The Proper Care of Foxes

Books Actually Reading November 18, 2010

2010-11-18T15:42:00.000-08:00

SINGAPORE - About thirty-five people packed into the top floor of the three-storey extravaganza that is Books Actually, Singapore's most gorgeous and largest independent bookstore/literary shrine, for the The Proper Care of Foxes reading.

Shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize this year, the short story collection has been described by Quarterly Literary Review of Singapore as "Mrs Dalloway on speed". This is a book that very few people have read (it's only available in Singapore for now), and yet, those who have read it love it intensely - the kind of intense love that makes perfect strangers Google me on Facebook and post their love for the book in ALLCAPS on my Wall. Money cannot buy that kind of love.

I did a funny scene from one of the Siegfried stories. Siegfried, the spoilt, lovable tranny hero of three of the stories, modelled after Brian Eno in his early 70's Roxy Music glamrock phase, is much beloved by my readers.

The second half of the evening was devoted to the new novel, Alex y Robert, about teenage matadors and modern Spanish bullfighting. I invited special guests Emilio de Miguel Calabia, the Cultural Attache from the Embassy of Spain, and actress/director Beatrice Chia-Richmond, to talk about their experience of taurine culture.

Mr Calabia, whom I have never met till now, spoke affably and wryly about Spain's obsession with the bulls. Like most Spanish people, he acknowledged the historic and symbolic importance of the corrida, but was careful to remind everyone that bullfighting is losing the fight with modernity and there will come a day when football will replace it as Spain's national icon.

It is particularly this moment in Spain's history that makes modern toreo (the art of torearing or bullfighting) so interesting to me as a novelist: it does tug at the heartstrings of the Spanish, even as it may embarrass them with its strangeness and anachronism. That sort of tension is wonderful when doing a novel about a country and its culture.

I did a scene from Alex y Robert in which Alex texts Robert the matador and harangues him about "whether his chances of surviving a goring improves if he gets stuck on a curved horn or a straight horn", and whether he worries every day about getting "neutered", which Mr Calabia later told me he found rather comic.

Beatrice talked about how she commissioned me to write a novel about Spain after she witnessed her first bullfight in Madrid. She shared some great memories of our schooldays together and how she was the first reader of all of my teenage "novel" manuscripts (poor Bea!). We discussed Singapore's cosmopolitanism and cultural fluency and how as women artists we were both traumatized by bullfighting and yet deeply moved enough to go beyond snap judgments and find its true grandeur buried underneath decades of Hemingway macho crap and ignorant stereotypes.

I still find it remarkable that my special guests would take time off a workday evening to do such public speaking, for no recompense except goodwill and a signed copy of the book! I and the rest of the audience were very lucky; it felt as good as any event in a major international literary festival.

The event was promoted and hosted by the artistic, hipster owners of Books Actually, Karen Wai and Kenny Leck, who have tirelessly put their lives, waking hours, and finances into promoting the cause of good Art.

Literature is still best when brewed artisanally - by small bookstore owners, readers, writers - and served, lovingly, one book at a time. It has the power to bring different cultures together, even if momentarily, to experience a shared view of humanity. Authentic moments like last night are an essential part of why I do what I do as a writer. I hope there will be more. Thanks to all who came - and thanks for all your presents!

BOOK REVIEW IN NEW STRAITS TIMES

2010-01-20T15:06:00.000-08:00

The Proper Care of Foxes and Biophilia are reviewed by Rizal Solomon in December 2009.

WENA IN MAGAZINE "FINE RESTAURANTS AND VILLAS" JAN 2010

2010-01-20T15:04:00.000-08:00

WENA IN PRESTIGE MAGAZINE JAN 2010

2010-01-20T15:01:00.000-08:00

Proper Care of Foxes Book Launches - Bali, Singapore, Hong Kong

2009-12-10T22:27:00.000-08:00

PROPER CARE OF FOXES AT ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL LONDON

2009-10-04T06:20:00.000-07:00

LONDON - Wena Poon performs Justin & the Cenotaph, about a Singaporean architect's love for the monuments of Edwin Lutyens and his mother's "personal relationship" with the Queen of England.

Hosted by Paul Blezard, the event took place before a sunset overlooking Trafalgar Square and the London Eye.

"I love how I actually wrote a story about Trafalgar Square and I'm reading it, like, right in front of these landmarks!" said Poon, 35. "And I wrote about an elderly Singaporean lady reminiscing about the Queen not being at her own coronation festivities in Singapore in 1953...and I'm in an auditorium which the same Queen herself now uses. It's haunting and ghostly. I even got to see her bathroom backstage!"

In Goteborg Book Fair with The Proper Care of Foxes

2009-09-07T02:41:00.000-07:00

After writing extensively about Siegfried Mansfield, a character who loves flying around the world watching his beloved opera, I went to see Turandot at the Teatro Liceu Barcelona in July. In honor of Siegfried, I went to the opera with a big red flamenco flower in my hair.

In September I was then invited to read at the Goteborg Book Fair, sponsored by the National Arts Council of Singapore. I managed to score cheap tickets to the Goteborg Opera. Siegfried would have had a box seat, but since the opera I am watching, Goya, is a contemporary production entirely in Swedish, I decided to be more fiscally conservative! Here is a picture of the Goteborg Opera House, it is on the seafront. I had just seen the Goya exhibit in the Prado, in Madrid, in July. What a strange sequence of events.

I have never watched opera in Europe - to have two such experiences within a couple of months of each other is a real treat!

Life Imitates Art

2009-09-07T02:34:00.000-07:00

In The Proper Care of Foxes, the Hong Kong auditor Regina keeps running to her old college friend, the cross-dressing vamp Siegfried, in some of Asia's most beautiful hotels. The book will be launched at the Ubud Writers Festival, and the hotel that the festival is putting me up in is the Four Seasons Sayan Resort in Bali. Look at the lovely photo! Siegfried would have approved.

Coincidentally, I am writing a new story for my third fiction book called Liam & Daphne, in which Daphne, the chain-smoking New York writer who first appeared in Foxes, is holed up in a Bali resort during swine flu. I styled it after the Kamandalu Resort & Spa, which I had stayed in many years ago, which is also a festival hotel.

I should keep making up stories. Next stop: Tangiers!

The Proper Care of Foxes Book Cover from Ethos Books

2009-08-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Wena featured in Goteborg Book Fair (Sweden) catalog

2009-08-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

Wena in JetStar Magazine (Australian airplane mag) August 2009

2009-08-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

Extract: "Siegfried & the Avalanche"

2009-02-25T09:38:00.001-08:00

He trailed behind, carrying his snowboard across both shoulders. “You mean Asian women don’t kill themselves over love?”

“I told you a thousand times. Asian women are survivors. Even geishas. If Pinkerton left Butterfly, she wouldn’t kill herself in real life. More likely she’d open a nail salon.”

We trudged up the slope.

After some consideration, Siegfried said, “So, if I were to write an opera set in China – “

“Hong Kong.”

“Hong Kong – why would the Asian heroine commit suicide? And how?”

I considered, mentally running through tabloid headlines. “Her lover lost money in the stock market. Or, he’s being investigated for corruption. Shamed, she throws herself out of a forty-storey condo window.”

“Hm. I can’t really work with that.”

“Or she seals the windows and burns charcoal in a charcoal burner and asphyxiates.”

Siegfried turned to me, eyes shining. “Burning charcoal?”

“Sure. A lot of people commit suicide like that in Hong Kong. But I think dumping yourself in an avalanche is better for theater,” I said hastily. “You’ll never get my idea past the fire marshal.”