book review on la ama

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Sunday, July 5, 2015

Book review // la ama.

9 comments:

Have read so many reviews and it only motivate to grab one and read, but still need to wait for months, but i surely will. A concise and beautiful review! Rekha..!

Thank you Tshewang. Hope you pick up a book at the earliest possible :)

I m glad that u actually read ths book :)

I enjoyed it :)

Interesting! Your review is just so thought provoking and definitely want to give a go with this book. Let me know if the book is available online somehow. You can insta me the info in one of the pic. Thanks :)

i also wnt to read dat buk...it seems to b vry nic bukk

It's a wonderful piece Aue. Love your work, as always. The decoration is pretty as well :) Happy Weekends. Take Care!

A captivating review. Hope you are doing fine, Mam Rekha.

It's simply wonderful review after the book ---'La Aama'...this book made me think more and more and less and less all things that happens in each individual 'HOME'...thanks

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‘When I was growing up, we never had any Bhutanese authors. All the books we read came from outside.’ – Chador Wangmo

May 2, 2019

Chador Wangmo, teacher turned writer, lives in Thimpu, Bhutan. She has authored four novels, including La Ama and Kyetse , and ten illustrated books for children, including books from the series Superhero Dema . Although her work is mostly prose, she likes writing poems and has recently published her first poetry compilation titled Phases. She has been awarded an honorary Doctorate in Literature by the Vikram Sheela Vidyapeeth, Sidharth Nagar, UP. She has also been awarded the Sidhartha Tathagat Sansthan Sahitya award in recognition of her contribution to literature.

Here Anika Shah, on behalf of Prachya Review, interviews the writer and poet to know more about her thoughts and literary journey.

Photographed by Anika Shah

Anika Shah: How did your journey as a writer begin? Did you always know that you wanted to be a writer, or did something drive you towards that journey?

Chador Wangmo: When I was growing up, we never had any Bhutanese authors. All the books we read came from outside. So, I guess the notion that someday I might become a writer was never on my mind when I was a little girl. But I was an ardent reader and I loved listening to oral folktales. Even when I was little girl, I loved retelling these stories to whoever was ready to listen to me and that ultimately made me a writer. I guess I’m that girl who grew up with stories and then she just chose to write these stories. (Smiles)

Anika Shah: When we met at the South Asian Literature Festival in 2018, you mentioned that the people of Bhutan often feel confused about their identity as a Bhutanese and their identity as a Buddhist. How do you think that effects the literature of Bhutan?

Chador Wangmo: Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that it’s an “identity crisis” as I seem to have made it sound like but yes, definitely in Bhutan, the people are largely driven by the Buddhist philosophies that are so much ingrained in our everyday lifestyle. So, even in our stories, or literature for that matter, you will come across many of these elements. To cite an example, as a Buddhist, we practice being mindful about the impermanence of life. So, you might see even school going children writing poems on death . That was one simple example I could think of at the moment but you have to read many Bhutanese author’s works to understand how neatly our ideologies are woven around our Buddhist beliefs. (Laughs).

Anika Shah: How do you balance between writing for adults and writing for children? Is there any transition that occurs within you as a writer?

Chador Wangmo: I think I write what stories nudge me from within. I don’t exactly plan what level I want to write or what kind of stories I want to write but there are times when stories simply come bubbling from within, wanting to be told and basically that’s what I land up writing. So, you can say that it is almost like an inner call more than a planned activity!

Anika: Tell us a little bit about Dema – the little girl from your books who is a superhero and also a nun. What kind of response did you get from children after the publication of this series?

Chador: (Excited) Dema is the first ever superhero in our country and she is just a twelve years old nun, that makes her extra special. Special because in these times of #MeToo and #WomenEmpowerment being so strongly voiced out, I feel that it is so timely that a young female superhero had to surface in our part of the world too.

Whenever I am asked about the response I have received from the little ones, I land up narrating this incident, which was shared to me by one of my acquaintances. It was few days after the second book of the series had been launched. This friend of mine was on his evening walk. Suddenly, he heard a little girl call out to him from her verandah. Believe it or not, the little girl calls out to this stranger and she proudly shows her Dema Book and even gives a summary of this book so that the stranger she is talking to knows who Dema, the superhero is. How sweet is that!

So this zest and the various mails I receive from little ones asking me when the next book in the series will be out keeps me motivated to write more. Actually I’ve already started writing the third book of this series.

Anika: Since you were in the teaching profession, do you ever find your teacher-self resurface when you write for children?

Chador: (Blush! Blush!) Can’t help that I guess (Laughs). I guess the “teacher self” always wants to teach something or the other through the books I write. I don’t want to write preachy books but every book of mine has some concept or the other that I would want the children of that particular age group to learn but I’m mindful not to make them sound preachy at all!

Anika: Do you recall any particular struggle in your literary journey?

Chador: The biggest struggle that every Bhutanese author faces as of now is the small market for our books. But that too is changing now. More and more people are reading and embracing Bhutanese authors so hopefully in few years time that too wouldn’t be much of a problem.

Anika: I know it is difficult for writers to pick one of their works as a favorite, but still, I will ask – which work of yours do you hold the closest to your heart?

Chador: Well, as you put it, I am tempted to say all the books (Laughs). But I think I’m more popularly known for my first novel La Ama which came out in 2015. I choose this book for two reasons:

As already mentioned, people know me mostly for this book.
I wrote this book as I was drowning in the sorrows after I lost my mother. Creating the mother character of this book was like bringing my mother back to life. I’ve used her as a reference to create this character. The way she walked, the songs she listened to, and the way she dressed. So even today, four years after this book when people mention this book, I feel I have resurrected my mother.

So, it would be La Ama (Winks).

Anika: Do you prefer writing poetry more or prose? Since your book of poetry came out very recently, I was curious to know, do you prefer either one of them, or do they go hand in hand?

Chador: I write poetry more on an impulse than planned writing. I write prose with my target audience in mind, which means it comes more from the head and I write poetry whenever my emotions nudge me to, so poetry comes from the heart. It goes “heart in head” rather! (Laughs loudly)

Anika: How do you feel about the current literary scene in Bhutan? Is it different from what you grew up to see?

Chador: A lot more different! As I said in my first response, we never had Bhutanese writers back then. So the whole idea of being a writer was almost non-existent. Maybe, I grew up shoving the role of writing to the foreign writers only.

But today, when I visit schools, and interact with little ones, it’s heartening to see that now little ones carry the dream of becoming writers. That’s a major leap if we talk about the change in our interest in literature.

Anika: Do you think that people are writing more in English these days rather than Dzongkha? When I keep in mind Bangladesh, I can feel that a lot of people feel more comfortable in expressing themselves in English rather than in Bangla. Is it the same in Bhutan?

Chador: It’s a shame but yes. But again, even if it is in English, I am happy that Bhutanese are at least picking up their pen and writing our stories now. Better that than not having anything written.

As you mentioned, there are more readers and writers of English than Dzongkha. However, that doesn’t mean that Dzongkha isn’t written or read at all. We have organizations that are doing their best to lift and promote writings in Dzongkha.

Anika: What do you think about literary festivals as platforms to uphold emerging writers and poets?

Chador: Essential! Otherwise, how would one showcase one’s work? I think literary festivals are the best platform for any emerging writers. I personally feel, the first ever-literary festival I was invited to, groomed the speaker that I’ve become today. So, my deepest gratitude to Mountain Echoes , the only literary festival we have in our country.

Anika: Who are your favorite writers and poets?

Chador: Anytime I’m ready for Kahlil Gibran, Pablo Neruda, Charles Bukowski, Keats, and I feel the poems by Mary Oliver and Sylvia Plath resonate deep in my soul.

I will never forget the first book I ever read that touched my heart like no other book – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. That book has always stayed in me after all these years and I am a huge Murakami fan. But I make sure to read whatever I can lay my paws on. That gives me a wide choice of works to keep me equipped with different styles and stories.

Anika: What are you working on now? Any upcoming projects that you would like to share with us?

Chador: I am more of what the stories nudge me than what I plan to create as a writer. So, I’m currently working on three projects. Two illustrated books for children and they are for two different age groups and I think I mentioned earlier that I’m working on the third book of the Superhero Dema series.

(Psst! Don’t tell anybody, but I’ve a theme for my next anthology of poems that’s been yelling loud in my heart for the past three weeks now. Laughs)

‘Eroticism and spirituality, though different in many ways, are two great sources of passion’- Melissa Studdard

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Book Reviews

In 'severance,' the world ends not with a bang, but a memo.

Michael Schaub

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If you've spent much time reading personal essays on the Internet, then (a) you're a masochist, and (b) you've probably noticed a subgenre of the form that involves the author explaining why they left New York. The pieces are usually bittersweet and elegiac; seldom, if ever, do they say "My company transferred me to the Denver office" or "I just got tired of paying $20 for a hamburger."

In a way, Ling Ma's shocking and ferocious novel, Severance , is a play on the "Why I left New York" theme, but it's one you'll actually want to read. The novel's protagonist, Candace Chen, departs the city she's called home for years not because of a tough job market or skyrocketing rent, but because the world as we know it is coming to an end. It's a fierce debut from a writer with seemingly boundless imagination.

Candace's life in New York might not be what she dreamed of, but it's not all that bad. She has a respectable job at a publishing production firm, where she outsources printing jobs to facilities in China. She and her boyfriend pass the time watching movies in his basement apartment. As a hobby, she maintains NY Ghost, a blog featuring her photographs of life in the city.

But then things start to get complicated. A mysterious disease called Shen Fever, a fungal infection that originated in China, starts to move through the country, turning its victims into, essentially, zombies. The death count rises so quickly that the news media, fearing a panic, stops reporting it.

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In satirical 'severance,' a stricken country works itself to death.

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Soon, Candace is — as near as she can tell — one of the only living people in the nation. "After the End came the Beginning," she explains. "And in the Beginning, there were eight of us, then nine — that was me — a number that would only decrease. We found one another after fleeing New York for the safer pastures of the countryside." Their ragtag group is led by Bob, a humorless IT specialist who promises to lead them to a safe place called "the Facility" in a Chicago suburb.

The group gathers supplies by going on "stalks" — expeditions into houses, some filled with living but infected people. They execute any ailing residents and loot the homes. "We were ashamed of leaving people behind, of taking our comforts where we could find them, of stealing from those who could not defend themselves. We had known ourselves to be cowards and hypocrites, pernicious liars really, and to find this suspicion confirmed was not a relief but a horror."

By the time they reach the Facility, Candace has soured on the destination and the group's Svengali leader: "The Facility means more to Bob than just a place to live. It is the manifestation of his shoddy ideology. He dictates and enforces the rules, rules that only he fully knows and understands. He sees us as subjects, to reward or to punish." Something has to give. And it does.

Severance goes back and forth in time, contrasting Candace's tedious office job with her travels across post-apocalyptic America. It's a technique Ma uses to great effect — it's jarring in a great way, making the horror of her new circumstances all the more intense. It works especially well in the novel's most terrifying scene, when Bob orders Candace to execute a young, ailing girl — directly afterwards, Ma shifts scenes to Candace's job interview, where she tries to explain to an executive why she'd be good at overseeing the production of Bibles.

And while Severance works beautifully as a horror novel, there's much more to it than that. It's a wicked satire of consumerism and work culture — the character of Bob comes across as a typical, power-hungry middle manager; Ma seems to be suggesting that even in the event of an apocalypse, you can't escape pointless bureaucracy. But Ma never overplays her hand — art that's critical of capitalism (or any political or economic system) can turn didactic and humorless very quickly, and Severance never does.

That's in part because of Ma's exceptionally dry sense of humor. Severance is the kind of satire that induces winces rather than laughs, but that doesn't make it any less entertaining — Ma exhibits an admirable restraint throughout the novel, never giving in to tired clichés or overwrought sermonizing. It's a stunning, audacious book with a fresh take on both office politics and what the apocalypse might bring: This is the way the world ends, Ma seems to be saying, not with a bang but a memo.

Chador Wangmo

Chador Wangmo has authored fifteen books. Her list of published books include ten illustrated books for children, two chapter books, two novels and an anthology of poems. She believes creativity should not be boxed in boundaries of genre, style or format. So, that's why she writes all genre, hoping to reach out to every section of the society with her stories.