Customer Reviews

Blue Poppies

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is highly rated but not so great. As soon as I saw that
it was about an radio operator in Tibet at the time of the
Chinese invasion, I knew where he got the story.
I have an old paperback called "Captured in Tibet" by Robert
Ford. He was an Englishman who ran a radio set on the
Tibetan frontier, and against his better judgement was
convinced to stay longer than he wanted and the Chinese
grabbed him on the way in. They kept him locked up for 5
years and did a hideous brainwashing number on him (You
don't hear that term much any more).
Anyway, Ford is given no mention at all in a preface or
anything which is poor form in my estimation, even though the story is only loosely based on the real thing.
I did a web search on the author and Ford and came up with
an interview in which he says:
"1991 I was approached by a producer who wanted a feature
film about Tibet. It was for me to find the story, and I
came upon a memoir by Robert Ford who had been a radio

operator in Tibet."
(...)
He should have given some kind of acknowledgement. Ford's experience was so exceptional that he deserves recognition.
The author says he also borrowed from other sources to add a romance into the mix.
The book displays a superficial relationship to the Buddhist continuum.
By the way, when I was reading "Captured In Tibet" I asked my lama friend
at the time whether he had known Ford, because it took place
in the his home province, Kham. He said, "Oh Yes. We know
him. We call him Fodo"

This book is great. It gives a great story about a Tibetan village named Jyeko, and the trials that come to pass with the Communist invasion of Tibet in the 1950's. It also follows the lives of Scottish radio operator Jamie Wilson and a Tibetan outcast named Puton. It tells of love and trials. Of anger turning into unification in the face of neccesity. It is simply a great book.

Jonathan Falla writes: Bardo Monitor (above) takes me to task for not crediting Robert Ford in a preface to Blue Poppies. In Britain, it has not generally been the custom for novelists to acknowledge sources in this way, although some now do (perhaps on the American model). Many authors, myself included, feel that this is out of place in fiction, introducing a false air of authenticity and fact, when it is the job of fiction to tell stories. However, no disrespect to Robert Ford is intended. I have always made a scrupulous point of crediting Ford's book, both when I am invited to speak in public, and also in print - for example in the interview that BM cites. Ford is actually mentioned in the novel as living elsewhere - thereby making the point that it is not his story, specifically, that I retelling. Ford's situation in Tibet was the most obvious model for Blue Poppies, but by no means the only one. Much of the story, the character motivation, many points of detail and even certain scenes derive from Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Troilus & Criseyde'. Other major sources include Regis Evariste Huc (1851), Sven Hedin (1909) and Jamyang Norbu (1979).
BM considers that Blue Poppies bears only a superficial relationship to the Buddhist Continuum. I don't know what the latter is. The novel is not about Buddhism, but concerns a young man learning the difference between selfish love and generous loyalty. JF.