japan, learning fascinating tips and recipes that few westerners have been privy to before. Accompanied by two fussy eaters under the age of six, he and his wife travel the length of the country, from bear-infested, beer-loving Hokkaido to snake-infested, seaweed-loving Okinawa. Along the way, they dine with — and score a surprising victory over — sumo wrestlers, pamper the world’s most expensive cows with massage and beer, share a seaside lunch with free-diving female abalone hunters, and meet the greatest chefs working in Japan today. Less happily, they witness a mass fugu slaughter, are traumatised by an encounter with giant crabs, and attempt a calamitous cooking demonstration for the lunching ladies of Kyoto. (RM79.90)

 

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
An irresistible feast of humour and heart, this is the bestselling, much-loved classic account of an English couple enjoying the fruits of French rural living.

Peter Mayle and his wife did what most of us only imagine doing when they made their long-cherished dream of a life abroad a reality: Throwing caution to the wind, they bought a glorious 200-year-old farmhouse in the Lubéron Valley in Provence, France and began a new life.

In a year that begins with a marathon lunch and continues with a host of gastronomic delights, they also survive the unexpected and often hilarious curiosities of rural life. From mastering the local accent and enduring invasion by bumbling builders, to discovering the finer points of boules and goat-racing, all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life are conjured up in this enchanting portrait. (RM54.90)

 

The Table Comes First by Adam Gopnik
From the author of Paris to the Moon comes a beguiling tour of the morals and manners of our present food mania, in search of eating’s deeper truths.

Never before have we cared so much about food. It preoccupies our popular culture, our fantasies, and even our moralising. With our top chefs as deities and finest restaurants as places of pilgrimage, we have made food the stuff of secular seeking and transcendence, finding heaven in a mouthful. But have we come any closer to discovering the true meaning of food in our lives? With inimitable charm and learning, Adam Gopnik takes us on a beguiling journey in search of that meaning as he charts America’s recent and rapid evolution from commendably aware eaters to manic, compulsive gastronomes. (RM63.90)

 

The Whole Fromage: Adventures in the Delectable World of French Cheese by Kathe Lison
The French, sans doute, love their fromages. And there’s much to love: hundreds of gloriously pungent varieties — crumbly, creamy, buttery, even shot through with bottle-green mould. So many varieties, in fact, that the aspiring gourmand may wonder: How does one make sense of it all?

In The Whole Fromage, Kathe Lison sets out to learn what makes French cheese so remarkable — why France is the “Cheese Mother Ship”, in the words of one American expert. Her journey takes her to cheese caves tucked within the craggy volcanic rock of Auvergne, to a centuries-old monastery in the French Alps, and to the farmlands that keep cheesemaking traditions alive. She meets the dairy scientists, shepherds, and affineurs who make up the world of modern French cheese, and whose lifestyles and philosophies are as varied and flavourful as the delicacies they produce. Most delicious of all, she meets the cheeses themselves — from spruce-wrapped Mont d’Or, so gooey it’s best eaten with a spoon; to luminous Beaufort, redolent of Alpine grasses and wildflowers, a single round of which can weigh as much as a Saint Bernard; to Camembert, invented in Normandy but beloved and imitated across the world.

With writing as piquant and rich as a well-aged Roquefort, as charming as a tender springtime chèvre, and yet as unsentimental as a stinky Maroilles, The Whole Fromage is a tasty exploration of one of the great culinary treasures of France. (RM52.90)

 

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Homer called it a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. As Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates here, salt has shaped civilisation from the beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of mankind. Wars have been fought over salt and, while salt taxes secured empires across Europe and Asia, they have also inspired revolution — Gandhi’s salt march in 1930 began the overthrow of British rule in India. (RM57.90)

 

Butter: A Rich History by Elaine Khosrova
It’s a culinary catalyst, an agent of change, a gastronomic rock star. Ubiquitous in the world’s most fabulous cuisines, butter is boss. Here, it finally gets its due.

After traveling across three continents to stalk the modern story of butter, award-winning food writer and former pastry chef Elaine Khosrova serves up a story as rich, textured, and culturally relevant as butter itself. From its humble agrarian origins to its present-day artisanal glory, butter has a fascinating story to tell. With tales about the ancient butter bogs of Ireland, the pleasure dairies of France, and the sacred butter sculptures of Tibet, Khosrova details butter’s role in history, politics, economics, nutrition, and even spirituality and art. Readers will also find the essential collection of core butter recipes, including beurre manié, croissants, pâte brisée, and the only buttercream frosting anyone will ever need, as well as practical how-tos for making various types of butter at home — or shopping for the best. (RM79.90)

Who: Ahmed Saadawi is an Iraqi novelist, poet, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Frankenstein in Baghdad is his third novel. It won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2014 and is shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2018.

What: Frankenstein in Baghdad is set in war-ravaged Baghdad. Stitched together from the body parts of bombing victims, the Frankenstein is animated by the spirit of vengeance and wreaks havoc in a city that does not discriminate between the guilty and the innocent. Meanwhile, city authorities struggle to maintain some semblance of order in an increasingly anarchic state while rapacious opportunists take advantage of the chaos to increase their personal wealth and forward their own political ambitions.

Why: It is always refreshing to encounter a novel that does what it claims to do, namely, be novel. War novels are particularly guilty of failing to introduce new ideas resorting to tried and true set pieces: love in a time of war, redemption, the brotherhood and fraternity of soldiering, innocence in a time of war — it’s all pretty much been done. This is not to say that they aren’t excellent reads, but simply that there hasn’t been anything novel of late. Not really.

Enter Frankenstein in Baghdad: set in US-occupied Central Baghdad, the story is told through the lens of several protagonists. Further uniting this cast of characters is the mysterious Frankenstein of Baghdad — a creation of Hadi the junk dealer who creates the golem from the body parts of bombing victims, ostensibly to ensure that the bombing victims receive a proper burial as a whole corpse rather than discarded as bits of detritus.

The creation, named Whatsisname by his father, is animated by the spirit of vengeance and seeks to bring justice to those responsible for killing the former owners of his body parts. In doing so, the Whatsisname builds a cult status of his own, gathering a troop of disenfranchised and downtrodden to do his bidding, including locating spare replacement body parts.

Meanwhile, the ambitious but naive journalist Mahmoud has found in the monster the makings of a story that will propel him towards fame and, hopefully, the bed linens of one Nawal al-Wazir. Nawal, unfortunately, is the girl Friday of his boss, Ali Baher al-Saidi, whose appetite for power is matched only by that of Brigadier Sorour Mohamed Majid, the head of the enigmatic Tracking and Pursuit Department. Both men intend to make the most of opportunities presented by the war to increase their influence over a reeling city that will nevertheless return to some semblance of order at some point.

All the while the widow Elishva, also known as Umm Daniel or Daniel’s mother, maintains her vigil for her lost son who disappeared during the Iran-Iraq conflict some two decades earlier. A fervent Christian, she cajoles and negotiates with the portrait of St George on her wall to fulfil his promise and return to her her beloved son. And it is a case of prayers answered when she comes across the assembled corpse at Hadi’s house next to hers.

Frankenstein in Baghdad is at once an absurdist comedy, an experiment in magical realism and a moralistic fable about the inanity of war. Surreal without the dizzying imagery that accompanies like-novels and darkly satirical without becoming punch-drunk, the story benefits from Jonathan Wright’s direct and lean translation and Saadawi’s wry sense of humour. But there should be no mistake — Saadawi makes a strong editorial comment about the war in the book: That it is senseless, vicious and ultimately absurd.

Indeed, the inclusion of Mary Shelley’s creation only serves to make taut the tension between the real and unreal in the reader’s mind. Was there truly a golem going about Baghdad? Or is it the fevered imaginings of a teller of tall tales, the made up enemy of a militant state seeking to establish an enemy — no matter how fantastic — to marshal popular support for itself?

What is plenty real, however, is that war is hell. War is protean, paradoxical and meaningless, and Whatsisname embodies these paradoxes: His goal is to obtain justice, but justice can only be obtained by performing an injustice, which in turn requires justice, and so on. Inevitably, the conviction that justice was being served becomes increasingly cloudy: “I held firm to the idea that I had only hastened the old man’s death. I was not a murderer: I had merely plucked the fruit of death before it fell to the ground.”

It is that sort of reckoning against one’s sense of self that forms the meat of the book not just for the monster but for all the residents caught within the conflict’s vortex.

Verdict: Despite there being a Frankenstein monster, the lack of a central focal point, which may very well be the point of the whole story, is a bit distracting. (7/10)

Availability: Paperback, RM69.90

Written by Poon Jin Feng, Lit Review contributor

Who: Leonard Mlodinow is a theoretical physicist and author of several New York Times best-sellers, including The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behaviour, The Grand Design co-authored with Stephen Hawking, and War of the Worldviews, co-authored with Deepak Chopra. But lest you think the man is a humourless science bot with nothing but quantum research and multiple award-winning books to his name, he was also a writer on TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation and McGyver – whatever that might be worth. Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change is his latest book.

What: Elastic captures in a single-world title Mlodinow’s belief that success in a time of overwhelming output lies in a flexible cognitive style. The sheer volume of information and speed at which things change today is exponentially higher than in decades past and the dizzying pace at which all this takes place necessitates cognitive mechanisms that are not just effective, but efficient.

There are compelling examples to illustrate this point. Between 2004 and 2014, over 5,000 new scientific journals were created to accommodate an estimated three million journal articles a year. The number of websites in existence doubles every two to three years. Social behaviours are constantly being challenged and reshaped with the global reach of the Internet pushing communities both online and offline to consider new ideas and adjust accordingly.

Elastic thinking, hence, refers to the ability to face and produce ideas intelligently, epitomising the phrase “work smarter, not harder”. It propagates imaginative, original and non-linear thinking as well as play with new paradigms. In short, it’s the source of invention and innovation, allowing for a break-away from convention to dabble with possibilities, however far-fetched.

Why: Faced with a tsunami of information to sift through daily and with disruption a key theme in new ideas and platforms – requiring constant adaption and “unlearning” – mental agility becomes a necessity. The good news is that Mlodinow believes such nimbleness can be trained, if not an inherent trait; we can become smarter consumers and creative generators. Elastic thinking increases the “capacity to let go of comfortable ideas and become accustomed to ambiguity and contradiction”.

Mlodinow’s ideas in themselves are not original. He doesn’t dismiss analytical thinking – seen as the antithesis to elastic thinking with its formulaic or logical processes – but encourages greater attention to the latter with applications incorporating the former. What he does do well is pair the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology to explain the whys and hows of elastic thinking, all presented in a conversational, comprehensible manner. The book is approachable, tackling what could be an intimidating or foreign (for the first-timer) subject with informal ease. Four sections cover confronting change, how we think, where new ideas come from, and liberating your brain. Within these sections, each chapter opens with an anecdote and relates the scenario to a bigger behaviour or practice at play. Anyone with sufficient attention span could get through Elastic easily enough and grasp the concepts. At its worst, this serves as an up-to-date compilation of theories, findings and applications. At its best, it’s a relatively quick manual on how to reframe the way we think to not just survive, but thrive.

Verdict: Does a solid job of providing a glimpse into the fascinating subject that is the flexibility of the human mind and how it has helped man flourish across centuries and around the world. (7.5/10)

Availability: Trade paperback, RM86.90

Special thanks to Times Distribution for an ARC of the book. 

Ready Player One (RP1) is a flawed novel. Among its blemishes is its narrow focus in that it was written for readers to get “it” — the “it” being the cultural artifacts of the 80s. It appealed to those who remember Pac Man, Popeye and Donkey Kong arcade cabinets, Galaga-type shooters, Ghostbusters, Ferris Bueller and A-Ha!, and those who thought that Molly Ringwald was going to be the best actress in the world forever. The Delorean DMC-12 was the coolest car in the world, followed by Kit from Knight Rider; Dungeons and Dragons was so seriously real that religious leaders and concerned relatives felt a need to confiscate your d20s and 12s as well as your Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide.

If you got those references, you should have felt a quick shot of dopamine course through your body — such is the power of nostalgia. The book, though boasting a quest at its heart, wizards, puzzles and a bad guy, is a matrix of arguably empty nostalgia that nevertheless sends a jolt of pleasure every now and then to the reader in the know. The characters of the book, similarly, had little about them except for their own obsession with the 80s. Perhaps the only detail well-fleshed out in the book, albeit briefly and in flashes, is the sorry state of the planet.

A quick rehash of the overall story:

21st-century earth is a shithole. The only escape is The Oasis, a virtual wonderland created by eccentric genius James Halliday. The Oasis, a reprieve from reality, enjoys mass success and becomes a surrogate for reality. Schools and lessons are held in the virtual world, and it’s also the platform for most business and commercial transactions. Corporations make a mint selling hardware and advertising space to Oasis users, and could probably be making a lot more if not for the restrictions imposed by Halliday.

Commercial restrictions aside, Halliday has also designed The Oasis as a homage to the 1980s due to his lifelong obsession with the decade. Following his death, Halliday announces a quest, the winner of which will be the beneficiary of half a trillion dollars and become the sole owner of Oasis. This sparks a massive hunt by individuals and corporations alike for the quest’s prize — an Easter Egg hidden somewhere within the VR world. These Egg Hunters, or Gunters, need to overcome three puzzles to retrieve the Egg.

Wade Watts is one such Gunter. He solves the first quest — the first to do so in the years since the quest was first announced — and becomes the hottest asset in The Oasis. This puts him in the cross-hairs of other Gunters as well as IOI Corporation, a nefarious company seeking to gain ownership of The Oasis for commercial exploitation. To ensure the Oasis is safe from IOI, Wade, together with his loose coalition of friends, must solve the puzzles and find the Egg before IOI does.

What the Movie Does Well

As with most movie adaptations, the movie is a fraction of the length of the book but manages to address a critical flaw in the book, namely, the flatness of the characters. Character definition was poorly executed in the book leaving readers with a fairly forgettable description of the main characters save that they were all obsessed with the 80s, two of them were good and one of them was evil. The movie, by giving the protagonist’s love interest Art3mis a greater sense of purpose, gives her greater depth as a person and not just an online persona as represented in the book. Wade, unfortunately, remains as uninteresting as he was in the book.

The movie also rejigs the quests the Gunters have to solve from the book. No doubt the quests in the movie — a Mario Kart-ish race, and a set-piece based on Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining — were chosen because it made for better visuals than the book’s. The latter involved mainly arcade cabinets and old text adventure games. The cinematography and planning for The Shining stand out in particular, even if zombies were added to it. In hindsight, the quest revisions in the movie helped sweep away a lot of unnecessary geek humour littering the book. For example, the first quest in the book involved playing Joust with an undead lich.

The final battle was certainly fun even if it did revert to the RP1‘s formula of invoking nostalgic artefacts, but this time from the not so distant past. Keep an eye out for the following characters in the Battle of Anorak:

• Master Chief, Halo
• Tracer, Overwatch
• Robocop (in the original silver)
• Lara Croft, Tomb Raider

There’s a lot more. There’s even a shout-out to Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything in the final battle. But see what I did there? Just as the movie does, I’m establishing my pop culture cred by being able to pick out all these references and cultural artefacts and thereby raising my esteem amongst my peer groups (one hopes). It’s pretty much what Rob Gordon in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity says: “What really matters is what you like, not what you are like.”

What the Movie Doesn’t Do So Well

Casting. Tye Sutherland (who looks like a cross between Tom Hardy and Ashton Kutcher) was not a good choice for Wade Watts and was comprehensively outdone by his Oasis avatar in almost every way. I was unpersuaded by his motivations in the movie and his character is too shell-shocked and overwhelmed to lead an army in the final battle. It’s also inconceivable that Art3mis played by Olivia Cooke would develop any romantic feelings for him. Wade is at worst a selfish brat and at best a juvenile naif.

The Big Picture. In the William Gibson Neuromancer universe, the price humanity pays for virtual-fication of reality is clearly spelled out. The trade off is much less clear in RP1 where The Oasis exists as a gaming wonderland. Yet clearly a price has to be paid because one of the “improvements” introduced by Wade and Art3mis in the movie is regular shutdowns for the virtual world so people would switch-off to engage in the real world. This didactic point is raised throughout the movie as well, although it never really offers a good reason why the real world is better. It’s fundamentally a philosophical question but perhaps a good thing that the hoary chestnut was left undeveloped.

Empty nostalgia. This is more of a pet peeve than legitimate criticism of the movie but I’ve always wondered if nostalgia is a legitimate literary device. Must we distinguish between empty nostalgia and ostensibly the kind that’s more full and meaningful? And is it fair to expect the latter from a movie as, after all, nostalgia is a subjective function? So while on the one hand, I enjoyed (on some primitive level) recognising certain references, there is also another part of me that feels a bit tawdry because of the cheap thrill.

Verdict

My first impression after watching the movie was that the book was better. But now that I’ve revisited the book again, I am reminded of the flaws that made this book really slow going. After all that’s said and done, it’s a Spielberg movie and those seldom venture into the unwatchable terrain. It’s also got some great CGI and effects. The book, meanwhile, retains some charm although it will appeal more to those who grew up in the 80s.

So 80s nerds and geeks: Read the book and watch the movie. Everyone else should probably just stick with the movie.

Who: Former CIA analyst Karen Cleveland hung her intelligence hat up in exchange for a writing career. Need To Know is her debut novel, and the film rights for the book have already been bought by Universal Pictures (Charlize Theron is reportedly acting in it).

What: CIA counterintelligence analyst Vivian Miller is working on uncovering a Russian sleeper cell in the US. After accessing the computer of a potential Russian operative, Vivian stumbles on a secret dossier of deep-cover agents and discovers to her utter horror that one of the sleeper agents is her husband, the man she has been married to for over two decades and has four children with. She is faced with impossible choices, torn between loyalty and betrayal, allegiance and treason, love and suspicion.

Why: While the whole espionage premise may be outside most of our scope of personal experience, the emotional turmoil, the hurt and betrayal that Vivian has to deal with is only too familiar for some of us. Right from the first chapter, we discover with Vivian that her husband is a Russian spy. We are taken through the gamut of emotions that such a revelation undoubtedly brings: shock, horror and disbelief, followed quickly by self-questioning and distrust. The bulk of the novel focuses on Vivian’s struggle to come to terms with the truth, and she replays their years together and sees that all the red flags she missed were there all along. Being a CIA agent, this is especially galling for her, and we feel nothing but sympathy for Vivian.

The story of their past is juxtaposed with the present, where Vivian makes the decision, for better or worse, to protect her family. That decision eventually comes to a head in a showdown with the Russian handler. Yes, it takes some time to get there, but the last quarter of the book is where all the action takes place. There are twists that you may or may not have seen coming, culminating in an ending that will likely make your jaw drop.

Verdict: While Cleveland takes her time to flesh out the characters and their stories, she manages to deliver a satisfactorily heart-thumping espionage thriller. (6.5/10)

Cultural Touchpoints: The TV series, The Americans

Availability: Trade paperback, RM79.90

Special thanks to Times Distribution for an ARC of the book.

Introducing a new guest contributor for Lit Review, Hannah Azlan. 

Who: Japanese novelist Hideo Yokoyama specialises in mystery novels but has said that the crime is the least interesting part of his stories; instead, he likes to focus on the psychology and social dynamics of characters affected by the crime. His 15th novel, Six Four, was the first to be translated into English. Seventeen is the second novel of his translated into English.

What: The year is 1985, and Kazumasa Yuuki, a seasoned reporter at the North Kanto Times, is running a daily gauntlet against the power struggles and office politics that plague its newsroom. But when an air disaster of unprecedented scale occurs on the paper’s doorstep, its staff are united by an unimaginable horror, and a once-in-a-lifetime scoop.

Fast forward to 2003, 17 years later — Yuuki remembers the adrenaline-fuelled, emotionally charged seven days that changed his and his colleagues’ lives. He does so while making good on a promise he made that fateful week — one that holds the key to its last unsolved mystery, and represents Yuuki’s final, unconquered fear.

Why: This languidly paced novel focuses more on newspaper politics and is less investigative thriller than the blurb suggest. It examines the impact investigating an air crash has on a group of reporters and editors than the crash itself. Yuuki as a character makes for an interesting study, and the novel opens with him about to tackle a mountain climb. There’s something very Japanese about the way the present story of a climb up a difficult mountain face is juxtaposed against the main event of the air crash, which happened 17 years ago. The translation, however, feels distanced and somewhat opaque, and it feels like we’re experiencing the story from few steps back rather than directly. I found myself skimming in parts but there is a metaphysical mystique that does keep one reading.

Verdict: A dense read to be sure, but one that deftly explores the psychological aspects of its characters. (5.5/10)

Availability: Trade paperback, RM79.90

Special thanks to Times Distribution for an ARC of the book. 

Hey folks! Nothing gives Elaine and me greater pleasure when we meet kids excited about reading and so when this young man, Ng Zan Lim, aged 10 and a bit, said he wanted to write a review for us, we were quite over the moon! Zan Lim recently read Lissa Evans’ superb book, ‘Wed Wabbit’ which is beloved by Elaine as well. The following is his review of the story, which provides a good overall summary and why he thinks his fellow peers should read the book. 

Spoiler Alert!

I would like to write a review about a book called Wed Wabbit. It is the cover that attracted me into reading this awesome book. The story is about Fidge and her cousin Graham in Wimbley Land trying to go home while finding Minnie’s toys which are a carrot, an elephant, a phone and Wed Wabbit (Minnie’s favourite toy).

In Wimbley land, there are different colours of Wimbley Woos. There are blue, green, yellow, pink, purple and grey Wimbley Woos. Blue are strong, green are daring, yellow are timid, purple understands the past and the future of Wimbley Land, pink give cuddles and grey are wise and rarely wrong. It is an interesting, funny and adventurous book because Fidge and Graham have to understand some mysterious poems and riddles from the purple and grey Wimbley Woos while they go on difficult obstacles along the way.

If I were to rate this book from a scale of one to ten, I would choose eight because it is the best book I have ever read in a very long time. I would recommend it for children aged 10 or above. I wish Lissa Evans could make Wed Wabbit 2. I would suggest more characters inside the story and more poems and riddles for everyone to solve. I would also suggest 7 more colours and one or more city for the Wimbley Woos.

Thank you for reading this book review until the end. 🙂

Who: Libby Page wrote The Lido while working in marketing and moonlighting as a writer. She graduated from the London College of Fashion with a BA in Fashion Journalism before going on to work as a journalist at The Guardian. The Lido is her debut novel.

What: The Lido’s story isn’t unfamiliar: the Brockwell Lido, an outdoor swimming area in Brixton, a district of South London, is under threat of redevelopment. Luxury property developer Paradise Living intends to buy over the lido from the district council, fill the pool with cement, and transform the lido into a private gym for their property owners. Octogenarian Rosemary Peterson who has been swimming in the lido since she was a child will have nothing doing with the plan and marshals the swimmers of Brockwell Lido to oppose the sale.

The citizen’s action group catches the interest of local rag the Brixton Chronicle, which sends junior reporter Kate to cover the story. Kate, as we are introduced to her, is a mousy 20-something, leading a lonely existence occasionally blighted by anxiety attacks. Because of her social dysfunction, her day-to-day is a long, repetitive walk in a corridor of darkness and silence, avoiding people and with her head stuck firmly looking at the ground. Her evenings are spent watching documentaries with titles such as The Boy who Wants to Cut off His Arm and she “drinks one glass [of wine] too many, because it makes her head feel foggy which is better than being conscious of fear sitting on her shoulder and the cloud above her head”.

Everything changes when Rosemary takes Kate under her wing, and insists that Kate take a swim before consenting to an interview for the newspaper. The pool has a transformative effect on Kate who feels her anxiety float away in the pool, and steadily, a friendship and bond develops between her and the older woman. Rosemary would introduce Kate to her small, large life in the neighbourhood. Rosemary is not only a staple at the lido but also in the surrounding neighbourhood. Kate begins to find her place in the neighbourhood, develops a greater sense of self and starts to engage with the people around her, and, like Rosemary, becomes personally invested in saving the community pool. Opposition to the lido sale begins with community action — pamphlets and petitions — which further emboldens Kate who eventually takes the mantle of leadership over from Rosemary. Her newfound confidence also positively affects her work, love life, and in coming to terms with ghosts from her past.

Why: The Lido is an unabashed feel-good book. Extolling the virtues of community, friendship and a smaller life, The Lido feels a bit iconoclastic in the current YOLO climate. But extol those virtues it does, and in such a charming way that one forgives the sometimes clumsy tugs on the heartstrings; arguably, the story could not have been written any other way. On the plus side, the book does not rail against gentrification: change is inexorable, but can be delayed.

The Lido joins other recent books in the so-called sub-genre of Up Lit, which, loosely defined, are stories that celebrate kindness, compassion and friendship. These titles do not sugarcoat or trivialise the realities of life, nor do they employ magical or spiritual vehicles a la Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist to create a world where wishful thinking becomes reality. Authors of these books argue that we live in harsh, uncaring times but if there is room for kindness and compassion in real life, so there is in stories. “It’s about facing devastation, cruelty, hardship and loneliness and then saying: ‘But there is still this.’ Kindness isn’t just giving somebody something when you have everything. Kindness is having nothing and then holding out your hand,” Rachel Joyce, the author of international bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, says.

While it’s a bit reductivist to suggest, as the book does, that anxiety and mental illness is inexorably linked to isolation and disengagement, but recent studies such as this one lend some credence, not uncontroversially, to what we all suspect: Social isolation increases risk of depression, and the proliferation of technology contributes to increased social isolation. The lido, from this perspective, becomes more than just a day out in the swimming pool but an exhortation for the latent need to belong and for recognition.

Sad bits are unavoidable in these stories. In one scene, we see Rosemary walking down a quiet street one evening on her own, and struggles her way through the crowd in a chic, up-market cocktail bar. She climbs up to the bar amidst the reveling London crowd and orders an Old Fashioned. “Around her crowds of young people laugh and drink from jugs filled with ice, brightly coloured cocktails and retro paper umbrellas. She is flanked by two couples in deep conversation, their backs to her. If they looked up they would see a faded green sign above the cocktail bar that says ‘Fresh Fruit and Vegetables: Peterson & Son’.” Killer.

Verdict: A life- and kindness-affirming story that makes one wistful for a past that perhaps never was. (7.5/10)

In-store Availability: Trade paperback, RM79.90

Thanks to Pansing Distribution for an advance reading copy of this book.

We’re happy to welcome another guest contributor, Mabel Ho, to the Lit Review fold! Her first review is a novel from debut YA author Anna Day.

Who: Anna Day is a clinical psychologist and author from Northeast England. The Fandom is her debut novel.

What: Best friends Violet and Alice are fangirls of The Gallows Dance, a made-up story with similar post-apocalyptic shades of YA dystopian fiction movie franchises. Armed with the power of teenage enthusiasm, Violet and Alice set off to Comic-Con with their friend, Katie (who’s impervious to The Gallows Dance story entirely; think of your friend who’s never read Harry Potter), and Violet’s younger brother, Nate.

The cosplay-ready foursome, brimming with excitement to meet the actors who portray their fictional idols in the movie adaptation of the novel, get far more than they bargained for when they find themselves transported right into The Gallows Dance. Faced with the conflicting choice of running parallel with the canon storyline or writing her own narrative, Violet and the rest have to find a way out of the world they fantasised being a part of or risk being trapped in the story’s endless loop.

Why: Set on the age-old cautionary tale of “be careful what you wish for”, this story was an intersection of dystopian young adult fiction and a subsequent social commentary of the fandoms born out of these worlds. The stakes don’t feel high, as such narrative attempts of a world built within a world can result in flimsy storytelling. But what makes up for it are the noticeable tropes of this fantasy genre and the insertion of Violet and her friends’ fictional reality teeters on an almost satire.

Violet as the main character is portrayed with authenticity and given a nuanced middle ground — she’s not your usual YA dystopian badass (read: Katniss Everdeen, ruthless and unforgiving), or your YA sad but hopeful heroine (read: Hazel Grace Lancaster, dying and willful). She takes us through her juvenile comprehension of having to adult while clinging onto youthful ignorance as she navigates her internal conflict of sticking to the script of the story or ad-libbing her own narrative. Underscoring the entire story are themes of jealousy, confusion, heartbreak, love and friendship, superficially explored through her relationships with the other characters. The story does drag a little before reaching its climax but it was still a compelling page turner in search for the ending.

Best/Worst Line: “And some stories simply need to unfold,” she says. “They need to reach their beautiful climax, existing almost like a life cycle, an entity in their own right.”

Verdict: Much like fan fiction brought to life, it’s a fun meta read, interspersed with all the touchpoints of a post-apocalyptic story, with a splash of overactive teenage hormones. (7/10)

Availability: Trade paperback, RM44.90

Special thanks to Pansing Distribution for an ARC of the book. 

By guest contributor Poon Jin Feng 

Who: Mary Watson moved to Ireland from South Africa over a decade ago and found herself captivated by the magical landscape she now calls home. She has written a collection of short stories, Moss, which bagged the Caine Prize in 2006, and has written a full-length novel, The Cutting Room. The Wren Hunt, inspired by an Irish tradition, is her debut YA novel and the first of a series.

What: Every St Stephen’s Day, as per tradition, a group of boys in the Irish village of Kilshamble organise a Wren Hunt. Only this version a little warped, involving the chase of the unfortunately named Wren Silke through the woods surrounding the isolated village.

The hunt takes on heavier meaning this year as Wren comes into her powers, the fairly useless – or so she thinks – gift of obscure visions. Two factions reside within this community: the powerful Judges who control the nemeta, a source of power, and the Augurs, who have been driven into hiding in plain sight. The boys who torment Wren belong to the former and Wren’s people are part of the latter. In a desperate bid to save them from their dwindling magic, she takes on a dangerous undercover assignment right in the heart of the Judge’s lair. Caught in a web of deceit and conflicting loyalties, she holds the fate of the Augurs in her young hands.

Why: Reviews of The Wren Hunt consistently remark on the difficulty in categorising the book for fear of pigeon-holing it into a restrictive genre, and for good reason. Part fantasy, part thriller, and (small) part romance, it stands in a league of its own and seems poised to have a cult following.

It takes off on a rather dark and disturbing note, opening immediately to the tense hunt, and the first couple of chapters are somewhat hard to follow. I’m glad I persevered though. The mystical Irish setting and consequent lyrical language are highly atmospheric and set the tone for a haunting tale. The action picks up pace steadily and by the middle of the book, it keeps you in painful suspense as Wren tries to ingratiate herself with a high-ranking Judge while surrounded by her tormentors.

Character development occasionally falls a little short but this is offset by the skilful way the author handles the interactions between the characters and plays with subtle nuances in storytelling. The hostility between the Judges and Augurs is adeptly explored, and the world-building is fascinating. It can get a little confusing at times – oscillating between insufficient and too much in the way information is revealed – but soldier through and you will be rewarded with an utterly unexpected and well-crafted twist. Watson’s novice shows at times in her debut novel but her originality and rich imagination will keep you intrigued, if uneasy.

Reading Level: Ages 15 and up

Verdict: A bit of a difficult read, it is haunting, a touch dark and wrapped in a mesmerising branch of old magic. (7.5/10)

Availability: Paperback, RM49.90

Special thanks to Pansing Distribution for a review copy of the book.