[NPC]∎ Descargar In the Shadow of the Banyan Vaddey Ratner Books

In the Shadow of the Banyan Vaddey Ratner Books

Download As PDF : In the Shadow of the Banyan Vaddey Ratner Books

In the Shadow of the Banyan Vaddey Ratner Books

We used to look to kings, queens, princes, and princesses as semi-divine figures and exceptional beings. Unfortunately for them, due to their wielding of absolute power and amassing wealth and landownership to the detriment of their subjects, their place in the world had been diminished. Similarly, Cambodia (bastardization of Kambuja), with great leaders, used to rule and dominate Southeast Asia; but tragically, she has become a small country whose citizens are easily provoked and prone to adapt bad habits and absorb, like a sponge, the seven major negativities that are destructive to our lives and everyone around: fear, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy, revenge, and superstition. We have lost our ways since 1431, when we were divided and conquered. No other period put Cambodia on a darker path than that of the Khmer Rouge era, where intellectuals and everything associated with beauty and modernity were turned into ashes. Thirty-nine years have passed since then. Some of us understand our downfall and are changing our ways to inch toward greatness again, and when it comes to literature, Princess Vaddey Sisowath Ratner stands at the forefront of this paradigm shift.

Sure, there should be more to the Khmer story than Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, the Killing Fields, and the nation of Democratic Kampuchea. Certain Cambodians—especially young ones—have expressed their fatigue of anything relating to this period of our history. Though Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan touches on the communist era, her story is more than that; it’s about, in her words, “the human experience—our struggle to hang onto life, our desire to live, even in the most awful circumstances. In telling this story, it isn’t my own life I wished others to take note of. I have survived, and the gift of survival, I feel, is honor enough already. My purpose is to honor the lives lost, and I wanted to do so by endeavoring to transform suffering into art.” And how! Ratner’s superior artistic merit has done great justice to what the Khmer people went through. No other literature of this dark period has shown such great depth and captured the history, the mood, the Khmer essence like In the Shadow of the Banyan. No! As much as she had lost and endured, you will not find inaccuracies, manipulative narrative, vindictiveness, salaciousness, rage, or bitterness here. Instead, you will find a calm voice—a divine voice—recounting the causes of human suffering with grace, dignity, and empathy.

The cloud passed and the moon seemed bigger and brighter, more like a full-lip pout now. Tousana, Papa had called it, I remembered now, from the Pali word dassana, meaning “insight.” When something seemed both familiar and new all in the same moment. We’d been talking about storytelling, how there could be many versions of the same story, many ways of telling it, and how each version was a kind of manifestation, as if the story itself was a living, evolving entity, a god capable of many guises (103).

Ratner has a way with words. Her well-paced, lyrical prose mellifluously moves through the pages. Granted, In the Shadow of the Banyan is fictionalized, telling a heartbreaking story of a seven-year-old princess, Raami, who suffers polio, whose father gives up his life to the dark force of the Angkar (Organization), so that she and her extended family could live; but with any period piece, inaccurate historical background can turn off readers who lived during that time, or other knowledgeable readers. Writing from a child’s perspective is hard, but Ratner does a great job by telling the story in the past tense, almost like an adult recounting the story of her younger self with the wisdom and knowledge of a learned adult. As a Khmer princess, knowledgeable of her own history and with a major in Southeast Asian studies, Ratner has the authority to tell the story and is a trustworthy storyteller at that. People write what they know, and Ratner knows a lot about Khmer people, our language, our history, our religion, our folklore, and our way of life.

Examples of Ratner’s compassion and empathy can be shown in the characters of Raami (the seven-year-old protagonist), Ayuravann (Raami’s father), and Aana (Raami’s mother). Raami is of royalty. She lives a sheltered and a luxurious life with a nanny, maids, cooks, and servants; yet, when she is thrown into the mix of the Revolutionary soldiers, the Kamaphibal (top official), the Moulithan (old or base people), and other ordinary Cambodians, she doesn’t cringe or curl her mouth in disgust at the raggedy clothes they wear, their oily hair, the dirt under their fingernails, or their destitute nature. As a Khmer daughter, she understands the formal and informal way of speaking. She knows the difference between the peasant vernacular and that of royalty and religious figures. Like the river, Raami bends with the people and environment. She questions her parents and other adults about why things are as they seem, but she does not judge. She takes in the answers. She analyzes. This is the nature of her parents, too. They raise her with love and understanding. She receives extra love and attention due to her polio. Also, it is through poetry and folklore instilled by her parents that Raami finds her connection with other people and nature.

It’s so refreshing to read an entire novel without having to cringe at the misinterpretation of Khmer words, history, religion and folklore. Without feeling incensed at the manipulation of the meanings of words and events by the author to paint others as dark, evil, and bad people, while boasting of oneself and one’s own family as the light and goodness in the vortex of darkness. Put your trust in Princess Vaddey Sisowath Ratner. If writing gives you wings, then her novel In the Shadow of the Banyan soars high, and all you have to do is sit, read and enjoy her storytelling talent. It’s art in its highest form. How wonderful it is to admire a princess once again.


Tags : Amazon.com: In the Shadow of the Banyan (9781451657708): Vaddey Ratner: Books,Vaddey Ratner,In the Shadow of the Banyan,Simon & Schuster,1451657706,Cultural Heritage,Autobiographical fiction.,Cambodia;History;1975-1979;Fiction.,Refugees;Cambodia;Fiction.,1975-1979,AMERICAN FIRST NOVELISTS,ASIAN AMERICAN NOVEL AND SHORT STORY,Asian American,Autobiographical fiction,Biographical,Cambodia,Cambodia; Vaddey Ratner; In the Shadow of the Banyan; Khmer Rouge; Pol Pot; Cambodian history; refugee; immigrant; Southeast Asia; novel; fiction; literary fiction; book club; PEN Hemingway; award; bestseller; contemporary fiction; female protagonists; Little Bee; Chris Cleave,Coming of Age,FICTION Asian American,FICTION Coming of Age,FICTION Cultural Heritage,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-Coming of Age,GENERAL,General Adult,History,Literary,Refugees,South & Southeast Asia,United States

In the Shadow of the Banyan Vaddey Ratner Books Reviews

At the beginning of the book, I thought it was a bit simple - especially since it was told through the eyes of a very young child. But as the book progressed, it became more and more fascinating, and, by nature of the story, more and more disturbing.
I learned so much about a culture, and lives that are so different from mine. And although the brutality of the Khmer Rouge was generally known, it wasn't until I read about the lives experience by the characters in this book, the impact had been more intellectual than emotional. Vadday Ratner bring it all out to the point when you almost can't tolerate reading it.

Not a "fun" book, but certainly a worthwhile one.
This is an excellent book if one wants to get some idea of what it was like to be one of the victims of the Khmer Rouge insanity in Cambodia. Vaddey Ratner is a skillful writer, who has an important experience to relate. It would be comforting to think that stories such as she tells would make it less likely for such atrocities to occur in the future. Unfortunately, history has demonstrated that such histories are incapable of teaching those who need to be taught. Pol Pot was educated in France, and presumably was aware of the Reign of Terror. And rather than learning from it, apparently thought it was a good idea and adopted it in his own country.

At least one person gave this book a poor review because it was written by a princess, one of the class who inherited their wealth, did nothing to improve the quality of life for their subjects, yet insisted upon being called “Highness.” Contrary to Ayn Rand, these are not the Atlases of society, but rather the sort of people that make irruptions of social chaos more-or-less inevitable. However, rich people aren’t usually evil, just complacent, and incapable of understanding that their wealth is a matter of privileged circumstances rather than something they have earned and deserve. However, this does not apply to Vaddey Ratner. She has her Grandmother Queen suggest that it was their karma, and her mother admit that “this Revolution was an old blaze reignited, possibly centuries of injustice manifesting itself like a raging inferno.” Social stratification makes a society ripe for the sociopathic element to emerge and stage a revolution. It takes very little sophistication to use a machine gun, and ruthless leaders can easily manipulate people by capitalizing upon their sense of social injustice. It is indeed odd that people are so easily manipulated by ignorant evil. Successful social revolutions need to be more like evolution than war, but this requires wisdom from the enlightened members of society.

Unfortunately, in present day Cambodia, very little has been learned. Workers are murdered when they strike for a living wage. Many of the most attractive young women, who have little chance at getting an education, turn to selling sex rather than submitting to the worse indignity of factory work.
We used to look to kings, queens, princes, and princesses as semi-divine figures and exceptional beings. Unfortunately for them, due to their wielding of absolute power and amassing wealth and landownership to the detriment of their subjects, their place in the world had been diminished. Similarly, Cambodia (bastardization of Kambuja), with great leaders, used to rule and dominate Southeast Asia; but tragically, she has become a small country whose citizens are easily provoked and prone to adapt bad habits and absorb, like a sponge, the seven major negativities that are destructive to our lives and everyone around fear, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy, revenge, and superstition. We have lost our ways since 1431, when we were divided and conquered. No other period put Cambodia on a darker path than that of the Khmer Rouge era, where intellectuals and everything associated with beauty and modernity were turned into ashes. Thirty-nine years have passed since then. Some of us understand our downfall and are changing our ways to inch toward greatness again, and when it comes to literature, Princess Vaddey Sisowath Ratner stands at the forefront of this paradigm shift.

Sure, there should be more to the Khmer story than Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, the Killing Fields, and the nation of Democratic Kampuchea. Certain Cambodians—especially young ones—have expressed their fatigue of anything relating to this period of our history. Though Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan touches on the communist era, her story is more than that; it’s about, in her words, “the human experience—our struggle to hang onto life, our desire to live, even in the most awful circumstances. In telling this story, it isn’t my own life I wished others to take note of. I have survived, and the gift of survival, I feel, is honor enough already. My purpose is to honor the lives lost, and I wanted to do so by endeavoring to transform suffering into art.” And how! Ratner’s superior artistic merit has done great justice to what the Khmer people went through. No other literature of this dark period has shown such great depth and captured the history, the mood, the Khmer essence like In the Shadow of the Banyan. No! As much as she had lost and endured, you will not find inaccuracies, manipulative narrative, vindictiveness, salaciousness, rage, or bitterness here. Instead, you will find a calm voice—a divine voice—recounting the causes of human suffering with grace, dignity, and empathy.

The cloud passed and the moon seemed bigger and brighter, more like a full-lip pout now. Tousana, Papa had called it, I remembered now, from the Pali word dassana, meaning “insight.” When something seemed both familiar and new all in the same moment. We’d been talking about storytelling, how there could be many versions of the same story, many ways of telling it, and how each version was a kind of manifestation, as if the story itself was a living, evolving entity, a god capable of many guises (103).

Ratner has a way with words. Her well-paced, lyrical prose mellifluously moves through the pages. Granted, In the Shadow of the Banyan is fictionalized, telling a heartbreaking story of a seven-year-old princess, Raami, who suffers polio, whose father gives up his life to the dark force of the Angkar (Organization), so that she and her extended family could live; but with any period piece, inaccurate historical background can turn off readers who lived during that time, or other knowledgeable readers. Writing from a child’s perspective is hard, but Ratner does a great job by telling the story in the past tense, almost like an adult recounting the story of her younger self with the wisdom and knowledge of a learned adult. As a Khmer princess, knowledgeable of her own history and with a major in Southeast Asian studies, Ratner has the authority to tell the story and is a trustworthy storyteller at that. People write what they know, and Ratner knows a lot about Khmer people, our language, our history, our religion, our folklore, and our way of life.

Examples of Ratner’s compassion and empathy can be shown in the characters of Raami (the seven-year-old protagonist), Ayuravann (Raami’s father), and Aana (Raami’s mother). Raami is of royalty. She lives a sheltered and a luxurious life with a nanny, maids, cooks, and servants; yet, when she is thrown into the mix of the Revolutionary soldiers, the Kamaphibal (top official), the Moulithan (old or base people), and other ordinary Cambodians, she doesn’t cringe or curl her mouth in disgust at the raggedy clothes they wear, their oily hair, the dirt under their fingernails, or their destitute nature. As a Khmer daughter, she understands the formal and informal way of speaking. She knows the difference between the peasant vernacular and that of royalty and religious figures. Like the river, Raami bends with the people and environment. She questions her parents and other adults about why things are as they seem, but she does not judge. She takes in the answers. She analyzes. This is the nature of her parents, too. They raise her with love and understanding. She receives extra love and attention due to her polio. Also, it is through poetry and folklore instilled by her parents that Raami finds her connection with other people and nature.

It’s so refreshing to read an entire novel without having to cringe at the misinterpretation of Khmer words, history, religion and folklore. Without feeling incensed at the manipulation of the meanings of words and events by the author to paint others as dark, evil, and bad people, while boasting of oneself and one’s own family as the light and goodness in the vortex of darkness. Put your trust in Princess Vaddey Sisowath Ratner. If writing gives you wings, then her novel In the Shadow of the Banyan soars high, and all you have to do is sit, read and enjoy her storytelling talent. It’s art in its highest form. How wonderful it is to admire a princess once again.