Published twenty-five years after the defeat of the Khmer Rouge regime, In the Shadow of Angkor captures the resurgence of the Cambodian arts community and its efforts to restore a rich literary heritage. In many of the works, the artists defy the decimation of their brothers and sisters by the Khmer Rouge, as well the attempt to erase Cambodia's memory of its history. The range of expression is impressive: the volume includes poetry, short story, film, rap lyrics, and essays, plus interviews with authors and a portfolio of photographs of Cambodia.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A powerful gathering of courage, of the need to write and the will to live.,
By D. Stuart "Researcher at Kudos" (Auckland NZ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: In the Shadow of Angkor: Contemporary Writing from Cambodia (Paperback)
When the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 under Pol Pot, the agenda was simple. Wipe out all the institutions that make up a vibrant nation: family, religion, intellectual freedom - economic freedom. Under this regime it is estimated that only 1% of all intellectuals survived this holocaust, and a once vibrant literary and oral storytelling culture was all but eliminated. Here the authors have met up with survivors as well as new writers and created a volume that puts together a collection of short stories, lyrics, poetry and interviews (for example with poet U Sam Oeur) that tell the story of this culture that flickered but was not quite extinguished. The book is by turns celebrational and forward looking (I'm reminded of motorbikes in Cambodia, most of which don't have rear-view mirrors. I asked my moto driver about this and he replied ambiguously" "We don't look back.") while also, awesomely, grounded in the realities of the dark years of war.
The writing here, expertly and sensitively translated, is powerful and contemplative, and the role of the nation's writers emerges as truly heroic. I cannot rate this book high enough.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Background and Interviews; Could've Included More Fiction,
This review is from: In the Shadow of Angkor: Contemporary Writing from Cambodia (Paperback)
This book was published in 2004, twenty-five years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Apparently it's the first collection of contemporary Cambodian writing to appear in English. It was intended partly to celebrate the rise of a new generation of Cambodian authors.
Included were 34 pieces by 22 writers. There were 8 short stories/a parable/a traditional tale and 4 poems. There were 7 interviews, 6 autobiographical short stories, 4 essays, 3 rap song lyrics, 1 excerpt from an autobiographical novel and 1 filmscript. The range of works sampled was one of the most notable things about the collection. Nineteen of the writers selected were from Cambodia. The oldest were Maha Ghosananda (1929-2007), a revered Buddhist monk, and U Sam Oeur (1936-), who was described as the first modern Cambodian poet to break from traditional forms and experiment with free verse, influenced by Walt Whitman. There were also writers whose careers began before the Khmer Rouge period: Kong Bunchhoeun (1939-), Chuth Kay (1940-), Soth Polin (1943-), Hak Chhay Hok (1940-ca. 1975), and Khun Srun (1945-78). The youngest writers were Cambodian-born Americans Loung Ung (1970-), known for her memoir First They Killed My Father (2000); Pollie Bith (ca. 1975-); and the rapper praCh (1979-). Others included the Cambodian-born, France-based filmmaker Rithy Panh (1964-) and two novelists still living in Cambodia: Pal Vannariraks and Mao Somnang (1959-). The latter was called one of the few novelists who could support herself solely through writing. Of all the writers included, 10 were women. At the time of publication, 9 or 10 of the Cambodian writers who were living were based in the United States, just 2 or 3 in Cambodia, 2 in France and 1 in Canada. The pieces ranged from ca. 1969 to 2003. As far as could be determined, nearly three-quarters of the works came from the 1990s and after. Most of the fiction was translated from Khmer to French to English, while many of the works produced by the writers based in North America were written in English. Most of the interviews were contributed by the co-editor, either in English or with a translator's assistance. The co-editor claimed that the collection also aimed partly to the correct the view of some in the West that Cambodia lacked a tradition of prose fiction. Her essay or introductions mentioned that the modern novel appeared in Cambodia in the late 1930s, citing Name of the Hero (1938) by Rim Kin (1911-59), The Waters of Tonle Sap (1939) by Kim Hak, The Rose of Pailin (1943) by Nhok Them (1903-74), and Wilted Flower (1947) by Nou Hach (1916-75). Important journals mentioned in passing were the magazines Kambuja Surya and Saturday Night, launched respectively in 1926 and 1935. The author claimed that since the 1950s some 2,000 novels and short-story collections had been published in Cambodia. Later prose works mentioned in passing included short-story collections by Chuth Khay, Soth Polin and Khun Srun, and the novels The River of Death (ca. 1957) by Kong Bunchhoeun, A Meaningless Life (1964) by Soth Polin, and The Fatal Smoke (1965) by Hak Chhay Hok. Novels not mentioned but also important included Mobilized Coolies (1956) by Im Thok, The New Sun Shines on the Old Territory (1961) by Suon Sorin, Cruel Village (ca. 1964) by the Doek brothers, and Garland of the Heart (1972) by Nou Hach. During the Khmer Rouge period, the great majority of writers who didn't flee the country lost their lives. Rough estimates for this period cite the loss of 20-25% of the population, 99% of the intellectual class, 95% of the monks, 80-90% of the artists and 80-90% of all books and manuscripts. Following the regime's end, new writing began to appear, handwritten and rented out to the public from market stalls. These stories were mainly about love rather than socialism, and many authors used pen names to avoid problems with censorship. Among the novels written in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge, mentioned were Unforgettable by Pal Vannariraks and The Waves Wash the Shore by Mao Somnang, both ca. 1995. Added to this body of writing was the growing number of works -- often autobiographical -- by Cambodian-born writers based in the West. Despite the co-editor's advocacy of Cambodian fiction, for this reader the contemporary fiction was by far the weakest part of the collection, with many obscurities, action that was often little more than vignette, and characters that were only fitfully realized. Far more interesting were the many interviews and autobiographical pieces, which provided context. For two of the very few writers based in Cambodia, Pal Vannariraks and Mao Somnang, interviews were included but none of their prose. Of the prose fiction included, most impressive were Maha Ghosananda's parable about the importance of peace, taken from his book Step by Step (1992), a meditation on compassion. The piece by Pollie Bith was notable for being set in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia and referring to an important contemporary social problem, AIDS. Of the nonfiction, Ranachith Yimsut's detailed memoir of his childhood during the civil war made the strongest impression. Three non-Cambodian writers were included in this collection. Of their works, the most interesting by far was Alex Hinton's description of a tense interview with a thug from the Khmer Rouge period. The co-editor's essay on her search for Cambodian literature felt too impressionistic, and the piece by a French-American playwright on her experiences in Phnom Penh wasn't particularly illuminating about Cambodians. Although there are many autobiographical works by Cambodians dealing mainly with the horrors survived during the civil war/Khmer Rouge periods, outside of this anthology there appears to be little prose fiction from Cambodian writers available in English. A collection focused on Southeast Asia, Virtual Lotus (2002), included three short stories from the 1990s by other Cambodian authors. Someday an anthology will be published in English that does justice to the range of fiction by Cambodian writers, both old and new. Meanwhile, the effort that went into gathering the works in the present collection surely deserves praise.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Hodgepodge,
By A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: In the Shadow of Angkor: Contemporary Writing from Cambodia (Paperback)
I make it a practice to try and read fiction from countries I'm about to visit, but was unable to find anything before I went to Cambodia for a few days last year. I later finally tracked this down, thinking it was an anthology of short stories, and was somewhat disappointed to find that it's more of a hodgepodge. The volume includes eight essays, five interviews, several poems, a short film script, photographs, a traditional folk tale, and nine short stories. I suppose it's a nice overall package, one that shows that intellectual and creative life is slowly coming back to life in the post-Khmer Rouge era, but for anyone seeking out contemporary fiction it's a little skimpy. The stories mostly failed to leave much of an impact, and it probably doesn't help that most of them were translated from Khmer into French and then again from French into English (these were originally published in 2003 in a French journal called Europe). Even the bibliography at the back isn't particularly useful for the fiction reader, as it doesn't seem to contain an novels or story collections actually written by Cambodians and available in English.
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