Publishing a travelogue in a pandemic
Clara Chow's self-printed New Orleans is a bestseller among local titles.
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Helmi Yusof
IT seems almost bizarre to self-publish a travelogue in a pandemic. Who'd want to read about yet another place they can't visit? But Clara Chow's New Orleans has become a modest hit among readers in Singapore, a bestseller among local titles at Kinokuniya.
The slim volume is just 103 pages long and contains several pictures. Its font size is larger than that of most books. Yet the story it tells - not just of the eponymous city on the Mississippi River, but also of Chow coming to terms with her past and present - is rich, aphoristic, funny and moving.
A good travelogue makes you wish you were there. But Chow's New Orleans does more than that - it makes you hope for the same self-renewal she experienced against the backdrop of a strange locale.
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