Literary Region Nominations • November 2014

[issybird]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

You've got it half right. The nomination should be by someone from that region but can be set in any region.

Here's the guideline in the first post: "Nominations can be set in any region, but they should be written by an author from that region."



Yes and yes, although I hesitate to bring up that in an earlier vote the majority decided Nabokov qualified as from North America, so your Maugham example as worded might be less certain.

Nabokov was an American writing about America, so no uncertainty there! The peripatetic Maugham always was British.

[Bookpossum]

Sorry sun surfer - I missed seeing that for some reason- probably skimming through too quickly!

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Yep, this region includes Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Timor L'este, Malaysia...that area.

This region doesn't include nearby countries Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or Bhutan (all in the same region as India) or Taiwan (in the same region as China).



Great nomination but I don't think it's eligible and so you get a nomination back. It may be important in Southeast Asia but it originated in India. We haven't had that region yet so it will be upcoming at some point.

Yes, excuses, didn't think of it.......I take the nomination back and have edited my previous post.

[fantasyfan]

I'll fourth Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal.

[paola]

I will nominate The Stones Cry out, by Molyda Szymusiak:

In 1975, Molyda Szymusiak (her adoptive name), the daughter of a high Cambodian official, was twelve years old and leading a relatively peaceful life in Phnom Penh. Suddenly, on April 17, Khmer Rouge radicals seized the capital and drove all its inhabitants into the countryside. The chaos that followed has been widely publicized, most notably in the movie The Killing Fields. Murderous brutality coupled with raging famine caused the death of more than two million people, nearly a third of the population. This powerful memoir documents the horror Cambodians experienced in daily life.

The reason I nominate this book is that I was struck by this comment (by Stephen Haggard) in the London Review of Books:

The stones cry out is a book of extraordinary power which resists the tools of analysis. It is the thing itself. The narrative can only outline again and again the palpable framework of her experiences – rice (planted, eaten or lacked), the family, the body and its illnesses – until these become the only structures in which the mind (and the book) can find units of signification. Pitted against these are their opposites: words (the propaganda of the daily ‘education sessions’), the commune which displaces the family, and the dismembered body – a frequent sight.

only problem is, I could not find an electronic version for it - so that is a problem.

[Bookpossum]

Not in my library either, but I can get it on Abebooks, so I'll second The Stones Cry Out.

[issybird]

I'll third The Stones Cry Out.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I will fourth The Stones Cry Out.

[issybird]

Also no eBook, I'm afraid, but I'll nominate Novel Without a Name by Duong The Huong. From Goodreads:

A piercing, unforgettable tale of the horror and spiritual weariness of war, Novel Without a Name will shatter every preconception Americans have about what happened in the jungles of Vietnam. With Duong Thu Huong, whose Paradise of the Blind was published to high critical acclaim in 1993, Vietnam has found a voice both lyrical and stark, powerful enough to capture the conflict that left millions dead and spiritually destroyed her generation. Banned in the author's native country for its scathing dissection of the day-to-day realities of life for the Vietnamese during the final years of the "Vietnam War, " Novel Without a Name invites comparison with All Quiet on the Western Front and other classic works of war fiction. The war is seen through the eyes of Quan, a North Vietnamese bo doi (soldier of the people) who joined the army at eighteen, full of idealism and love for the Communist party and its cause of national liberation. But ten years later, after leading his platoon through almost a decade of unimaginable horror and deprivation, Quan is disillusioned by his odyssey of loss and struggle. Furloughed back to his village in search of a fellow soldier, Quan undertakes a harrowing, solitary journey through the tortuous jungles of central Vietnam and his own unspeakable memories.

[Bookpossum]

Oh yes, Australians have their bad memories of that war too. I'll second Novel Without a Name.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by issybird

Also no eBook, I'm afraid, but I'll nominate Novel Without a Name by Duong The Huong. From Goodreads:

I was thinking along the same lines but I was worried that after we already did "All Quiet on the Western Front", nobody would want another war book. However, my choice was a different one: The Sorrow of War by Bảo Ninh.

Bao Ninh, a former North Vietnamese soldier, provides a strikingly honest look at how the Vietnam War forever changed his life, his country, and the people who live there. Originaly published against government wishes in Vietnam because of its nonheroic, non-ideological tone, The Sorrow of War has won worldwide acclaim and become an international bestseller

It won the following:
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (1994)
Sách Hay (2011)
Giải Thưởng Hội Nhà Văn Việt Nam (1991)
Nikkei Asia Prizes (2011)

So I guess that's my nomination. I was interested in Vietnamese authors for this month's challenge so I'll also third Novel Without a Name while I'm here.

[Billi]

Well, this is going to be a very depressing month!

I support
- Novel Without a Name by Duong The Huong and
- The Sorrow of War by Bảo Ninh.

[Bookpossum]

Well, you wouldn't want to read about rich businessmen in Singapore, would you!

Sorry Caleb, I have used up all my votes but your nomination looks interesting too.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Novel Without a Name is a great read. It is not as down a read as some are thinking and it has some beautifully written passages. I got more spiritual weariness than horror out of it. Some is horror for sure, but it was such a wonderfully written book. I will support it.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I will also support The Stones Cry Out. (yes I'm changing my mind here.)