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Tan Twan Eng in the Booker Longlist!

Woots! Tan Twan Eng's Gift of Rain has made it to the Man Booker Longlist! He's up against a strong crowd with the likes of Mohsin Hamid and Ian McEwan, but I'm certainly rooting for Mr. Tan.

(Via Eric Forbes).
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  1. Anonymous8/8/07 10:54 pm

    I am sure they're just drawn by the exoticism(sic) of Tan's novel. Its actually poorly edited and could have done with less description of food and the fauna/flora of Penang ad neuseum. It comes across like a mishmash of Clavell and Mishima. Writing and hiding behind a half chinese/english character and writing about he knows just shows that he's hardly stretched as a writer, much less as a novelist

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  2. Ted Mahsun9/8/07 9:09 am

    Poorly edited? I must check again.

    As for exoticism... nothing wrong with that! Isn't that Asia's biggest export next to Apple computers and Nike shoes? :p

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  3. bibliobibuli9/8/07 10:07 pm

    as for the food, this is the most food obsessed nation on earth (and rightly so!) so the authors are going to reflect that i think

    i also think authors here feel a need to fill in background detail that western readers and readers elsewhere might not know or understand.

    why is he "hiding" behind this character? seems to be a v. useful way of exploring belonging vs. dislocation

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  4. Anonymous10/8/07 12:56 am

    It's his first novel and he's on the Booker Longlist, so I think he's doing well enough. I think the novel reads well and the exoticism doesn't bother me. Makes Malaysians more interesting! :-) Half-English semi-Chinese, whatever lah! What comes across is how HUMAN Philip is, so who cares if he's half this and half that.

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