True Love and Bartholomew: Rebels on the Burmese Border by Jonathan Falla

True Love and Bartholomew: Rebels on the Burmese Border



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True Love and Bartholomew: Rebels on the Burmese Border Jonathan Falla
Language: English
Page: 428
Format: pdf
ISBN: 0521390192, 9780511521065
Publisher:

From Publishers Weekly

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.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

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
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.