BOOK REVIEW: PAVANE FOR A DEAD PRINCESS (2014) BY PARK MIN-GYU – TO BE “UGLY” IN A WORLD MADE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL

BOOK REVIEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELLA KELLEHER WRITES – Beauty is a weapon. In South Korea, widely known as the plastic surgery capital of the world, one finds themselves needing to be armed to the teeth at all times. “Korea is a place where you can’t leave the house without makeup if…

Full Article BOOK REVIEW: PAVANE FOR A DEAD PRINCESS (2014) BY PARK MIN-GYU – TO BE “UGLY” IN A WORLD MADE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL

BOOK REVIEW: FAMILY ROOM (2010) BY LILY YULIANTI FARID — THE MANY FACES OF A FAMILY UNRAVELED

GABY RUSLI WRITES (in an on-going series of reviews of Indonesian classics) — A grandfather who seeks to marry off his granddaughters to his wealthy friends for connections. A young, successful model who suffered the consequences of her early success. A Chinese-Indonesian family was left with the scars and traumas…

Full Article BOOK REVIEW: FAMILY ROOM (2010) BY LILY YULIANTI FARID — THE MANY FACES OF A FAMILY UNRAVELED

BOOK REVIEW: TIME IS A MOTHER (2022) BY OCEAN VUONG – LEARNING TO LIVE WITH DEATH AND ONESELF

ANGELINE KEK WRITES — Within Time is a Mother (2022), Ocean Vuong fashions a world so rich with polarities. No stone is left unturned. Vuong explores relationships in all their capacities: a person and their chosen loves, a person and society, and loving oneself. Following the successes of Night Sky with Exit Wounds (2016) and On Earth…

Full Article BOOK REVIEW: TIME IS A MOTHER (2022) BY OCEAN VUONG – LEARNING TO LIVE WITH DEATH AND ONESELF

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: NO ONE, CHINA INCLUDED, WANTS TO SEE THE UKRAINE WAR GOING NUCLEAR

CLINICAL PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES – Major participants in the Russia-Ukraine war, whether involved directly or by proxy, lack agreement about when and how it must end. These varying perspectives result in an unseemly policy scrum, adding more confusion to this humanitarian tragedy. This obscene war, despite the many ways…

Full Article RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: NO ONE, CHINA INCLUDED, WANTS TO SEE THE UKRAINE WAR GOING NUCLEAR

BOOK REVIEW: TIGER! TIGER! (1991) BY MOCHTAR LUBIS — A TALE OF ONE MAN’S BATTLE AGAINST HIMSELF

GABY RUSLI WRITES (in an ongoing series of Indonesian classics) — Every person has within themselves a personal ‘tiger,’ whether it is vice, trauma, or an immoral act we bury inside of us. We spend our lives trying to subdue this tiger. Some succeed in taming their tigers, while others…

Full Article BOOK REVIEW: TIGER! TIGER! (1991) BY MOCHTAR LUBIS — A TALE OF ONE MAN’S BATTLE AGAINST HIMSELF

BOOK REVIEW: ALL THE LOVERS IN THE NIGHT (2022) BY MIEKO KAWAKAMI – THE CONDITION OF THE MODERN WOMAN

BOOK REVIEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELLA KELLEHER WRITES – Like a hamster sprinting on its wheel, going precisely nowhere, thirty-four-year-old freelance copy editor Fuyuko Irie does not question the mundanity of her daily routine. Japanese author Mieko Kawakami’s latest release, All the Lovers in the Night (2022), follows a character with no real friends, no boyfriend,…

Full Article BOOK REVIEW: ALL THE LOVERS IN THE NIGHT (2022) BY MIEKO KAWAKAMI – THE CONDITION OF THE MODERN WOMAN