T. F. Rhoden

Come and meet Naem and Jin, living in this corner of Asia in a village, where life flows with its ups and downs and everything happens and nothing really changes, like in the lazy summers of our youths, when we used to spend ur holidays at the farm with grandma or auntie and their neighbours and firends.
I loved the sound of the words, each tale like a song, fascinating, albeit not reccomended for those who look for action and exciting plots.
"A florescent light flickered faintly in one corner show more of the office with a tempo and rhythm that lacked both rhyme and reason. Though its inviting flash caught the attention of both men periodically, it was not powerful enough to induce them closer, not annoying enough to make them change out the bulb. The blinking florecence was, if anything, a reminder of the gentle sinecure they were enjoying show less

“The Village” is a significant work of art and is deserving of examination by acclaimed (or at least competent) critics. Author, T. F. Rhoden uses language with as much artistic power as ever any of the masters used a palette. The novel captures life in Southeast Asia as clearly as did America’s local color authors -- as poignantly as Robert Frost captured life in New England; as realistically as Willa Cather captured the mid-west. Rhoden has a keen, perceptive eye for rural life and show more culture, and has the capacity to people it with real, breathing characters: Mae Aeo, widowed mother of son, Beck, and daughter, Naem, guardian of Jin, six-year-old orphaned by Aeo’s brother, Gop and Aeo’s sister-in-law; Somgiat Pucksahsawan , Aeo’s late husband; Kin, deputy to the village’s “Great -Man,” Dom, the great man himself; and tempestuous Mai, who lost out to Aeo for Somgiat’s affection.

Rhoden is particularly adept at depicting the behaviors of the women and girls in the village. When on a visit to town, Jin and a few of Jin’s young friends follow “Mae and Naem away from the pickup truck, stopping only when Naem stopped to unconsciously check herself in the car’s side mirror, each of the girls imitating Naem’s example by peering at the reflections their circular faces made, one side of their face at a time, one girl after another.”

Then: “The band of female villagers beheld the township’s super mart, slowing their tread in deference to its naked modernity, like a line of felines, perched along a narrow fence, suddenly startled, awoken to an overbearing presence.”

In preparing for her morning bath, Naem wraps herself in a towel, “looking something now like a baloney blanketed hors d’oeuvre.” She disrobes in such a way that: “All her movements graceful, all her movements well rehearsed, strategic even, this routine could never have been in danger of indecency. All four pale walls of her bedroom could have been made out of glass, with an army of peeping-toms encircled looking in, and not a soul would have been able to observe any more naked flesh than her feet, hands and silent face.”

Here Aeo speaks of her brother whose wild drunken carelessness resulted in orphaning Jin: “Gop was like the slime, the sludge, the mottled muck, that never seems to wash itself clean from a laundered piece of clothing.”

I find myself wanting to lift passage after passage out of the book - but better if the book is read, not these slim passages. Do not look to “The Village” as a page-turner, a romantic drama, or a thriller - it is none of these, but it is clearly structured, beautifully written, rewarding, uplifting, and well worth reading. show less

This book is a collection of moving essays written for English class by refugees in camps on the Thai border. The introduction and explanatory material provide a concise explanation of Burma’s political evolution since independence.
The book is divided into three sections. The first section contains essays from refugees of the 8888 uprising – August 8, 1988, It is a telling fact that these people are still refugees. The essays in the second section are by refugees from the 2007 uprising show more – the Saffron Revolution. The essays in these two sections were written by ethnic Burmese.
The third section consists of writings by refugees of other ethnic groups: Karen, Chin, Mon, Arakanese, and Shan. (There were no Kachin present in the camps where the author worked.) The difference in view and experience of these people, many Christian or Muslim, illuminates the complexities of Burmese society. Each group has its unique problems.
For example, since the Shan have traditionally worked on both sides of the border, the Thai government often deports them as economic migrants without giving them the opportunity to establish that they are political refugees. Burmese and other ethnic groups are assumed to be political refugees; hence, Shan political refugees must often lie about their ethnicity to receive asylum.
The book covers the period through the elections of 2010. I had thought that the current developments in Burma might have made this book dated, but instead it serves as a good introduction to a complex situation. And many of the authors of these essays are still refugees in these camps, still living the lives that they describe. show less

This was one of those books that was hard to put down and hard to pick up. The reality of the refugees and the experiences they were forced to live through were riveting ... but not in a good way. Human nature is at its root is not good, if you need to see that in real tangible lives and stories ... read this book.