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A review by ktrain3900
Names for Light: A Family History by Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.75
There's a fragile and blurry beauty to this book. As someone looking at ways to look at her own family history and ancestors, I have an interest in the archtecture and the structure of the book, of the pieces and sections of it, of its movement through time, the placement of words on pages and across them. There are bones and flesh here, muscles and tendon, and yet I'm still not sure entirely how it works, or if I like how it's working, yet it works. It is one thing, and many things, alive and ghost.
In parts I lose track of who is who and who is saying what, as people are mostly identified through relationship, not name, which is in keeping with the oral tradition of so much family storytelling. I also felt more distance in the third person sections in spite of them being about the author, while the first person sections reach across generations, yet feel more immediate. There's a discomfort generated by this, but one I could sit within.
In parts I lose track of who is who and who is saying what, as people are mostly identified through relationship, not name, which is in keeping with the oral tradition of so much family storytelling. I also felt more distance in the third person sections in spite of them being about the author, while the first person sections reach across generations, yet feel more immediate. There's a discomfort generated by this, but one I could sit within.