Rise above the mist and explore the world of reading with THEBOOKJEANIE
I must admit that I did not have a book in hand while floating over the temples and pagodas of Bagan as pictured here. The ride was too exciting and the sights too incredible - the reality of the present moment was enough. But that experience and the other wonders of Myanmar inspired some great reading that I will share with you. . .
I carried this early Bantam edition of Graham Greene's Quiet American with me to Myanmar quite accidently, picking it up off the free cart at the local library just before leaving. It's size and weight were ideal and I knew that I could leave it behind on my travels. But I carried it back with me, it's now in three pieces secured by a rubber band, because the story had so much more meaning for me than it did forty years ago when I first read it. After living in Southeast Asia for many years and visiting Vietnam briefly, Greene's depiction of an American naively making assumptions about a culture and its politics was particularly chilling considering the events that occured after this book was published in 1955. The "quiet American" is Alden Pyle, a recent Harvard graduate who arrives under the auspices of the Economic Aid Mission at the US Embassy during the last days of the French military involvement in Vietnam. Tom Fowler, a weary aging English correspondent, narrates Pyle's story, a story that involves Fowler's Vietnamese mistress, Phoung, who is lured away by the young American. The French are losing the Indo-China War and the Americans are ready to step in; Pyle is there to determine the South Vietnamese military faction to back. His inexperience leads him into a political tangle of plans that Fowler recognizes as fatally flawed but is powerless to intercede. Eventually Fowler must make a personal decision that involves not only Pyle but also the lovely Phoung, determining his own future in this turbulent country as well as Pyle's. As the cover of the original edition states," Many Americans will not agree with this book but all of us ought to read it because it is what a very large part of the world really thinks of us." Unfortunately this same analysis probably holds true today.
Two international students meet in Denver at a mixer in the early 1950's. Inge, a beautiful young Austrian, is drawn to the quiet Burmese student, Sao Kya Seng who is studying at the Colorado School of Mines. They both share an interest in the outdoors and soon are taking long hikes through the Rockies,deepening a relationship that endures until Inge's exchange year has concluded. After completing her university studies in Austria, Inge returned to Colorado where she and Sao were married and spent his final year as an engineering student. Soon they left Colorado, visiting Inge's family in Austria, then setting sail for Burma. Inge knew that Sao came from a large family and that his work would take them to the north of Burma, but she possessed the confidence of a new bride and looked forward to her exciting new life. When docking at the port in Rangoon, Inge noticed numerous small boats approaching their vessel, filled with colorfully dressed people holding banners and wreaths of flowers. She motioned to Sao to stay and watch the festivities, hoping to see the special passengers who were to be welcomed by this cheering crowd. Sao drew her aside and finally admitted that he had not been entirely honest with her. This excited crowd of people was there to welcome them - he was the Prince of the Shan State of Hsipaw, an area about the size of the state of Connecticut - she was now a princess. In her shock and confusion, Inge's first thought was that she should be dressed more properly, not in the comfortable homespun Austrian dress that she was wearing. In Twilight over Burma, Inge Sargent, now known as Thusandi, narrates her life as an ordinary young Austrian woman transformed into the mistress of a large household of servants and the first lady of a vast region of Burma. Her first years were filled with ceremony as well as dedicated work to transform the Hsipaw into a more democratic society with modern agricultural and mining technology as well as a more up-to-date medical system including prenatal care and hygenic birthing centers. Thusandi and Sao were happily raising their two daughters and trying to provide a better standard of living for the people of Hsipaw state when in 1962, General Ne Win usurped the power of the democratically elected government of Burma and placed Sao under arrest. An idyllic life turns into a nightmare for Inge and her young daughters as she struggles to gain knowledge of her husband, while living in fear of her own arrest. As both a personal story and political history of modern Burma, Twilight over Burma succeeds in providing a fascinating yet devastating narrative of how the people of this little-known country endured years of terror and dictatorship while being denied little contact with the outside world.
The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber: Any short description such as this is an injustice to the beauty and complexity of the Faber's writing. Undeniably, this is a science fiction book but so unlike any other. Rather than creating a fantasy of the future, Faber creates a world that has rapidly changed on the heels of events that we are experiencing now in the early 21st century: global warming, dwindling natural resources, political and religious conflict, proliferation of uncontrollable diseases. Peter Leigh, an Anglican minister with an unsettling past, has been selected to travel to a recently colonized planet to minister to the native inhabitants, many of whom are recent converts to Christianity. The emails between Leigh and his wife Bea, who has remained in London and is witnessing the rapid breakdown of modern society, form the basis of the story but Leigh's observations and reflections in this strange world are integral to the main question posed by this novel: what does it mean to be human?
A Map of Betrayal by Ha Jin: This is a spy tale without gadgets and glamour. Lilian Shang, an American historian and academic knew that her father had been convicted of spying for China but decades after his death she discovers his lengthy diary that details the years he spent living a double life. As a historian, Lilian wants to understand how her father could remain loyal to a country that eventually betrayed him while professing his love for the country that he betrayed for so many years. Gary Shang, begins serving his country as a translator for Nationalist forces in 1949 and eventually is assigned to work with the Americans based in Okinawa. He is thought to be a Taiwanese sympathizer but his loyalties lie with the mainland Communist government who trained him. Eventually under the control of his masters in Bejing, Gary must abandon his new wife and family and travel to the US, using his position as a translator for the military and then the CIA to transmit secrets about American intervention in Asia. He feels guilt and anguish over his family in China while at the same time being ordered to create a new "cover family" in America. Ha Jin has previously written about the alienation of dissidents in China, struggling to survive the brutality of the Cultural Revolution as well the continuing restrictions of a repressive government but in this novel he explores how one ordinary man naively tries to loyally serve his country but in the end betrays everyone in his life, destroying himself in the process. Armed with her father's diaries, Lilian travels to China and takes a painful journey through her his past, but despite the many devastating revelations, she is able to gain insight and understanding about herself, her parents, and the circumstances that shaped her childhood and coming-of-age.
Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar: A young boy and his father leave the heat and dust of their apartment in Cairo to spend the summer at the Magda Marina, a small hotel in Alexandria's Agamy Beach. For the boy, this time is precious. He is often away at school, lonely for his dead mother and for his father who lacks confidence and ease in his son's presence. This is their time together but soon both become mesmerized by a beautiful woman in a yellow swimsuit. His father eventually marries the lovely Mona but Nuri cannot help but feeling attracted to her as he emerges into puberty. He almost resents their happiness and half-wishes that his father would disappear. Unfortunately that is exactly what happens two years later when his father, a dissdent in exile, is mysteriously abducted (as was Matar's father in 1990 by the agents of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi). Nuri and his stepmother live in shock and disbelief and Nuri's thoughts are only of his father: memories, regrets, speculation about where he might be and how he might be found. "There are times when my father's absence is as heavy as a child sitting on my chest." A poignant and thoughtful novel as beautifully written as Matar's highly praised In the Country of Men.
March 12th-13th: The Tucson Festival of Books
Featuring Amy Tan, Lisa See, Dave Barry, Scott Turow, Ruth Reichl, MItch Albom
and over 400 other authors and illustrators.
Short Takes:
The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber: Any short description such as this is an injustice to the beauty and complexity of the Faber's writing. Undeniably, this is a science fiction book but so unlike any other. Rather than creating a fantasy of the future, Faber creates a world that has rapidly changed on the heels of events that we are experiencing now in the early 21st century: global warming, dwindling natural resources, political and religious conflict, proliferation of uncontrollable diseases. Peter Leigh, an Anglican minister with an unsettling past, has been selected to travel to a recently colonized planet to minister to the native inhabitants, many of whom are recent converts to Christianity. The emails between Leigh and his wife Bea, who has remained in London and is witnessing the rapid breakdown of modern society, form the basis of the story but Leigh's observations and reflections in this strange world are integral to the main question posed by this novel: what does it mean to be human?A Map of Betrayal by Ha Jin: This is a spy tale without gadgets and glamour. Lilian Shang, an American historian and academic knew that her father had been convicted of spying for China but decades after his death she discovers his lengthy diary that details the years he spent living a double life. As a historian, Lilian wants to understand how her father could remain loyal to a country that eventually betrayed him while professing his love for the country that he betrayed for so many years. Gary Shang, begins serving his country as a translator for Nationalist forces in 1949 and eventually is assigned to work with the Americans based in Okinawa. He is thought to be a Taiwanese sympathizer but his loyalties lie with the mainland Communist government who trained him. Eventually under the control of his masters in Bejing, Gary must abandon his new wife and family and travel to the US, using his position as a translator for the military and then the CIA to transmit secrets about American intervention in Asia. He feels guilt and anguish over his family in China while at the same time being ordered to create a new "cover family" in America. Ha Jin has previously written about the alienation of dissidents in China, struggling to survive the brutality of the Cultural Revolution as well the continuing restrictions of a repressive government but in this novel he explores how one ordinary man naively tries to loyally serve his country but in the end betrays everyone in his life, destroying himself in the process. Armed with her father's diaries, Lilian travels to China and takes a painful journey through her his past, but despite the many devastating revelations, she is able to gain insight and understanding about herself, her parents, and the circumstances that shaped her childhood and coming-of-age.Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar: A young boy and his father leave the heat and dust of their apartment in Cairo to spend the summer at the Magda Marina, a small hotel in Alexandria's Agamy Beach. For the boy, this time is precious. He is often away at school, lonely for his dead mother and for his father who lacks confidence and ease in his son's presence. This is their time together but soon both become mesmerized by a beautiful woman in a yellow swimsuit. His father eventually marries the lovely Mona but Nuri cannot help but feeling attracted to her as he emerges into puberty. He almost resents their happiness and half-wishes that his father would disappear. Unfortunately that is exactly what happens two years later when his father, a dissdent in exile, is mysteriously abducted (as was Matar's father in 1990 by the agents of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi). Nuri and his stepmother live in shock and disbelief and Nuri's thoughts are only of his father: memories, regrets, speculation about where he might be and how he might be found. "There are times when my father's absence is as heavy as a child sitting on my chest." A poignant and thoughtful novel as beautifully written as Matar's highly praised In the Country of Men.
Happy Reading!
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