Kew, the Nepal Maoist Strain [Paperback]

Paul Ryder Ryan (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: 1stBooks Library (June 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759692017
• ISBN-13: 978-0759692015
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 9 x 6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,011,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good idea, Generic execution., December 17, 2002

By 

Neil S Horning (Berkeley, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kew, the Nepal Maoist Strain (Paperback)

When I set out to get a book covering the People's War in Nepal, I quickly found that since the initiation of the war is only six years old and media sources have been finding it unimportant to American audiences, there wasn't much analytical literature on the subject. After finding plenty of different sources about the war online but no leads on books, I went to Amazon.com and found a book called Kew, The Nepal Maoist strain by Paul Ryder Ryan. It was the only book I could find that even mentioned the subject, so I ordered it from Amazon and waited. When I read through the book I found to my dismay that instead of a reliable information source it was instead a cheesy spy novel. I read the whole thing anyway just to get a sense of background. The novel is written in a style sometimes referred to as "faction," where the plot is constructed out of historical events and newspaper clippings but the notable events are entirely fabricated. The story starts out with a good deal of background about Nepal, and gives insight into why they might be fighting. The main character is an American woman who is fighting on the side of the rebels. Her father and brother come looking for her along with some CIA agents. Unfortunately, the connection to any basis in reality goes out the window when the author basically insinuates that Prachanda is Corrupt and is sleeping with all his female cadres. He also conjectures that the Chinese are supplying the rebels with weapons in exchange for transporting bio-weapons to the United States. This is information that contradicted everything I found in my other research. One thing to note was it includes the Revolutionary Worker's interview with Com. Prachanda in its entirety without giving credit to the reporter. It also has a photo of a Nepalese revolutionary taken by the Onesto on the cover. I contacted the RW about this and they were thankful for the information.
It is depresing that in such a promising book the author would settle for the generic anti-communist pro-american line, The ending is reeks of a Deus Ex. Suddenly, and without any explanation communism is a failed ideology and every one in the book simply understands this without question. To observe a similar trend watch Enemy at the Gates. It is such an outlandish thing to do to paint communist characters in a posative light in such works of fiction that every character we are supposed to like, already understands along with us that communism is wrong. What a waste.