Stay Alive, My Son by Pin Yathay: book review

Stay Alive, My Son (1987) is an emotional, yet profound, true account of the authors struggle to stay alive during the Khmer Rouge rule of Cambodia.

Currently the general elections of July 28, 2013, have re-instated Prime Minister Hun Sen, for another five years, to extend his 28 year term. But before him was a reign of Khmer Rouge terror.

The novel commences in April 1975 with the fall of Phnom Penh, when Khmer Rouge guerrillas moved into Phnom Penh. In three years, more than two million people died and an ancient culture was stripped bare.

The author, Pin Yathay, has a wife and three sons. An engineer with a good education, he was reduced to a labourer in the fields and rice paddies of his district, to join the peasants, the ‘Ancients’. Moving as the Khmer Rouge dictated, he became one of the ‘New People,’ a deported person in the refugee camps of Cambodia—“a lower and despised order … no one complained. We were all paralysed by fear of the Khmer Rouge …” Banished from households was disharmony. Husbands were forbidden to beat wives. Insults were barred. Children were not meant to be scolded. But “tension emerged in other ways” as children were encouraged by the Khmer Rouge to denounce parents whose behaviour fell short of the ideal. “You had to be made of stone, to stay deaf and mute, and blindly obey orders if you wanted to survive.”

“It was not long before the dying started. Even in the first week …” First his youngest son, two years old, dies of fever. A month after the fall of Phnom Penh his oldest son, 9 years old, dies after fainting at work, his leg infected and infested. He plans his escape to Thailand.

Simple in his diction, but powerful in his story-telling, Yathay tells of life, struggle, loss and death, but also of freedom.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog