At first it was the dead rats. They started dying in cataclysmic numbers, followed by other city creatures. Then people begin experiencing flu-like symptoms as well as swellings in their lymph nodes. The citizenry reacts in disbelief when the diagnosis comes in and later, when a quarantine is imposed on the increasingly terrified city. Inspired by Albert Camus’ classic 1948 novel, Kevin Chong’s The Plague follows Dr. Bernard Rieux’s attempts to fight the treatment-resistant disease and find meaning in suffering. His efforts are aided by Megan Tso, an American writer who is trapped in the city while on a book tour, and Raymond Siddhu, a city hall reporter at a daily newspaper on its last legs from the latest round of job cuts. Told with dark humor and an eye trained on the frailties of human behavior, Chong’s novel explores themes in keeping with Camus’ original vision--heroism in the face of futility, the psychological strain of quarantine—but fraught with the political and cultural anxieties of our present day.
Kevin Chong has grand plans. He draws up a to-do list of major milestones that will give him the life he always wanted—and the life that will inspire awe and envy in his friends. Things like settling down and starting a family; learning a foreign language; getting a tattoo. But these grand plans go out the window when Chong makes an unconventional decision: he's going to buy a racehorse. Not the whole thing—he'll become part—owner of the horse. Just don't ask him which part. Thus Chong meets Blackie, the racehorse that will win his heart, even if she doesn't always win on the track. He meets Randi, the cantankerous and foul-mouthed horse trainer with a heart of gold. He meets an assorted array of characters who work, live and drink at the track—and, one by one, the items on his to-do list are crossed out and replaced with horse-related ambitions. His goals are a bit more humble (cussing like a track worker replaces learning a foreign language), but his life has gained new meaning. The story is infused with the noise, excitement and faded glamour of the horse-racing world. It is strewn with fascinating tidbits about the history and tradition of this
Neil Young is a figure who straddles divisions: he's Canadian and American, folkie and rocker, an old guy relevant enough to be quoted in the suicide note of Kurt Cobain. His brilliant, gnomic, lyrical music has earned him fans of all vintages and persuasions - among them novelist Kevin Chong." "Fast approaching the dreaded age of thirty, Chong is shocked to realize that his boyhood hero is turning sixty. He takes to the road in celebration, crisscrossing the continent with three buddies and a hatbox full of space cakes to visit places central to Neil's life and career. Chong doesn't meet the man in his travels, but that was never his intention. Instead, his brief vacation from adulthood - recounted to hilarious effect in these pages - teaches him something about rock 'n' roll, contrarianism, being cool, and aging gracefully: staying Young."--BOOK JACKET.
In a Chinatown housing project lives twelve-year-old Benny, his ailing grandmother, and his strange neighbor Constantine, a man who believes he's a reincarnated medieval samurai. When his grandmother is hospitalized, Benny manages to survive on his own until a social worker comes snooping. With no other family, he is reluctantly taken in by Constantine and soon, an unlikely bond forms between the two. At least, that's what Yu, the narrator of the story, wants to write. The creator of a bestselling comic book, Yu is struggling with continuing the poignant tale of Benny and Constantine and can't help but interject from the present day, slowly revealing a darker backstory. Can Yu confront the demons he's spent his adult life avoiding or risk his own life ... and Benny's?
In every sport there are a select few competitors that come to define the excellence that all others must forever aspire to. In “the sport of kings,” there is one that stands alone. Northern Dancer is not only a Canadian legend, but the cornerstone of his breed. It has been estimated that 70 percent of the thoroughbreds alive today are his descendants, which includes the majority of the horses running in the biggest races around the world. His offspring received recordbreaking prices on the auction floor. While much has been written about Northern Dancer’s prepotence as a sire, this book is the only one devoted to his 1964 campaign, which saw him win two of the Triple Crown races in the U.S. and Canada’s Queen’s Plate. In that time, he captured the attention of the world and the hearts of all Canadians. In Northern Dancer, the world-famous horse comes alive through the people whose lives he touched: E.P. Taylor, the visionary industrialist whose web of business placed him at the end of every consumer transaction for every Canadian and made him the subject of scorn; Horatio Luro, the dapper Argentinean trainer (and tango dancer, pilot, and race car driver) who was notorious for his affairs with Hollywood starlets and his tender treatment of horses; and Bill Hartack, a wildly successful jockey whose squabbles with the press and his inability to conceal his unvarnished truth from influential owners and trainers was, by 1964, beginning to affect his career. Using news clippings from 1964 and interviews, this book offers novelistic detail not only on the remarkable 1964 Triple Crown and Queen’s Plate races, but also revisits, fifty years later, the era in which Canada was struggling to establish an identity, needing, more than anything, a national hero.
A hilarious and heartbreaking debut novel hailed as a crossbreeding of The Catcher in the Rye and Don DeLillo's White Noise. --The Washington Post Book World.
This Ebook serves as a guide to taking back control of our lives and live a life that we all deserve. While work is important to sustain our daily lives, we should strike a balance by taking all interested parties into account so that we can live a life that is meaningful and satisfying.
This Ebook illustrates the seven deadly sins faced by mankind and the steps to be taken to counteract these sins by having a new heart and living according to the principles set by the Chriatian tradition.
During the week following the death of his long-absent famous folksinger mother, Saul St. Pierre must contend with the TV crews, fans, and assorted oddballs who flood the suburb where he lives, even as he struggles to understand his motherrsquo;s reasons for taking her own life -and for abandoning him years before. It doesnrsquo;t help matters that his stepmother, Jana, the only reliable adult hersquo;s ever known, is dating a cop who wants to marry her. And he and his friend Navi are suspended from school for staging a demonstration against censorship. Then there is the arrival of the two young women from New York, inspired by the St. Pierresrsquo; nostalgia boom, who come to worship at the feet of Saulrsquo;s father, an alcohol-guzzling musical has-been. But this is no mere tale of motherless youth, because Kevin Chong eschews the melodramatic and familiar to create an inspired -and sometimes absurd -coming-of-age story that embraces the unexpected poetry of tacky pop culture and marginal celebrity. And whether Baroque-a-Nova is read as a ldquo;witty postmodern farcerdquo; (The Globe and Mail) or a ldquo;deftly shaped, deceptively simple story about a boy poised on the threshold of manhoodrdquo; (The Vancouver Sun), it is, to its very core, about love, forgiveness, and the search for truth and beauty in our junked-up lives.
A Shijo Poet at the Court of K•ing Somo: The Pine River Songs is translation of Songgang kasa, Chong Ch'ol's (1536-1593) famous collection of-Korean songs. The translations are by Kevin O'Rourke, one of the foremost translators of Korean literature into English in the world today. Professor O'Rourke includes in the volume a biographical sketch of the Choson dynasty poet-official and a crifica1 analysis of his work. These essays provide a fascinating background to the life and work of this enigmatic man. Royal Inspector (governor of a province, personal secretary to the king, second minister general of the army - these are some of the positions held by Chong Ch'ol during a career that was punctuated by periods of voluntary retirement, dismissal and exile. He was by nature a brilliant but rather stubborn man. Loved by his friends, hated py his enemies, his life was marked by continuous controversy. Korean commentators traditionally regard Chong Ch'ol as the greatest exponent of the essay-poem genre called kasa- his kasa were immensely popular in his own lifetime - and they consistently place him among_ the great shijo poets. Readers of A Shijo Poet at the Court of King Sonjo: The Pine River Songs will be struck by the literary quality of the shijo, which are without peer in the history of the genre, and by the urbanity and cultiva1ion of the Kasa poems. These poems come alive for the first time in English versions that stand on their own as English poems.
Religious and Philosophical Traditions of Korea addresses a wide range of traditions, serving as a guide to those interested in Buddhism, Confucianism, Shamanism, Christianity and many others. It brings readers along a journey from the past to the present, moving beyond the confines of the Korean peninsula. In this book Kevin N. Cawley examines the different ideas which have shaped a vibrant and exciting intellectual history and engages with some of the key texts and figures from Korea’s intellectual traditions. This comprehensive and riveting text emphasises how some of these ideas have real relevance in the world today and how they have practical value for our lives in the twenty-first century. Students, researchers and academics in the growing area of Korean Studies will find this book indispensable. It will also be of interest to undergraduates and graduate students interested in the comparative study of Asian religions, philosophies and cultures.
A Shijo Poet at the Court of K•ing Somo: The Pine River Songs is translation of Songgang kasa, Chong Ch'ol's (1536-1593) famous collection of-Korean songs. The translations are by Kevin O'Rourke, one of the foremost translators of Korean literature into English in the world today. Professor O'Rourke includes in the volume a biographical sketch of the Choson dynasty poet-official and a crifica1 analysis of his work. These essays provide a fascinating background to the life and work of this enigmatic man. Royal Inspector (governor of a province, personal secretary to the king, second minister general of the army - these are some of the positions held by Chong Ch'ol during a career that was punctuated by periods of voluntary retirement, dismissal and exile. He was by nature a brilliant but rather stubborn man. Loved by his friends, hated py his enemies, his life was marked by continuous controversy. Korean commentators traditionally regard Chong Ch'ol as the greatest exponent of the essay-poem genre called kasa- his kasa were immensely popular in his own lifetime - and they consistently place him among_ the great shijo poets. Readers of A Shijo Poet at the Court of King Sonjo: The Pine River Songs will be struck by the literary quality of the shijo, which are without peer in the history of the genre, and by the urbanity and cultiva1ion of the Kasa poems. These poems come alive for the first time in English versions that stand on their own as English poems.
Modern Asian Theatre and Performance 1900 – 2000 is a ground-breaking survey, tracking the advent of modern drama in Japan, India, China, Korea and Southeast Asia. It considers the shaping power of realism and naturalism, the influence of Western culture, the relationship between theatrical modernisation and social modernisation, and how theatre operates in contemporary Asian society. Organised by period, nation and region, each chapter provides: ·a historical overview of the culture; ·an outline of theatre history; ·a survey of significant playwrights, actors, directors, companies, plays and productions. With contributions from an international team of scholars, this authoritative introduction will uniquely equip students and scholars with a broad understanding of the modern theatre histories of Asia.
Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this very useful analysis of constitutional law in Singapore provides essential information on the country’s sources of constitutional law, its form of government, and its administrative structure. Lawyers who handle transnational matters will appreciate the clarifications of particular terminology and its application. Throughout the book, the treatment emphasizes the specific points at which constitutional law affects the interpretation of legal rules and procedure. Thorough coverage by a local expert fully describes the political system, the historical background, the role of treaties, legislation, jurisprudence, and administrative regulations. The discussion of the form and structure of government outlines its legal status, the jurisdiction and workings of the central state organs, the subdivisions of the state, its decentralized authorities, and concepts of citizenship. Special issues include the legal position of aliens, foreign relations, taxing and spending powers, emergency laws, the power of the military, and the constitutional relationship between church and state. Details are presented in such a way that readers who are unfamiliar with specific terms and concepts in varying contexts will fully grasp their meaning and significance. Its succinct yet scholarly nature, as well as the practical quality of the information it provides, make this book a valuable time-saving tool for both practising and academic jurists. Lawyers representing parties with interests in Singapore will welcome this guide, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative constitutional law.
Singapore inherited a Westminster-style constitution from the British who ruled the island for 140 years. Since Singapore’s independence in 1965, this constitution has been amended and augmented many times wherein unique institutions – such as the Elected Presidency and Group Representation Constitutions – were created. All these changes occurred against the backdrop of Singapore’s special geographical local, multi-ethnic population and vulnerability to externalities. This book features a collection of short essays describing and explaining 50 Constitutional Moments – major inflexion points in the trajectory of Singapore’s constitutional development. The authors have selected each of these ‘moments’ on the basis of their impact in the forging of the modern constitutional order. Starting in 1965, the book begins chronologically, from the ‘moment’ of Singapore’s expulsion from the Federation of Malaysia through the establishment of the Wee Chong Jin Constitutional Commission (1966) to the entrenchment of the sovereignty clause in the Constitution (1972) right through to the 2000s, with the Presidential Elections of 2011. In these easy-to-read essays, the reader is introduced to what the authors consider to be the most important episodes that have shaped the Singapore Constitution. These articles cover key events like President Ong Teng Cheong’s 1999 Press Conference and the 2001 Tudung controversy; constitutional amendments like the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (1990) and the introduction of Nominated Members of Parliament (1990); and seminal cases like Chng Suan Tze v Minister for Home Affairs (1989) and Yong Vui Kong v PP (2010 & 2015)) that have contributed to the sculpting of Singapore’s constitutional landscape.
Religious and Philosophical Traditions of Korea addresses a wide range of traditions, serving as a guide to those interested in Buddhism, Confucianism, Shamanism, Christianity and many others. It brings readers along a journey from the past to the present, moving beyond the confines of the Korean peninsula. In this book Kevin N. Cawley examines the different ideas which have shaped a vibrant and exciting intellectual history and engages with some of the key texts and figures from Korea’s intellectual traditions. This comprehensive and riveting text emphasises how some of these ideas have real relevance in the world today and how they have practical value for our lives in the twenty-first century. Students, researchers and academics in the growing area of Korean Studies will find this book indispensable. It will also be of interest to undergraduates and graduate students interested in the comparative study of Asian religions, philosophies and cultures.
From bestselling true-crime author Peter Edwards and Governor General's Award-winning playwright Kevin Loring, two sons of Lytton, BC, the town that burned to the ground in 2021, comes a meditation on hometown―when hometown is gone. “It’s dire,” Greta Thunberg retweeted Mayor JanPolderman. “The whole town is on fire. It took a whole 15 minutes from the first sign of smoke to, all of a sudden, there being fire everywhere.” Before it made global headlines as the small town that burned down during a record-breaking heatwave in June 2021, while briefly the hottest placeon Earth, Lytton, British Columbia, had a curious past. Named for the author of the infamous line, “It was a dark and stormy night,” Lytton was also where Peter Edwards, organized-crime journalist and author of seventeen non-fiction books, spent his childhood. Although only about 500 people lived in Lytton, Peter liked to joke that he was only the second-best writer to come from his tiny hometown. His grade-school classmate’s nephew Kevin Loring, Nlaka’pamux from Lytton First Nation, had grown up to be a Governor General’s Award–winning playwright. The Nlaka’pamux called Lytton “The Centre of the World,” a view Buddhists would share in the late twentieth century, as they set up a temple just outside town. A gold rush in 1858 saw conflict with a wave of Californians come to a head with the Canyon War at the junction of the mighty Fraser and Thompson rivers. The Nlaka’pamux lost over thirty lives in that conflict, as did the American gold seekers. In modern times, many outsiders would seek shelter there, often people who just didn’t fit anywhere else and were hoping for a little anonymity in the mountains. Told from the shared perspective of an Indigenous playwright and the journalist son of a settler doctor who pushed back against the divisions that existed between populations, Lytton portrays all the warmth, humour and sincerity of small-town life. A colourful little town that burned to the ground could be every town’s warning if we don’t take seriously what this unique place has to teach us.
C.M. (Mary) Turnbull's contributions to historical writing on Singapore extended from her 1962 thesis, published in 1972 as "The Straits Settlements, 1826-1867: Indian Presidency to Crown Colony", to her magisterial history of Singapore, first published in 1977 and re-issued in 2009 in an updated edition as A History of Singapore, 1819-2005. Her approach to history involved detailed work with documents and published materials, with a particular focus on political and economic history. One contributor to the present volume described the book as an "exercise in endowing a modern 'nation-state' with a coherent past that should explain the present." As styles in history evolved, younger scholars including some of her former students and colleagues began exploring new approaches to historical research that drew on non-English-language souce material and asked fresh questions of the sources. Mary enjoyed controversy and expected debate, and had a deep interest in these accounts, which were in many ways a natural progression from her own publications even when they raised questions about her interpretations and conclusions. Studying Singapore's Past had its origins in a conference organised to discuss her work. The volume includes ten contributions, some from long-established scholars of Singapore's history, others from a new generation of researchers. Their work offers an evaluation of established understandings of Singapore's history, and gives an indication of new directions that researchers are exploring. In publishing the book, the editor not only pays tribute to a distinguished historian but also seeks to make a contribution to the historiography of Singapore and to ongoing debates about Singapore's past.
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