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This Side Up.

Daphne Lee has a review of Adibah Amin's new (and long-awaited) novel in yesterday's Starmag and gives it a hearty thumbs up.

She seems to be a little confused over the title though, first calling it This Side of the Rainbow, then later calling it This End of the Rainbow, which I assume to be the correct title since that's what's printed on the picture of the book's cover.

Ms. Lee's concluding thoughts:
Anyone who is familiar with Adibah’s writing through her column As I Was Passing can expect the same fresh, simple and direct style here. This book is an easy read, and it is also eye-opening, especially if you are not familiar with Malaysia’s pre-independence days and the social unrest of the 1950s.
Anyone seen this in bookstores? I was in the Local Books section in MPH MidValley on Saturday but I didn't notice it anywhere.

And pity about the cover... it looks like it was designed by a high-schooler with a pirated copy of Photoshop.

Further reading:
Daphne Lee's interview with Adibah Amin (22 Oct 2006)
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Comments

  1. bibliobibuli11/12/06 4:38 pm

    the cover is awful! i was thinking to say this on my blog. and about not knowing where to get a copy! i have been in to raman's hop several times to ask have you got it yet? seems he can't get copies from the distributor. sympozium said there were copies in kino. mph were selling it the other day at the young writers thingy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ted Mahsun11/12/06 4:47 pm

    Poor Adibah Amin... her book's finally out and now she's got distro problems?!

    A colleague tells me he saw ONE COPY LEFT in the Popular at Amcorp Mall... but that was during the weekend.

    Yeah, the cover's really bad... even self-pubbed books get better-designed covers! When I get my copy I think I'll wrap the book with my own cover! :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. Artemis Hunt12/12/06 8:44 am

    A shame about the cover. Doesn't make one want to pick the book up if she was an unknown author. As it is, she's Adibah Amin, so her name will overcome all obstacles!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous12/12/06 7:10 pm

    Hi - I got my copy from Kinokuniya a few weeks back. It's not just the cover that is off putting - it's also a very weird size, bigger than the normal paperback. Haven't read the contents yet so I will not read the review until after I've digested Ms Adibah's words. Eliza.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ted Mahsun13/12/06 3:16 pm

    That's another strike against the book - I hate non-standard size books too!

    But how's the book so far, Eliza? Enjoying it?

    ReplyDelete

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