Vaddey Ratner

This is a feat of writing. In spite of the child’s-eye viewpoint, the author conveys the complexity and depth that are really essential to telling such a difficult story. Only in retrospect did I realize how closely I had followed Raami’s journey, and how much I learned from her even in moments where I “knew” more about what was happening than she did.

Set during the horror of the Khmer Rouge, a young girl and her family are forcibly moved from Phnom Penh to a rural district where they can be re-educated among the peasant class. Raami has lived in a wealthy household, surrounded by an extended family, including members of the royal family. Her father, a poet and intellectual, initially supports the Revolution, but their status puts their lives at risk as the Khmer Rouge rise to power. Raami’s innocence is shattered by the brutality of show more the civil war, but in the midst of almost unbearable sorrow, she is lifted up by the poetry of her father, the stories of her heritage, and by the love of those who surround her.

Please read this book! It will break your heart, but the writing is positively luminous and the persistence of the human spirit will inspire you. I can’t wait to read Vaddey Ratner’s second book, Music of the Ghosts. show less

Ratner tells us in her author's note that "Raami's story is in essence my own." This is a novel about love and survival and the power of stories. Raami is just seven-years-old when the novel begins, when the Khmer Rouge comes to power. The murderous regime over the course of four years was responsible for as many as two million deaths, wiping out about a third of the Cambodian population in their attempts to establish a communist utopia.

The story is described in blurbs as "lyrical." I show more thought at first too lyrical, bordering on purple, as Ratner paints an idyllic life among mangoes and butterflies and jasmine and the banyan tree, poetry and legends. It wasn't long before I was pulled in though; it occurs to me all that lush imagery isn't without its purpose--and not the one I thought at first. It's not so much that the golden world of her childhood is presented as a contrast to the horrors to come, as that it's a vision that sustains Raami through it. Raami's parents are especially strong characters. And the warmth lingers through much of the novel.

I couldn't help comparing this in my mind to Wiesel's Night, the memoir of his time in Auschwitz when barely in his teens. That wasn't cloaked as this story is in fiction. But the main difference is that this story somehow escapes its bleakness, despite the at times graphic brutality. Hope and faith even to the end shines through. It's not as powerful as Night, and the voice did strike me as a bit too sophisticated for such a young child, but this is still a moving story and very evocative of time and place with characters to care about. show less

In the Shadow of the Banyan is a fictionalized work that parallels author Vaddey Ratner's personal history: a (minor) royal family of privilege and education is driven from Phnom Penh during the Khmer Rouge revolution. Told from the perspective of seven-year-old Raami, the novel follows her family through years of toil and labor in the countryside of Cambodia, through monsoons, sickness, and famine. Banyan is suffused with myth and poetry, both of which play a large role in Raami's family. show more The storytelling is lyrical and rich and it transports the reader to the jungles, riverbanks and rice paddies of Cambodia. Ratner does an amazing job of illustrating both the horror of the genocide and the power of hope.

As beautifully written as the book is, I didn't love it. My personal preference is for stories that are driven by plot or dialog. This book is much more introspective and descriptive. I found myself skipping paragraphs, too anxious to find out what would happen next. (For comparative purposes: I had the same problem with Snow Falling on Cedars.)

Final verdict: Beautiful, but not the right book for me. I don't have the right reading temperament for Ratner's slow and deliberate style. show less