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mazza57's review
1.0
I found this a dull and unconvincing tale of a supposed search for a specific woven basket. The text lacks definition drive and continuity and compares poorly to other books i have read by the same author
smartipants8's review
4.0
The first two fictionalized stories of the people that I met were really wonderful and touched me but it sort of interrupted the flow of the book for me. All in all though, I enjoyed it.
kjcharles's review
2.0
This book fails to convince. I mean, perhaps I'm wrong and the author has based everything in solid fact but... OK, it starts with the claim of arriving in Yangon *on the wrong flight having meant to go to a different country* well before the country opened up and apparently being allowed to hang out, make lifelong friends and see the place for a week. Really? If you arrive without a visa now, you get sent right back, so I'd have liked to know just how the author managed that.
I don't believe that happened. I don't believe in any of the interpolated Big Book of Suffering stories of Myanmar people, all of which are presented as fact without any info on how he knows them. I don't believe in two-thirds of the reported meaningful conversations. The McGuffin of searching for the maker of a century-old basket was a clumsy hook to give it much needed structure, except the structure was dumb. Add in a healthy dose of snobbery towards both fellow travellers and Myanmar people who didn't meet the author's lofty standards of humanity, and this really was not a piece of work I can recommend.
I mean, if you're going to make up short stories, fine, but don't sell it as non fiction, that's all. Because claiming to know the country based on what appears to have been about a month's holiday to the main tourist spots is unconvincing, and the interpolated "personal stories" of human tragedy reeked of appropriation in the cause of Meaningful Travel Writing. God knows those stories are there to be told but I didn't trust this book as far as I could throw it (which was across a Bagan hotel room, since you ask).
I don't believe that happened. I don't believe in any of the interpolated Big Book of Suffering stories of Myanmar people, all of which are presented as fact without any info on how he knows them. I don't believe in two-thirds of the reported meaningful conversations. The McGuffin of searching for the maker of a century-old basket was a clumsy hook to give it much needed structure, except the structure was dumb. Add in a healthy dose of snobbery towards both fellow travellers and Myanmar people who didn't meet the author's lofty standards of humanity, and this really was not a piece of work I can recommend.
I mean, if you're going to make up short stories, fine, but don't sell it as non fiction, that's all. Because claiming to know the country based on what appears to have been about a month's holiday to the main tourist spots is unconvincing, and the interpolated "personal stories" of human tragedy reeked of appropriation in the cause of Meaningful Travel Writing. God knows those stories are there to be told but I didn't trust this book as far as I could throw it (which was across a Bagan hotel room, since you ask).
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