Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
The writer’s odyssey starts at the tribal village where he lived then he went to study English literature in Mandalay. He was there for the 1988 protests where his girlfriend was actually killed and then he goes all the way to Cambridge in England. I recommend it as an all-encompassing experience of Burma on so many levels.
Critics say that your next book deserves to be the Wild Swans of the 21st century. This is Pascal Khoo Thwe’s From the Land of Green Ghosts.
It is a really wonderful book. The author is a Padaung tribesman. These are those so-called long-necked women you see who wear golden bands around their necks Pascal Khoo Thwe’s grandmother was brought to England as part of the circus and was taken around and displayed as an exotic exhibit.
His odyssey starts at the tribal village where he lived then he went to study English literature in Mandalay. He was there for the 1988 protests where his girlfriend was actually killed and then he goes all the way to Cambridge in England, via the Thai-Burma border. It is an incredible journey and all along the way you hear this very authentic voice because the Padaung traditionally tell their stories through a wonderful lazy, slightly meandering narrative. It is not necessarily a fast book in the way that we are used to. As a writer, he really indulges in all the details of his story. I recommend it as an all-encompassing experience of Burma on so many levels.
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Emma Larkin is the pseudonym for an American writer who was born and raised in Asia and studied the Burmese language at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She currently lives in Bangkok and has been visiting Burma for 15 years. Her latest book, Everything is Broken, gives voices to all the stories people wanted to tell after Cyclone Nargis two years ago.
