IMAGINE a map of Southeast Asia. Taking Kuala Lumpur as your focal point, zooming out you will see Peninsular Malaysia, its shape like a ballerina’s en pointe foot or a cupped hand flipped upside down.
Moving north, Indochina is spread out like a hand fan, its slim base at the Isthmus of Kra, the narrowest land mass that separates the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Now plot a story that fans outwards from Kuala Lumpur to Indochina, with a flight across the sea to Yogyakarta on the return journey. You have traced the path of 'Reality Bitchslap', a graphic novel by Arif Rafhan.
From Kuala Lumpur, an easterly trip over the Titiwangsa Range is a major plot point in 'How the Man in Green Saved Pahang and Possibly the World', the debut novel by Joshua Kam and winner of the 2020 Epigram Books Fiction Prize.
The two books are very different from each other, yet they stand as examples of the road trips embarked upon when taking a gander through literature.
They invite us to suspend disbelief, voyage in the service of discovery, and ponder intimacies and encounters that reveal themselves to a traveller experiencing the novel.
'The Man in Green' opens at Masjid Jamek, the mosque that sits at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers which gives Kuala Lumpur its name.
Khidir, a man in a green robe and matching turban, fails to persuade a security guard to allow him into the compound of the mosque, which is closed for a private event attended by VIPs. Gabriel, who happens to pass by on his way to a pharmacy, stops to lend a hand as an interpreter for the green stranger.
What happens next involves a flock of pigeons, riot police, torrential rains and floods, and Gabriel being waylaid by Khidir, who summons him to drive him across state borders. There, they will meet characters of mythological proportions, such as Tun Teja and Puteri Gunung Ledang.
To call a moment in a story a plot twist would be to imply a move that few could have anticipated in a storyline that was otherwise within grasp.
If this is so, then 'The Man in Green' is full of plot twists, turns, pirouettes, peaks and troughs and a somersault or two for good measure.
Its pace almost giddying, a grounding presence is its setting in reality, in the very real and not-a-child-of-somebody’s-imagination state of Pahang.
Khidir and Gabriel stop at Janda Baik, Bukit Tinggi, Pekan and Kuantan. As we learn more about their motivations and foibles in each other’s company, the places Kam has laid out for them read like a sweeping road trip across the state.
In 'Reality Bitchslap', six friends head from Kuala Lumpur to Hatyai to celebrate the impending marriage of one of their number.
Like 'Man in Green', there is a "fellowship of bros" element to the story, which is based on Arif’s own experience of road tripping with his buddies.
What could possibly go wrong on a trip of this kind?
For one, a scheming local at the wheel of a tuk-tuk scuppers their plans for an evening of performing tigers, where the boys – because that is in essence what they are, fresh out of university at most – are brought across town to a house where they are forced to decide their appetite for a taste of the local sex trade.
Other moments in their trip don’t have a scheming hand at play, save for perhaps the rapacious arms of a capitalism without conscience which creates socio-economic cleavages so wide, the presence of an underclass cannot be denied.
Arif’s observations on street-level encounters with locals give space for pause, without descending into poverty porn.
Among the many accomplishments of 'The Man in Green' and 'Reality Bitchslap' is the way they effortlessly bring boldness and humanity into the room. The twists and turns are a delight to savour, but it is the minor points on the arc that stir us.
It could be a family having dinner at a tom yam stall, or a young lady selling counterfeit books to tourists. We know them, and in many instances we have seen them.
But thanks to Kam and Arif, we make more room for them in our imagination. – The Vibes, December 6, 2020
Listen to the two authors speak to Adriana Nordin Manan in a podcast as part of the George Town Literary Festival 2020.
Reality Bitchslap is available for order here.
How the Man in Green Saved Pahang and Possibly the World is available here.
