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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2007 ° WWW.LIVEMINT.COM
TEST DRIVE
In search of the perfect
white shirt Don’t scoff, it is (almost) as difficult as finding the right partner B Y P RIYA R AMANI priya.r@livemint.com
···························· few days into my quest for the perfect white shirt (for women), and halfway through a survey of what is available (for men), I realized there is a shirt mafia at work. Aditya Birla Nuvo’s Madura Garments owns/ distributes Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Louis Philippe, Esprit and Peter England. Raymond owns Be:, ColorPlus and Park Avenue. The Murjani Group has the upper end sewed up with Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Gucci and FCUK. Mafia or not, everyone needs a white shirt. The eight or so white shirts I own have only one thing in common (aside from their colour, of course)—they were all bought in the US or Europe. But surely quality, variety and fit have improved here since I last looked carefully? I’ve done the grimy groundwork so your task will be easier when you want to buy your next white shirt. Before we begin, some statutory warnings: When you go looking for white, you are likely to find purple. Or berry. Or Porpora pink (Gucci’s colour of the season, basically a duller version of fuchsia). Most women’s shirts are Made in China. Ladies, if you are a size S, even if you do find that perfect shirt, they have likely sold out in your size. If you are allergic to pin-tucks and pleats, this is not the season for shirt shopping. As for men—you need to up your understanding of shirt technology if you don’t want to get lost in a maze of terms. And, yes, prices have gone up since you last looked.
A
Mango: This store has a wide selection.
Mango Mango is Made in China shirt heaven. The store manager says the whites, browns, pinstripes and off-whites are popular. After a laser sharp round of the racks, I zero in on three beauties. The first one is a casual smocked shortsleeved shirt in mul. It arrived just a few days ago in white, green, purple and maroon, but it is sold out and I can only find a medium in maroon. The torso fits beautifully, but the sleeves droop. Perhaps it is because it is not a small, my regular size. This one costs Rs1,550, and is great if you can fit into it. The label says it is machine wash, but the salesgirl says it is better to handwash—who knows if the colour runs. Luckily, we only want white. The next one from the MNG Suit range is an empire cut with silver (or gold) stripes. This one has a Chinese collar, mother of pearl buttons, a tiny smock on the cute faux puff sleeves. But the fabric—that has a silken fit, thanks to the 4% elastane—crinkles too
much under the chest. At Rs1,950, I expect better. The third one has a sexy big collar, super professional pin-tucks and longer, four button cuffs. It has got the formula down pat (69% cotton, 3% lycra and 28% polyamide) and it fits beautifully. It is part of their limited Penelope and Monica Cruz for MNG range, hence the Rs2,750 tag. I love it.
Park Avenue The fit of their women’s shirts and tops can vary, so don’t lose heart if the first couple of things you try don’t fit you as well as they should—I tried three pieces, one fit but looked small, one fit perfectly and one blouse refused to go over my big head. Be adventurous—steer clear of their hot selling, no-frills shirt. My favourite was a 100% cotton, Rs999 shirt with pin-tucks that were broadly spaced near the neck and narrowed as they marched down.
Bombay Electric Okay, I’ve already started cheating. There are no shirts here, but we love this store, and it has lots of white. Our pick was easily the pleated yoke shift in pure cotton, with mother-of-pearl buttons for Rs3,250. The sizes are slightly smaller here.
Pratap Designer Rajesh Pratap Singh can make a shirt do cartwheels for him. And, luckily for us, white is one of his favourite colours. The Rs3,950 classic cotton with raglan sleeves and lots of detailing was a clear winner.
Ashish Soni For Rs2,950, there is a nice looker in satin with mother of pearl buttons and churidaar sleeves with a retro tie-up collar. Innovative, but the extra small was slightly loose and I couldn’t button the collar. All you slim-necked ladies could get luckier; the shirt is available in white, black, gold, chocolate brown and berry.
Narendra Kumar We zeroed in on an almost-jacket shirt with a long lapel collar and square metal buttons in sturdy stretch cotton. It costs Rs5,950, and even shows off some midriff. Be warned, this designer doesn’t do smalls.
Van Heusen They launched their womenswear line in May. Perhaps that is why the one store in Mumbai that showcases this range exclusively is in suburban Andheri. Delhiites are luckier, that exclusive store is centrally located in Connaught Place. There is a basic white cotton-spandex shirt for Rs1,195, and a self-stripe Dobby weave for Rs1,295. But I couldn’t find these either in an S or XS. The brand even offers a press-button service for cleavage-shy clients.
Gucci The white is sold out, so I try on the purple version. It is 72% cotton with 23% polyamide and 5% elas-
DETAILS | PRIYA KISHORE
Bombay Electric’s trendy owner on jazzing up your shirt If you find the perfect white shirt, you don’t have to do much; just dress it up with a killer ring or bracelet. If the collar’s nice, show off your bare neck. If you want something around your neck, accessorize with a long necklace; they are hot this season. White can be accessorized with any colour. It’s a great opportunity to go nuts. Belt your white kurta or a long shirt high to show off your waist or low, on your hips. Silver and white complement each other. A fresh contemporary white shirt with antique silver jewellery can be a very modern look.
For the white male
tane, puff sleeves and has the new Duchesa bow on the pocket. It fits well, but I am not sure I want to part with Rs30,050.
It’s a maze out there. Arm yourself before you head out
Esprit Esprit has three or so varieties (there is even an Ashish Soni lookalike, except that this one fits me beautifully), but I liked the 100% cotton with a central panel of pleats. It is Made in China, of course, and costs Rs2,800.
B Y P RIYA R AMANI priya.r@livemint.com
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Park Avenue There’s always the staple twoply cotton Wrinkle Free with a self design for those long days (Rs1,699) or the no fuss Dobbies 100% cotton herringbone shirt at Rs1,099. If you want to up the tech specs, try the Non-Iron 100% cotton that costs Rs2,599 (but, remember it does need a light iron after it’s washed). Then there is the Non Iron + Nano Tech, which has been treated so if water falls on it, it slides off. Price: Rs2,499.
Wills Lifestyle There is a cotton Embellish Stitch Shirt (not as bad as it sounds) with a touch of spandex and three button cuffs. It is nice, cheap (Rs895) and sold out in S.
Benetton They have three varieties; the three-fourth sleeves cotton shirt with a hint of spandex costs Rs999 and fits like a dream. Best part? It is not Made in China. Though most of Benetton’s goodies are made here and only 2% are imported from Italy.
Canali The white shirts aren’t displayed because, as the store manager correctly points out, they get dirty. But ask and they will whip out two boxes of pure cottons. Their basic daywear shirt costs Rs7,650. If you are looking for something to wear under your
Calvin Klein There is a nicely-shaped slim fit shirt which advertises it is from Calvin Klein Jeans in a discreet, pale grey running hand. It is cotton with that 3% elastane which ensures it clings perfectly, but I found the navy stripe on the inside collar a little distracting. The Made in China shirt costs Rs3,495.
Zegna Zegna has a much wider range—there is even a tux shirt with French cuffs for Rs18,400. We liked the trendy printed white shirt in their Z Zegna range (Rs10,700) and the woven casual shirt for Rs13,100.
Gucci There is a sturdy fitted barrel cuff shirt for Rs19,500 and a nice evening shirt with French cuffs. Their tux shirts cost Rs15,550.
Bombay Electric Get creative, buy a kurta shirt. Their double layer kurta with cuffs is available for Rs2,400.
Pratap Go beyond the classic pin-tucks. For Rs4,750, you can get a lovely linen band collar half placket shirt with a pocket. There is even a button and band halfway if you want to roll up your sleeves.
Peter England Before you say CEOs don’t wear Peter England, it is my job to point out that this brand has launched a new Elite 100% cotton white shirt priced at Rs1,095. It’s your call.
Marks & Spencer They recently slashed their prices by 35% but their Autograph range for women still seems a little overpriced. They have quite a few white shirts, made mostly in China and Malaysia; the simple, crinkle cotton Made in India with a V-neck collar worked for me. Best part? If you peel back the new Rs790 label, you will find the original Rs1,250 tag.
Allen Solly
Chemistry For Rs875, there’s one that has three-fourth sleeves, self-stripes and a tie-up waist. It’s a bit of a delicate darling, they want you to wash it in a washbag for best results. I know I wouldn’t be able to take care of it. It’s also available in yellow, purple and brown.
SHIRT SCIENCE Wrinkle resist The yarn is twisted so it bounces back to its original shape much faster, hence resisting creases. Mostly found in a polyesterbased fabric.
Verdict I avoided popular department stores such as Westside and Pantaloon. I also avoided lowerpriced brands such as Blackberrys. After all, salaries have risen in the past year and the brands featured here depend on our business. The search confirmed a few things: Rajesh Pratap Singh makes beautifully crafted shirts for men and women; you’re always likely to find something at Benetton and Mango; brands that have traditionally focused on menswear are working hard to please their female consumers and they all do nice basics (see Page14); my wardrobe is still likely to be biased in favour of whites from Banana Republic, The Limited and Express.
suit, ask for their silky twill shirt with a cutaway collar (Rs9,550).
Wrinkle free A cotton based fabric is chemically treated (or coated with synthetic resin) to make it smoother and improve its drape. Noniron An advanced treatment at the molecular level. Two ply Two single yarns are twisted together during the threadmaking stage. Dobby A micro structure with a selfdesign, normally geometric and normally single colour, which is introduced during weaving. Twill A diagonal weave. Park Avenue: This Rs999 shirt is a good staple.
If you have been spending more time at your desk than on the treadmill, the relaxed fit linen/cotton blend, for Rs1,499, might be the one for you. In their premium Prodigy range (for whiz kids, apparently), try the classic fit, selfstripes made from Egyptian Giza cotton and priced at Rs1,899. All their shirts come with cheesy notes like this one, on a shirt from their Ivory collection: snow, pearl, chalk, milk, lily, lace, moon, alabaster; no matter how many names one gives white, it stays pure and divine and lights up the dullest of days.
Van Heusen Their True-Tech non-iron, Giza cotton comes fully loaded with advanced microfibres and costs Rs1,499. Of course, like all noniron shirts, a mild iron is recommended. This shirt is a cotton/ polyester blend. If you are the type who wants an extra bright white (think Tide ad), try the Best White non-iron 100% cotton, which has gone through a liquid ammonia moist cure treatment to ensure the lustre remains. Plus, it has got a DP rating of 4+, whatever that means. The label congratulates you on acquiring the perfect white shirt. Of course, you must pay the price: Rs1,799. Avoid their modern fit polyester/
nylon/spandex shirt please, unless you want to look like anchor Rohit Roy in the dance show Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa.
Louis Philippe They have great shirts. Their Permapress, 100% Japanese cotton made in Thailand with a half cut collar, costs Rs1,999. In the Gods and Kings range, they have a lovely 100% Giza Cotton for Rs1,599. The shirt comes in two versions—French cuffs and half cut collar or regular collar and cuffs. Their piece de resistance is the Permawhite shirt which has been advance treated for more whiteness. The placket and seams are imported and, they claim, pucker-free. For Rs2,399.
Esprit If you don’t have access to Italian shirts, this is the place for a nice looking, slim fit shirt. There is a gorgeous cotton one with 4% elastic for Rs2,500. And a self-stripe casual, long sleeve 100% cotton for Rs2,800.
Benetton There is a no-frills short sleeves for Rs1,099, a formal self stripes for Rs1,699 and a lovely linen short sleeves for Rs1,399.
ColorPlus Their Purple Club range has a couple of bright sparks. There is a wrinkle resist for Rs2,800 and another one made of Japanese cotton for Rs2,378. They also have several basic twill shirts and a nice Oxford. These start from Rs1,200 (approx.).
Calvin Klein If you are on the skinny side, CK’s casual slim-fit will probably fit you better than the one at Esprit. It costs Rs3,495 and it is okay to give it a skip in favour of denims or underwear.
Marks & Spencer It is raining white shirts here. Their easycare range (65% cotton, 35% polyester) is available in packs of three (Rs1,995) and two (Rs1,695). For some reason, the shirts in the three-pack have a regular collar; the dual pack shirts have a cutaway collar. There is also a pure cotton easyiron with a cutaway collar and double cuffs for Rs1,845. The Autograph range has two whites, both for Rs2,395—a pure cotton Made in Mauritius, and a second, quirkier one with printed inner cuffs and collar. For those of you who still live in the button-down era, there is an Oxford for Rs1,845.
Zodiac Their double cuff, cutaway collar at Rs1,799 is a popular seller. If you don’t want the frills, ask for the single cuff, normal collar which costs Rs1,699. P.S.: I love their mo t h e r o f p e a rl t h r e e - h o l e Trinity buttons.
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BY
ROSS GARRETT/WSJ
WORLD VIEW
DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT
APARTHEID?
David Kibuuka
A group of young, black comics are breaking taboos, cracking controversial jokes and taking South Africa by storm
B Y R IAN M ALAN ···························· JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
A
fter losing power in 1994, South Africa’s white rightwingers withdrew into psychic exile, leaving the chattering classes to pursue a political agenda so correct that it sometimes verged on insanity. Newspapers were soon filled with great billows of soft-left pabulum. Talk show hosts routinely used appalling terms like “gendered” or “othering”, and almost everyone observed an unwritten law stating that it was unfair to criticize black people on the grounds that any failings they might exhibit were attributable to poverty, oppression and bad education, otherwise known as “the legacy of apartheid”. In time, I came to feel as if I were suffocating in a fog of high-minded pieties, a condition that often reduced me to cursing and throwing things at the TV set. In the course of one such episode a few years ago, I switched channels and came upon a demented comedy sketch in which a gunman was tutoring a class of black schoolchildren in the
finer points of armed robbery. “You got to have an inside source to tell you where the money is,” yelled the gunman, “and when you get caught—I just love this bit—when you get caught, blame it on the legacy of apartheid. OK! So what have you learned today?” The children chorus, “Blame it on the legacy of apartheid!” If you’re not South African, you’ll probably never understand how dumbfounding this was, but let’s give it a try. What do you do, if you’re young, gifted and African, when The Economist describes your home as “The Hopeless Continent”? Contest this assessment and you sound like a silly white liberal, which is anathema to a cool dude—like comedian David Kibuuka. “The way foreigners see Africa is sort of the way it is,” he says. “Wars, people dying of diseases that were cured long ago and so on.” But acknowledging such truths is dangerous, too, because some brothers are always going to accuse you of being a self-loathing sell-out, and that’s enough to keep most Africans quiet. Not so for a group of young, black comedians who have taken South Africa by storm. Their attitude, says comic Kagiso Lediga, 30, is, “Get lost if you can’t take a joke. Our job is to talk about things that are wrong, and we’ll keep doing it unless you kill us.” Based in Johannesburg, the comics first rose to prominence four years ago in a TV series called The Pure Monate Show. The title meant “absolutely delicious scrumptious show” in a local African language, and its standard fare was outrage. The show lampooned the nation’s obsession with crime, staged a conversation between sex toys of various races, and offered some comic sketches about life in neighboring Zimbabwe, which has been rocked by political and economic turmoil under President Robert Mugabe. In one skit, a shady-looking character hands a wad of cash to an underworld connection, who surreptitiously slips him a briefcase. Viewers think they’re witnessing a Zimbabwe-style drug deal, but when the briefcase is opened, it contains a lone loaf of bread—the consequence of a currency destroyed by an inflation rate that recently hit 2,200,000% a year. On the domestic front, the show parodied the cultural peculiarities of racial and tribal minorities, and,
in one sketch, portrayed South Africa as a country where politics was so boring that most people stayed in bed on election day, thereby allowing the white rulers of yore to stage a comeback. This was presented as a trailer for a horror movie: Apartheid II— coming to a cinema near you. The comedians’ manager is Takunda Bimha, a 29-year-old lawyer who wears Italian smoking jackets and has a suite of offices in the trendy Johannesburg suburb of Greenside. Bimha forsook the law for TV production a few years ago, and now he’s a capo in Johannesburg’s comedy underworld. As Bimha tells it, the comedians were middle-class boys with good education who wanted to do a satirical comedy show in the style of Saturday Night Live. Since most of them were young, gifted and black, state-owned SABC TV gave them a deal in 2003. God knows what the broadcaster was anticipating, but what it got was renegade comedy of a sort never previously seen in South Africa. The show slaughtered sacred cows and lampooned important people. “Memories of apartheid were fading,” says Bimha, “and the guys were like, ‘Let’s move on,’ you know? They felt the culture had become boring, and that it was time we started laughing at ourselves.” If they were white, they would have been fired. But black authorities seemed dazed by the fact that those responsible for this mockery were bright young men from their own side of the racial divide. “They thought we’d care,” says Kibuuka, 27, a leading light in the collective. “But actually, we don’t. We didn’t set out to be subversive. We just did it because we liked doing it. They said, hey, that’s subversive! And we said, really? OK!” Kibuuka is a droll young sophisticate who drives a convertible, writes clever pop songs and affects to be bored by almost everything, including my questions. Although the show drew complaints from audiences, he says he has no regrets, and no serious grievances about the show’s ultimate demise (it was axed in 2005). “The SABC is a public broadcaster,” he yawns. “Citizens were complaining, so they had to listen.” The SABC declined to comment. The gang packed its bags and moved on to greater things, beginning with a pseudo-documentary
Trevor Noah about young comedians and their girlfriends travelling into the backwoods to perform stand-up at a rock festival. Their film, the 2006 Bunny Chow, directed by John Barker, did well on the local circuit, but foreigners found it a bit bewildering. There was an Easy Rider-esque scene where a smalltown redneck threatens to murder the funnymen because they’re trying to seduce his wife, but otherwise, this was a South Africa that was totally unfamiliar to outsiders.
THE POLITICS OF COMEDY The best comedians often double as social commentators. Some standouts
MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES (MABLEY); TIME & LIFE PICTURES (BRUCE, SAHL); WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES (PRYOR, ROCK); THREE LIONS/GETTY IMAGES (GREGORY); CHO TAUSSIG/EVERETT COLLECTION (CHO); KEVIN FITZSIMONS (STEWART)
q RICHARD t DICK GREGORY He called out both Northerners and Southerners on their racial attitudes in the 1960s. Gregory was one of the first black comedians to perform for both black and white audiences and became a civil rights activist.
PRYOR
The whites were likeable slackers, the blacks cocky and urbane. Characters of various races were constantly hopping in and out of each other’s beds, and apartheid cropped up only in jokes. In short, the film was a fairly accurate depiction of the lifestyle and attitudes of, say, university students who were in grade school when apartheid ended and who find their parents’ politics passé. This in itself was a sin in certain eyes. “I thought politicians would
be smart enough to treat comedians and satirists like court jesters,” says Lediga, a veteran of the show. “You let them do their thing, and then you stand back and say, of course, I believe in freedom of speech, look what I’m willing to put up with.” But South Africa isn’t like that. “They expect you to take sides,” says Lediga. “They feel the black youth is apathetic and we should be inciting them to take up arms or whatever.” The source of one such critique
t GEORGE CARLIN His acerbic social commentary in the 1970s made him a darling of the counterculture. Carlin, who died in June, spoke about politics, religion and drugs but is best known for his ‘Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television’ routine.
His breakout, often profane routines in the 1970s revealed to many what life was like for black Americans. Pryor relied on his dramatic and observational skills, not jokes, to get laughs.
tive for self-censorship. Am I making these guys sound like raving neo-cons? That wouldn’t be accurate. In person, they’re thoughtful young men who lament the poverty in which most South Africans still languish and acknowledge how lucky they are to have escaped it. They are also staunch anti-imperialists, always delighted to find an American in the audience so they can crack jokes about moronic presidents and so on. Local whites get frequent lashings, too. The other night, Tsepo Mogale picked out some pale faces at a front-row table and said, “You whites are full of s-, you know.”
Our job is to talk about things that are wrong, and we’ll keep doing it unless you kill us. Kagiso Lediga, 30 He proceeded to tell a story about how he pulled up at a traffic light alongside “a battered old Datsun carrying a white family” who locked their doors the instant they clocked black skin. “I’m going to hijack a Datsun?” he chuckled. “Get out of here. I drive a Mercedes.” This draws a laugh, but whites are a dwindling minority, not nearly as interesting as the “Afristocracy” that now holds power. A year or two back, comedian Loyiso Gola, 25, developed a fascination with the local political style that evolved into a one-man show titled Loyiso Gola for President. His absurd policy proposals brought the house down. “Crime?” he’d say. “You want to stop crime? Easy. For six months, anyone who commits any crime, blam, just blow him away. Pull a Giuliani, man. I guarantee you, crime will vanish.” Gola says his follow-up show will be titled, “You should
t MORT SAHL His 1950s’ routines are widely credited with moving standup away from the domain of the suave and the safe. In his signature Vneck sweater, newspaper in hand, Sahl skewered politicians of all stripes. t MARGARET
CHO
MOMS MABLEY t
u JON STEWART The host of Comedy Central’s fake news show ‘The Daily Show’, Stewart often uses video clips to show politicians dissembling or poke fun at media coverage.
was Christine Qunta, a blackpower activist and writer who sits on the state broadcaster’s governing body and is said to be close to South African President Thabo Mbeki. After the Cape Town premiere of Bunny Chow, she fired off a text message to a relative who leaked it to the comedians. Qunta did not return several calls for comment, but Lediga says her reaction was extremely negative. “Christine was like, (this is) disgusting,” says Lediga. His heart
sank when he read Qunta’s verdict. There was clearly no chance of The Pure Monate Show getting a second chance on state TV. But hey, no worries. The boys were making good money on South Africa’s live comedy circuit. In fact, some were making a great deal of money, wearing sharp suits and driving cars with TV sets in the back seat. It was time, as Bimha puts it, to start plotting “world domination”. Their chosen vehicle was The Dictator, a movie script about the rise and fall of Edson Nyrirembe, president for life of a fictitious African country named Jambola. Part Idi Amin and part Robert Mugabe, Nyrirembe is a sinister buffoon with certain painfully lifelike characteristics. In other words, Nyrirembe is stupid, arrogant, occasionally barbaric and always surrounded by quivering yes-men. Like Zimbabwe’s Mugabe, he is perplexingly popular among foreign black-power fans, who invariably grant him a standing ovation when he appears on their shores. Lediga was sent to New York and Cannes to sell the project to potential investors, none of whom were willing to commit. “White liberals are happy to finance harmless African art movies,” chuckles Lediga, “but they seem to get very anxious about ideas that might draw the attention of the Thought Police.” If failed The Dictator project cuts a bit close to the bone, one struggles to imagine the reaction to their other movie project—a comedy about apartheid, loosely inspired by Life of Brian, Monty Python’s heretical parody of the story of Jesus. What was funny about apartheid? Lediga shrugs. “It was absurd,” he says, “and that's always funny. It was also painful, so there has to be a lot of comedy in there somewhere.” “Ja,” says Kibuuka, “like white racists with black lovers and morons trying to free Mandela.” Did he say morons? Ouch. These guys are lucky to be working in Africa’s most tolerant country. Elsewhere, they’d be in dungeons. Nearly every country in Africa has “insult laws” to protect the dignity of its leaders, and if those don’t work, there are other forms of joke suppression: African culture commands youngsters to respect their elders, and Africa’s embarrassments provide a powerful incen-
In the 1950s and 1960s, Mabley’s frumpy persona disarmed audiences and allowed her to slip in barbed observations about gender and race.
Her caustic monologues focus on life lived on the fringes. Cho frequently tackles sex, racism and homophobia.
Loyiso Gola have voted for me.” This is not really a joke, given the perilous state of local politics. South Africa’s ruling African National Congress hopes to install Jacob Zuma as the country’s next president, in spite of his facing charges arising from the alleged acceptance of a bribe from a French arms manufacturer. Zuma denies the charges, and a judge will rule next month whether the trial will go ahead. Meanwhile, his followers portray him as the victim of a political vendetta orchestrated by “counter-revolutionaries”. The dispute has precipitated a crisis in public life, with Zuma supporters threatening mayhem if the government attempts to jail their hero. It was against this tense backdrop that dignitaries gathered at Johannesburg’s Emperors Palace casino for the Black Management Forum’s 2008 gala dinner. Zuma was the keynote speaker, and entertainment was provided by Trevor Noah, 24, the newest star in Takunda Bimha’s stable. Trusting that Zuma was big enough to take a joke, Noah launched into a monologue that went something like this: In apartheid’s dying years, he said, hundreds of thousands of terrified white South Africans moved to Australia rather than live under a black government. Those who remained were charmed by Mandela, but when the old man stepped down in favour of Thabo Mbeki in 1999, whites thought, uh-oh, and there was a renewed exodus to the Antipodes. Blacks were amused by these outbreaks of paranoia, Noah concluded, but now that a Zuma presidency is on the cards, they aren’t laughing anymore. Now you
hear blacks saying, “How much is a ticket to Australia again?” The all-black audience howled, but Noah had broken several powerful African taboos here. The taboo that says 24-year-olds must respect their elders. The taboo that says it’s treachery for a brother to criticize a brother. Heck, even the universal conventions of good manners. All eyes swivelled in Zuma’s direction, and lo: “He was laughing like crazy,” says Noah. “Killing himself.” A spokeswoman for Zuma confirms he heard the joke, and says “it would be entirely in character for him to laugh” at it. Jokes rooted in pain are nothing new, but it was extraordinary to have a banquet-hall of glamorous black-tied Africans laughing at the notion that South Africa is now in such a pitiful state that even they might want to flee. Is this not a sign that they’re transcending victimhood? “Learning to laugh at yourself is a great sign of human evolution,” says Kagiso Lediga. Jews and the Irish went through the process generations ago. Black Americans made the critical breakthrough in the 1970s. Indians followed suit about 10 years later, and look at them now—rising giants of international trade and authors of every third work on the West’s best-selling book charts. Take this as a joke if you like, but I think the crew might foreshadow a similar renaissance in Africa. Takunda B imh a l i k e d my p un ch l in e . “Exactly!” he says. “Exactly!” Rian Malan is an author and journalist in South Africa. Write to wsj@livemint.com
u CHRIS ROCK His frank routines on race spare no one. Often shouting, Rock asks questions such as why two malls exist in every town—one that white people go to and one that white people used to go to.
p LENNY BRUCE Bruce riffed on politics, religion, sex and laguage in the 1950s and 1960s. Though he was arrested several times for using obscenities, he defiantly refused to water down his act. Convicted in 1964, he was posthumously pardoned.
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Around the world MPI/GETTY IMAGES/WSJ
The backstories and stories of the books that make the cut as your summer reading The Wall Street Journal
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>> NONFICTION u When You Are Engulfed in Flames By David Sedaris, Out in the US, Little, Brown
An Italian serial killer. A Chinese coma victim. Hunting for fresh eggs in 1940s’ Leningrad. From thrillers to histories, this season’s books are journeying the globe
Quirky essays drawn from the author’s past with his eccentric family (his sister is comedian-actor Amy Sedaris), his years in New York and his life in France. Backstory: Sedaris’ audience is too big for bookstores; he can sell out concert venues (he got a Grammy nomination for David Sedaris: Live at Carnegie Hall). He’s sold more than four million copies of his books. Publisher Little, Brown plans an almost Grisham-sized first printing of 650,000 copies. What grabbed us: In the wake of James Frey and other scandals, the memoirist genre is under siege. Although Sedaris, 51, claims he keeps a daily diary, one has to wonder at his detailed recollection of conversations, people, events and clothes from his distant youth (Sedaris declined to comment for this article). Nonetheless, the author’s many fans will no doubt flock to his newest offering.
B Y R OBERT J . H UGHES ····································· or our summer reading round-up, we spoke with publishers, authors, independent booksellers, online retailer Amazon and chain stores such as Barnes and Noble. We asked them to name the coming releases they were most excited about—including such titles as The Monster of Florence, Beijing Coma and One Minute to Midnight—and picked our favourites after reading the works they recommended. In the coming weeks, bookstores will welcome new works by some best-selling authors, including essayist David Sedaris (When You Are Engulfed in Flames), Andre Dubus III (The Garden of Last Days) and Joyce Carol Oates (My Sister, My Love). “I had a dream the other night that I did a book signing and signed five books,” jokes Sedaris, one of the industry’s biggest draws. “I realize I’m very lucky.” The summer will also see books by many first-time authors, including the short-story collections One More Year by UkrainianAmerican Sana Krasikov and Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan, a Jesuit priest from Nigeria. “One of the things that makes American literature so vital at this point is that we have input from so many different cultures and linguistic backgrounds,” says Paul Yamazaki, coordinating buyer at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco. Since it’s an election year, there’s a surge of political books in the US. Among them: a stilluntitled work from Ron Suskind on national security, Your Government Failed You by Richard A. Clarke and What Happened by former White House press secretary Scott McClellan. The $28 billion (around Rs1.18 trillion) American book industry faces challenges in a sluggish economy. Bookstore sales in the first quarter totalled $4.46 billion, a 5.1% increase over the comparable period in 2007, according to the US Census Bureau. But last month, Barnes and Noble lowered its sales forecast for the year. “There are people who believe that books are recession-proof,” says Stan Hynds, head buyer for Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, Vermont. “We’re going to find out.”
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u One Minute to Midnight By Michael Dobbs, Out in the US, Knopf
Write to wsj@livemint.com JAYACHANDRAN/MINT BRYAN BEDDER/GETTY IMAGES/AFP
AUTHOR Q&A | DAVID SEDARIS
‘I can just take vignettes and plug them into a story’ The humour writer talks about his writing—and inspiration
your books? I never sit down thinking I’m going to write a book. Four years might pass and I look around and think, I have enough (essays already written) for a book.
B Y R OBERT J . H UGHES The Wall Street Journal
··································· avid Sedaris is best known for his laugh-out-loud books such as Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked. His latest collection of essays, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, (released in the US on 3 June), once again puts a humorous spin on his everyday doings. Sedaris spoke with WSJ.
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How do you come up with ideas for
You’ve said you rely on diary entries for your inspiration. I started keeping a diary when I was 20. Every season, I write a diary. So, one that runs from 21 December until 21 March is my winter diary. They’re all broken up into seasons. Most of them are just boring crap, but at the end I go through them and find things I might be able to use later. I keep a guide to what’s in every diary, then I go through that and get ideas. The guide is full of incidents. The
incidents aren’t enough to make a story—they’re just little vignettes—but sometimes I can just take the vignettes and plug them into a story. Do you consider your essays as memoirs? I wouldn’t call it memoir. If I had to call them anything I’d call them comic essays. For some reason, and I don’t know why I think this, I’ve always thought of memoir as more of a whole —I think of Angela’s Ashes, which is a whole book that begins at one point and ends at another point. My books are choppier than that. Often there are stories about things, not about people at all.
u The Monster of Florence By Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi, Out in the US on 10 June, Grand Central Publishing
Which other writers do you admire? Tobias Wolff. I like the way he’s abstract. So many people get abstract and they’re not interesting and you don’t believe in their characters—they’re words on a page. But Wolff just continues to astonish me. I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves. You can’t fake his humanity. What essays in When You Are Engulfed in Flames are you particularly fond of? All The Beauty You Will Ever Need, about buying drugs with my brother. I like reading it aloud, the way it moves, the laughs it gets, the feeling I get at the end when I’m reading it. Write to wsj@livemint.com
A minute-by-minute account of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the US and USSR were close to nuclear war over Soviet missile installations in Cuba. The book features new data about the movement of Soviet forces based on declassified government documents and interviews with surviving Russian participants. Backstory: Dobbs wanted to write about the missile crisis while there were still survivors to interview. He says the threat of disaster didn’t come from the decisions of Kennedy or Khrushchev, but from unpredictable events while “the military machine cranked along”. What grabbed us: Dobbs argues that while many academics have studied the crisis, the “human story has been lost”. He details some little-known tales within the larger drama, such as the errant flight of Charles Maultsby’s B-52 reconnaissance plane, which drifted into Soviet airspace hundreds of miles from his planned route over the North Pole.
The humorist: Sedaris’ new book of essays is a humorous spin on everyday doings.
The story of one of Italy’s most notorious serial killers, who has eluded capture for decades. One of the co-authors, Italian journalist Mario Spezi, was jailed when Italian authorities accused him of being the Monster of Florence (he was later released and the prosecutors involved were censured). Backstory: Best-selling thriller author
Charging ahead: One Minute to Midnight is about the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. Douglas Preston, when living in Florence in 2000, learnt about the murderer who attacked lovers in their cars and had killed 14 people. It was, he says, “the most horrific story I’ve ever come across in my life”. Preston teamed up with Spezi, who had covered the case, to solve the crime. What grabbed us: In separate chapters, each author tells us of his involvement in the investigation. The authors detail the history of the case and offer up their theories about who the killer could be, and why the case matters. “Many countries have a serial killer who defines his culture by a process of negation, by exposing its black underbelly. England had Jack the Ripper. Italy had Monster of Florence.”
define the variety of nerd subcultures. One conclusion: “Nerdiness offers respite from the chaos of home life.” What grabbed us: Nerds make for an entertaining treatise, and Nugent is serious about them. The book is not jokey. For instance, he compares nerdiness to Asperger’s syndrome, a condition that includes poor social skills. STAFF/AFP/GETTY IMAGES/WSJ
u Nixonland By Rick Perlstein, Out in the US, Scribner The book charts the path from John F. Kennedy’s death to Richard Nixon’s 1972 landslide election victory. Against the backdrop of race riots, war protests and assassinations, it shows how middle-class Americans and liberal intellectuals came to see each other as un-American. Backstory: “I am obsessed with the 1960s,” says Perlstein, who spent about six years writing and researching the book. One surprise: “The astonishing numbers of right-wing vigilante violence that somehow didn’t make it into standard accounts of the 1960s.” What grabbed us: There is a lot about the 1960s that isn’t known. “It surprised me how much strangeness there is in the recent past,” Perlstein says, noting Max Rafferty, California’s superintendent of police, had banned the teaching of evolution.
u American Nerd By Benjamin Nugent, Out in the US, Scribner Nerds, inside-out. This essay-cummemoir examines what a nerd is, from the high-school debate team to computer techies and Dungeons and Dragons experts. The author also writes of his own life as a nerd. Backstory: Nugent says, nerdily, that nerds have suffered “a history of oppression based on arbitrary categorization”, and that he wanted to
Last leg: All about the 1960 Rome Olympics.
uRome: 1960 By David Maraniss, Out in the US on 1 July, Simon & Schuster The Olympics in Rome was during the height of the Cold War, and on the cusp of the civil rights movement, when black American athletes such as Rafer Johnson, Wilma Rudolph and Cassius Clay won gold medals. This was the infancy of the televised games, too, leading to today’s extravagant coverage. Backstory: Maraniss says the Rome Olympics featured a “great setting, wonderful characters and so much of the modern world coming into view”. He interviewed many Russian athletes for the book. What grabbed us: Maraniss writes that “the forces of change were profound and palpable in the Eternal City. In sports, culture, and politics—interwoven in so many ways—one could see an old order dying and a new one being born. With all its promise and trouble, the world, as we see it today, was coming into view.” TURN TO PAGE L14®
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Q & A | PHILIPPE SCHAUS
A treat for mall rats Why outlets in luxury malls make more sense to Louis Vuitton
Prized: A bag from the Louis Vuitton Prince’s collection.
B Y S EEMA C HOWDHRY seema.c@livemint.com
···························· ast month, the official count of Louis Vuitton (LV) stores in India went from two to four in a span of two days. The LV team previewed the new outlet at the yet-to-be operational DLF Emporio Mall, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, and then moved to Bangalore the next day to launch a boutique at the UB City Mall, another space for luxury brands. The Delhi store, which will be open for customers when Emporio launches, is located at the entry and flows across a single floor. On sale will be bags, soft luggage for men and women, sunglasses, women’s shoes, watches, accessories such as belts and ties, and men’s shoes. Philippe Schaus, directeur international, Louis Vuitton Malletier, spoke with Lounge and walked us through the store,
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while explaining the philosophy behind LV’s signature patterns. Edited excerpts: From an exclusive location at a five-star hotel to a mall, why was LV looking for such a space to open new outlets in India? Outside India, we have always had a presence in malls or are present as stand-alone stores. That option was not possible when we came here in 2003. So, we opted for a five-star space. But having an outlet in a mall was a natural move for us and we have been actively looking for such spaces in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. We feel that a luxury space like the Emporio and UB City Mall is perfect because the environment, the service and the tenant mix in such areas are all geared towards understanding the meaning of luxury. What brand association do you think Indians have
your style statement with just a bag, or watch. Has your customer base changed since you first launched? We are now enjoying a wider diversity in our customer type. We find that the younger lot is much more aware of trends. They recognize and appreciate what LV stands for. Also, our range in India is wide (except for the ready-to-wear line, all other LV products are launched in India simultaneously) and for On a roll: Schaus has plans on India. those who want to make a fashion with Vuitton? statement, they have much to We feel that here we are viewed choose from, in accessories, as a brand that offers a sense of bags, sunglasses, shoes and heritage. Once that association luggage. There is something comes in, it brings with it an that can work for everyone. aspiration value, a “dream of Does LV have an India design owning it”. To many of our story in the offing? customers, LV represents a No, we don’t have an fashion statement, too, and India-inspired line at the because we have many products moment, but we are looking at to choose from, it is easy to make some art exhibitions in
collaboration with Indian artists like we did at L’Espace Louis Vuitton gallery (in Paris), with India of the Senses exhibition two years back. We believe the connection between art and fashion is strong and we may explore a collaborative project with an Indian artist as we have done with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and American artist and photographer Richard Prince, whose collection is on display in the store. How does LV weave design patterns across products? We firmly believe that good design is associated with the brand and that is an identifying factor for customers. Look at this brass stud (picks up a pair of red sunglasses). It is something that we have incorporated from our trunks and it recurs again, on even slip-ons for women or in the Emprise LV Black watch. Or, see this four-leaf flower pattern: the Fleur (points to it in a watch). This is a part of the LV monogram patterns and a recurring motif.