Literary Southeast Asia Vote • November 2014

[sun surfer]

Help choose the November 2014 selection to read for the MR Literary Club! The poll will be open for three days and a discussion thread will begin shortly after a winner is chosen.

The vote is multiple choice. You may vote for as many or as few as you like. If you vote for the winner it is hoped that you will read the selection with the club and/or join in the discussion.

In the event of a tie, there will be a one-day non-multiple-choice run-off poll. If the run-off also ends in a tie, then the tie will be resolved in favour of the selection that received all of its initial nominations first.


Select from the following works:


In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner, Cambodia

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Soon the family’s world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus.

Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labor, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood—the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival.

Displaying the author’s extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyan is testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience.


This is a novel but based on the author's experiences. Rated 4.04 stars on Goodreads.

Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal, The Philippines

Spoiler:

AKA Touch Me Not
AKA The Social Cancer


This from Goodreads, where it has a rating of 4.16 stars:

In more than a century since its appearance, José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere has become widely known as the great novel of the Philippines. A passionate love story set against the ugly political backdrop of repression, torture, and murder, "The Noli," as it is called in the Philippines, was the first major artistic manifestation of Asian resistance to European colonialism, and Rizal became a guiding conscience—and martyr—for the revolution that would subsequently rise up in the Spanish province.


Bookpossum did a search and found it in Project Gutenberg in various languages, including an English version called The Social Cancer - A Complete English version of Noli Me Tangere.

The Stones Cry Out: A Cambodian Childhood, 1975-1980 by Molyda Szymusiak, Cambodia

Spoiler:

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.


From paola:

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.

Novel without a Name by Duong Thu Huong, Vietnam

Spoiler:

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.


Also no eBook

The Rainbow Troops by Andrea Hirati, Indonesia

Spoiler:

A very fun read.


From Goodreads:

Originally written in Bahasa, The Rainbow Troops was first published in 2005 and sold a record-breaking five million copies in Indonesia. The novel tells the inspiring and closely autobiographical tale of the trials and tribulations that the ten motley students (nicknamed the Rainbow Troops) and two teachers from Muhammadiyah Elementary School on Belitong Island, Indonesia, undergo to ensure the continuation of the children’ s education. The poverty-stricken school suffers the constant threat of closure by government officials, greedy corporations, natural disasters and the students’ own lack of self-confidence. The story is written from the perspective of Ikal, who is six years old when the novel opens. Just as the author himself did as a young man, Ikal goes to college and eventually wins a scholarship to go abroad, beating incredible odds to become a writer.

This delightful, inspiring book has a fable-like quality that reminds us why we love stories— heartwarming stories, funny stories, stories that remind us of the precious things in life. Ikal and his band of plucky cohorts face obstacles large and small, and the reader can’ t help but root for them to beat the odds and get the education— and life— they deserve. The setting is as compelling and memorable as the characters, and a rare window into a world we know little about.

The Rainbow Troops is the first of a tetralogy of novels that have all become bestsellers in Indonesia. It was adapted for the screen and shown at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2009.

The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam by Bảo Ninh, Vietnam

Spoiler:

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)

[Bookpossum]

Hmm. I must confess to being swayed by whether I could get the books from the library or not.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Me too. At least one of the books is not in e-format and not in stock at Amazon US. That's ok. That just makes it easier to narrow my choices instead of "eeny, meeny, miny, moe".

[crich70]

I went with Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal, The Philippines as it's likely to be easy to find since there is even an English version at Gutenberg according to the spoiler.

[paola]

Let me summarise availability, at least as far as I can see from the UK:

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner, Cambodia
available as ebook from the usual sources

Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal, The Philippines
available in English translation from Gutenberg

The Stones Cry Out: A Cambodian Childhood, 1975-1980 by Molyda Szymusiak, Cambodia
no ebook

Novel without a Name by Duong Thu Huong, Vietnam
no ebook

The Rainbow Troops by Andrea Hirati, Indonesia
ebook available from all the usual sources

The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam by Bảo Ninh, Vietnam
ebook available from all the usual sources

Thank you Paola for the summary of availability. This was a great list of books. My votes were influenced by what I could obtain through my various library sources and consideration of the synopses.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by paola

Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal, The Philippines
available in English translation from Gutenberg

And now in epub and Kindle formats here at MR as well.

[paola]

Originally Posted by crich70

And now in epub and Kindle formats here at MR as well.

of course, I should have checked MR first :-)

I am fine with any of these books, had to force myself to exclude at least two - and I should finish O'Pioneers! today, so I'll be back on track!

[crich70]

Originally Posted by paola

of course, I should have checked MR first :-)

I am fine with any of these books, had to force myself to exclude at least two - and I should finish O'Pioneers! today, so I'll be back on track!

Well I just uploaded the copy of "The Social Cancer" and its sequel "The Reign of Greed" to MR this morning so you wouldn't have found them here prior to that. I got the raw files from Gutenberg and cleaned them up a bit.

[sun surfer]

This is a really great selection this month. It may not be a secret to some that, for a large part, I'm not a big war book fan, so I voted for the two that weren't expressly about the horrors of war, but all the books were tempting. What tipped it for me was that Noli Me Tangere sounds quite interesting (and I do like a good literary love story), and it's also very highly rated on Goodreads and I'm intrigued by its status in the Philippines as "the" great novel, so if it wins I'm looking forward to see if it lives up to the hype.

As it is in the lead for now, I see the free pd translations for Noli Me Tangere posted here, but I wonder, has anyone looked at any other translations yet? I'm curious what options there may be on that front.

[Bookpossum]

Thanks for doing that crich.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

As it is in the lead for now, I see the free pd translations for Noli Me Tangere posted here, but I wonder, has anyone looked at any other translations yet? I'm curious what options there may be on that front.

I'm planning to read the 1961 translation by Leon Ma; I have both the ebook and the audio book as read by Richard E. Grant.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm planning to read the 1961 translation by Leon Ma; I have both the ebook and the audio book as read by Richard E. Grant.

Thank you! That's the one I downloaded as a sample from Amazon. It's also available via my Oyster subscription.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

Thanks for doing that crich.

You're welcome Bookpossum.

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by crich70

Well I just uploaded the copy of "The Social Cancer" and its sequel "The Reign of Greed" to MR this morning so you wouldn't have found them here prior to that. I got the raw files from Gutenberg and cleaned them up a bit.

Thanks you for this good work, Crich