Rewriting Lovers and Strangers Revisited

                                                     

Every few years I get this urge to rewrite the 17 stories from Lovers and Strangers Revisit­ed.  No doubt that seems silly and a waste of time for most writers since the book has already been published.  Had I not done so, it wouldn't been published a second or a third time!  Originally published in Singapore as Lovers and Strangers (Heinemann Asia,1993, Writ­ing in Asia Series), I revisited the stories in 2005 when a Malaysian lecturer requested to use the collec­tion for a course on Malaysia and Singapore literature.  The book—after consulting with an editor and going back to the original inspiration for each story, vis­it­­ing many of the ori­gin­al settings and over­hauling the stories, adding new scenes, back-stories, and endings—was repub­lish­ed as Lovers and Strangers Revisited (Silver­fish Books).

                                                   

In 2008, a third revised ver­sion with two additional stories was published by MPH, which I wrote about in a blog about publishing in Malaysia and Singapore, that later won the 2009 Popular-The Star Reader’s Choice Awards and was translated into French.  To complement the MPH edition, I wrote a blog series, The Story Behind the Story, about the devel­op­ment and the sig­nif­i­­cant changes of each story that led to their various mag­azine/lit­erary journal publica­tions—often used as writ­ing/teaching aids in schools, colleges, and uni­ver­sities.  The main char­acter from the story “Neigh­bors”  was featured by an expat teacher in the New Straits Times, “Are You Mrs. Koh?” 

So why revise the stories again?  I’ve always felt that Lovers and Strangers Revisited, based on its publishing track record, deserves a wider audience both inside and outside of Ma­lay­sia/Singapore.  For example, the collection is still available in French by Editions GOPE as Trois autres Malaisie.  In fact, the publisher will be exhibiting the collection along with his other Malaysian titles at a French book fair in Kuala Lumpur on 24 March 2024, which should translate into more sales!.

                                                          

So far, thanks to rewriting those published stories, the individual stories have been published 83 times in 12 coun­tries (12 stories in USA and UK); taught in Malaysian secondary school literature for six years (“Neigh­bors”), as well as in Cana­da and USA (Ohio University); and several stories have been taught for years in various Ma­lay­sian universities and private col­leges.  Film stu­dents at Ohio Univer­sity found the original collection in their library, came to Malay­sia, and filmed, “Home for Hari Raya.”  

Maybe because of this persistent belief that these stories (individually and as a col­lec­tion) are still relevant—they are still being taught in Malaysia as of May 2023 and are still being published in the USA (“The Stare” appeared in Thema, Spring 2021,and "On Fridays" will be out in 2025).  As I began editing again (clarifying details, cutting need­less words or phrases, tightening the writing), I could see significant improvements in each story.

Also, the process feels like a trip down memory lane, both as a writer and as an expatriate living in Malay­sia.  “Mat Salleh,” for example, was my first published story, a non­fiction short story, 28 January 1986 (New Straits Times) and my first published story in the UK (My Weekly).  "Teh-O in K.L." was my first published short story is USA (Aim). The other stories, all published but one, are all loosely based on my early ex­peri­ences or on my ob­­ser­va­tions of kam­pong and modern-day life in Malaysia.  Not all the memories are good—a failed mar­riage for me (“Dark Blue Threads”) and a neighbor com­mitting suicide (“Neighbors”); nevertheless, these stories are my Malaysian roots, so to speak, having lived in Penang as an expatriate for twen­ty-one years and taught creative writing at USM for ten years, before moving to Sarawak to grow new roots.

The real payoff, of course, is that these revised stories now have a chance for future publica­tions in the US or UK or Australia or elsewhere—the main reason I do it.  Or the collection, fingers crossed, is republish­ed to a wider audience.  Or the play that I added as a bonus, “One Drink Too Many,” a comedy adapted from the short story, “Neigh­bors,” is produced in Malaysia or Singapore.  Preferably, all three!

What helps me to keep the faith in Lovers and Strangers Revisited (and the individual stories) is rereading the MPH back-of-the-book reviews and other review snippets that I include while marketing the collection to agents and other publishers: 

MPH Publisher’s synopsis and reviews from the back of the book:

In this collection of 17 stories, Robert Raymer portrays the traditional in modernity, the unexpected in relationships both familiar and strange, the recurring theme of race even as contemporary Malaysia finds ways to understand its multicultural milieu.

In the title story, a selfish writer gets more than he bargained for when two former lovers haunt him in more ways than one. In another story, a man's loneliness turns into obses­sion when he shares a taxi ride with a Malay woman. A Clark Gable lookalike is a bar­rister wannabe with a shocking secret and gossipy neighbours reveal more about them­selves than the man who commits suicide. Elsewhere, expats cross the border to Had Yai to experience a good bargain in the Thai flesh trade before going home to their wives in America.

In this republished edition of Lovers and Strangers Revisited, Raymer's snapshots of scenes from various walks of life provide an insider-outsider view on love, family and culture, and urges a second look at ourselves in the mirror of self-awareness.

Praise for Lovers and Strangers Revisited

'Raymer not only writes from his own viewpoint as a foreigner and observer, but also delves into the minds of desperate Malay woman, a young Indian girl, an adulterous Chinese couple, and an old Chinese man who survived the Japanese occupation... He has an uncanny ability to hold a mirror up to the people of his adopted country, not as a for­eigner but as one of us. His stories are full of personalities that you know, you work with them, or live next door to them, or eavesdrop on them at the kopi tiam.' The Borneo Post

'This account ("On Fridays") of a crammed ride with strangers in a taxi may well stand as a metaphor of Raymer's own experience of living among Malaysians... He imbues each of the characters in his stories with a realistic, genuinely believable voice even as he tempers it with the valuable perspective of an observer.' New Straits Times

'Raymer gives a lushly and rich and multi-layered rendition of the Malaysian way of life as colored and influenced by his own experiences from his twenty years as an expat here... These stories are some of the few authentic portrayals of the inner workings and inner plays of the average Malaysian's life in all of its robustness and unique cultural settings.' The Expat

A little ego boost for sure, something all writers need now and then.  Also, it’s good to touch base, like stretching before exercising.  Awfully glad I rewrote those stories.  Now that 2023 is over (having rewritten eight books—six novels and two collections of stories—in two years), I’m ready to embark on new writing projects for 2024 and beyond... 

—Borneo Expat Writer

 My interviews with other Malaysian writers:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize. 

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey

Preeta Samarasan, author of Evening is the Whole Day, finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2009. 

Chuah Guat Eng, author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change.

Malachi Edwin Vethamani, author of Complicated Lives and Life Happens.