A Rainbow Feast: New Asian Short Stories

by Mohammad A. Quayum

A veritable collection of 25 short stories by young and prizewinning Asian writers from 15 Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the UAE, Guyana, UK, USA and Australia.

The stories dwell on universal themes of human experience—social conflict, the clash of cultures, clash between tradition and modernization, loyalty, betrayal, love, horrors of war.

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2011

Reviews

[George Polley · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy reading short stories from around the world, this fine collection of 25 original stories by new and prize-winning writers is a good choice. From Bangladesh, Guyana, India, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates, all but one of the stories were written by writers whose roots are in Asia. That one, Professor Quayum says in his Introduction “may not be…an Asian as such, but certainly…has absorbed and been absorbed by the culture of his adopted home to be considered an Asian by association.”

These 25 well-crafted stories are a wonderful mixture of humor, love, pathos, ghosts, family, war, horror (Suad Khatab Ali’s story “The Subjugated Ones”, about a sinister female Saudi clerical police detective I found particularly chilling), tenderness, class struggle and longing make for interesting and enjoyable reading. Chosen from a field of nearly140 submissions, these are the cream of the crop. The one story that was not written by an Asian is one that I wrote and sent to Professor Quayum in late 2009. I was surprised and honored to find myself among such distinguished company.

[Ismim Putera · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very interesting collection of stories from Asia. Out of 25, I only enjoyed "The Gourd Seller", "Alone and Palely Loitering" & "The Zemindar's Wife". The rest are fine, as they are surprisingly packed with one-dimensional, lengthy, pretentious narration and over-descriptive prose. I agree with the editor that the stories are "dwelled on simple, ordinary occurences of joy, love, lost, loneliness" and some have elements of family drama. The stories are not clearly theme-defined too. I could not sense the characters in most of the stories, and I failed to relate any interesting Asian elements. The stories are mostly told, with apology, in a very boring way. Too much telling rather than showing, I think. No proper story arc. No conflicts or suspenseful twist to keep the reading wheel stay rotated. No precious moral values to learn from the stories. I hope the editor can continue to compile better Asian/SE Asian short stories in the future.

[Hadri Wahab · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent compilation of short stories written by Asian authors. Each story in the book has been strategically placed in an order that makes the story flow from chapter to chapter. Overall, it is a recommended book for every aspiring author.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not read all the stories but some of the ones I did read were nice. I hate the feeling when someone gives a great description of the story, you are excited to read it and when you do, you just can't feel it. I read the intro and it was very meaningful.