True Love and Bartholomew: Rebels on the Burmese Border

by Jonathan Falla

Overview

The Karen, one of Burma's many minority peoples, have been waging an increasingly desperate war for autonomy against the Burmese government since 1949. Karen society in Burma has been little studied since the 1920s, and recent writers have been forced (by Burma's "closed door" policies) to concentrate on Karen refugee communities in Thailand. This book is a portrait of an ancient culture remolded to the purposes of ethnic rebellion. The picture is enriched with historical comparisons and is based on portraits of individual Karen as they struggle to defend their way of life and to preserve their belief in their own independence. There are chapters on music, food, love, the patterns of the rebels' forest and river life, on the Karen military hierarchy and its weaponry, on women and on mercenaries, on the language and the symbols of rebel nationalism. Jonathan Falla has led a diverse life. He attended the University of Cambridge and is the founder of the Cambridge Poetry Society. He has worked in Indonesia and Uganda and has written several plays, being named one of Britain's Most Promising Playwrights in 1983. Falla spent an illegal year in Burma living with the Karen rebels. Currently, he lives in Scotland and works as a nurse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521390194
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/29/1991
Pages:	426
Product dimensions:	0.94(w) x 9.21(h) x 6.14(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword Nigel Barley; Acknowledgements; 1. A bronze drum; 2. Boar tusk's children; 3. White collar flowerland; 4. True love at home; 5. Water child, land child; 6. A simple man; 7. Fighting mean, fighting clean; 8. Great lake and the elephant man; 9. Bartholomew's borders; 10. The three seasons; Interlude: from the Kok River; 11. Last of the longhouses; 12. A delicate bamboo tongue; 13. True love in love; 14. Fermented monkey faeces; 15. Perfect hosts; 16. Old guard, young turks; 17. True love and white rock; 18. Insurgents in a landscape; 19. True love and sudden death; 20. Portraits; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Both the poignancy and the sense of urgency pervade the text of this poetic and deeply felt book. The reader will be captivated and, long after finishing it, haunted by many vivid images." Journal of Asian and African Studies

"His absorbing account, with its wealth of research and firsthand observation, is far more than a travelogue and merits its description as a "portrait of an ancient culture remolded to the purposes of a modern ethnic rebellion." Times Literary Supplement

"Because of his friendships, Mr. Falla has written a truly personal, careful and warm account of his time with the Karen on the Thai Burmese border, but not without a certain degree of skepticism...when he introduces us to the main characters, all this anthropology comes to life ." New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

Falla, a British nurse and playwright, spent several months in 1986-1987 in the rebel state of Kawthoolei assessing the medical needs of the Karen, a mountain folk numbering some four million, who have been engaged in armed struggle with the lowland Burmese since the late 1940s. Though most of the people mentioned in this memoir are members of the Karen National Liberation Front, the author has little to say about their rebellion, concentrating instead on describing their forest and river life, their hospitality, their musical aptitude and their strict moral code. Certain characters who appear here engage us briefly, particularly a sergeant-clerk named True Love and a female nurse named Come Quick, but the author never makes clear why he thinks readers might be interested in the Karen people as a whole. Photos. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Scattered around the globe are minority groups who have refused incorporation into newly independent Third World nations. Burma (now Myanmar) has several such groups, and Falla devotes his attention to the Karen, who have fought the Burmese since 1948. His account is not the typical flamboyant narrative of the innocent minority ruthlessly persecuted by the majority. Rather, he edited his 1986-87 diary describing his illegal stay in a Karen village (Burma is closed to outsiders). While impartially discussing the Karen's strengths, weaknesses, and perceptions of the future, he also includes the comments of others who over the last two centuries also interacted with the Karen. Falla leaves the reader with the impression that the Karen, like everyone else, are pushed and pulled by outside forces and somehow have to come to terms with this reality. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don't. For Asian collections.-- Donald Clay Johnson, Univ. of Minnesota Lib., Minneapolis

Library Journal