Apocalypse Hotel review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Hồ Anh Thái's Apocalypse Hotel -- a rare contemporary (well, decade-old) Vietnamese novel made available in English.

       A few observations about this book:

• It's the first (and so far only ...) volume in Texas Tech University Press' new Modern Southeast Asian Literature-series; I hope many more will follow: as I often note and complain: this is an area that is woefully under-represented in English translation
  
  
• The novel was "adapted" by Wayne Carlin -- they admit that much, but not any more: there is an Introduction by Karlin, but he doesn't reveal exactly how he butchered adapted the text
  
  
• Wayne Carlin, who "adapted" the book, was not the one who translated it -- that was Jonathan R.S. McIntyre
  
  
• The cover features the name of the author, and notes that the book is "adapted and introduced by Wayne Karlin" -- but makes no mention of a translator

       I find much of this disturbing, but given that I am on the fanatical end of the translation spectrum (strict literalism, please ...) generally try to bite my tongue on these matters (though that footprint on the much-stomped-on cover of my copy of the book might give some indication of how I feel about these things ...); but regardless of how a text is mauled, surely it's only good form to put the translator's name on the cover, especially if you put the name of the person who "adapted" it there ..... (Of course, Karlin may be a name that carries considerably more clout in the Vietnamese-literature-field -- though I do hope this all doesn't have anything to do with the fact that he also happens to be the 'series editor' of this new series .....)