Product Description

What does the fortunate visitor feel, travelling among the betrayed? The memory of a brief visit to Burma had haunted Rory MacLean for years. A decade after the violent suppression of an unarmed national uprising, which cost thousands of lives and all hopes for democracy, he seized the chance to return. Travelling from Rangoon to Mandalay and Pagan, into the heart of the Golden Triangle, he hears stories of freedom fighters, government censors, basket weavers, farmers and lovers - ordinary people struggling to survive under one of the most brutal and repressive regimes in the world. He also meets Aung San Suu Kyi, perhaps the most courageous woman of our time and the embodiment of all Burma s hope. On his journey MacLean exposes the tragedy of a hundred betrayals, giving voice to those too frightened to speak for themselves. In so doing he illuminates a land of paradoxes woven together like a basket: love and hate, faith and hopelessness, freedom and slavery, kindness and cruelty, selflessness and greed. 'Under the Dragon' is a perceptive and heartbreaking portrayal of contemporary Burma, a country that is shot through with desperation and fear, but also blessed - even in the darkest places - with beauty and courage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18936 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
'A work of great political commitment, powered above all by the authors outrage at the injustices, brutalisation and mass violation of human rights that he witnessed in Burma. Yet for all its pain, 'Under the Dragon' is a beautiful book. It remains his masterpiece; and in the light of the continuing tragedy in Burma is now more relevant than ever.' --William Dalrymple

'Exceptional insight and sensitivity, beautifully crafted and poignant... Maclean is a maverick among travel writers, his talent is multifaceted... Until the Burmese are free to determine their own lives then the pages of this wonderful book are as close as I will be getting to Burma.' --Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times

'Shines with an almost unbearable poignancy...a beautiful insight into this unhappy land…a book which marvellously extends the conventional confines of travel writing.' --Colin Thubron, The Times

About the Author
Rory MacLean's books, including best-sellers 'Stalin's Nose' and 'Under the Dragon', have challenged and invigorated travel writing, and -according to the late John Fowles -are among works that 'marvellously explain why literature still lives'. He has won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work prize and an Arts Council Writers' Award, was twice shortlisted for the Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Prize and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a regular contributor to BBC Radio 3 and 4. Born and educated in Canada, he lives with his family in Dorset.

Customer Reviews

Under the Dragon
This is a poignant, sympathetic and deeply moving read. With grace and style the author has woven together living voices from a lost land.
If you are thinking of visiting Burma, this is a book to read before you go. Because no one should merely be a tourist in their tragedy. If you would never visit Burma under present circumstances, then this is a book to read. Because the people need you to hear their voice. And if you have already visited Burma, then you should read this book. Because in it's sadness it is filled with beauty and perfume and peace.

A quest makes a frightening and alien culture accessible
This evocative book has haunted me since I first read it last year.

Rory MacLean weaves the story of his search for traditional Burmese culture (in the form of an antique basket)together with the tragic and profoundly moving lives of some contemporary Burmese. His harrowing and potentially deadly experience at the work's climax, takes his story and experience of Burma far beyond traditional travel literature, as his terror, on the one hand, and frustration and sadness about the destruction of Burmese traditions, on the other, grippingly recall the fear and loss of his earlier subjects.

As he was in his earlier works, the author, is an intriguing character in this book. His uniquely personal involvement in the story and first person narration make the experience immediate and compelling, and as the reader finds herself drawn into his accessible story of the quest, so she gains rare knowledge of what might have remained unknowable: Burma and its people. The basket story not only creates suspense and unifies the book; in a small way, it brings the reader into the drama and emotion experienced by contemporary Burmese.

This book transcends its genre, and warrants reading and rereading. I highly recommend it.

Burma - a sensitive account of a harrowing experience.
Delicately told, a blurred, dreamlike account of a quest pursued through the country most people still know best as Burma. The quest, ostensibly, is for a particular type of basket, rare and elusive. In the larger view the book describes a quest for the personality of a nation. This personality is gradually revealed, through various uncomfortable and often uneasy adventures, and through all manner of fleeting encounters. The story is told with great sensitivity, and the picture is far from pretty.