Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: Burma

  • The Last Reunion

    The Last Reunion

    Kayte Nunn has written an excellent story in The Last Reunion to bring to light an almost unknown group of women. Australian, English, and Indian women served in the Burma Campaign of World War 2, as WAS(B)s. Their Auxiliary Service was closest to the frontlines of fighting, and they suffered the same conditions as the soldiers. Their mission was to bring comfort to the soldiers by providing tea, sandwiches, cakes and company. They were constantly on the move and worked many hours a day and night to “alleviate the hardships of the campaign.” Many were mentioned for their bravery.

    This cleverly woven tale follows the young women who enrolled as volunteer WASbs. It tells their story and follows their journey throughout Burma. Alongside this story is the tale of Olivia, set in the 1990’s, an Australian woman who has come to England to pursue a career in fine arts. She is particularly interested in a Japanese netsuke, a small hand carved ivory figure, which was stolen from a museum many years previously.

    It is this figure which brings Olivia to Beatrix, one of the women serving in Burma many years before. The story moves easily between the past and the present giving the reader a clear understanding of the friendship, loyalty, and the courage these women had and still retained.

    Kayte Nunn has presented a wonderful story, which cannot help mention the horrors of Burma, but does so in a way that is not upsetting or graphic. The courage, resilience and determination of the men and women are shown, while the crazy laughter and humour are such a release. It is a shame that these women have not received more open acknowledgment and congratulations must go to the author for bringing their exploits to light. The Last Reunion is such a diverse and entertaining read.

  • The Choke

    The Choke

    Award winning Sofie Laguna presents her third adult novel The Choke, set on the Murray River, a place of haunting natural beauty, a place that has well earned its name of the Choke, as at a certain place the river become so narrow the banks almost appear to touch, which provides the metaphor around which the story has been woven.

    Justine is growing up the hard way, abandoned by her mother at a very young age, she is left to be raised by her grandfather, or Pop as she calls him, a man who is struggling to cope in a world after life in the hell that was the Burma Railway; a man who chooses to shun society, and pays scant attention to his young granddaughter.

    Her half-brothers torment her during their play spent on the river banks, but Justine has her secret place, a place where she can simply be at peace. She also has Pops chooks who don’t judge her, simply accept her as the girl who feeds them and collects the eggs.

    The children finally realise that their father is a criminal, who on a rare visit home manages to commit a crime which sees him sentenced for seven years, the boys going to live with an Aunt and Justine left to the care of Pop and a largely uncaring situation.

    She struggles at school, failing to grasp the basics, failing to learn to read and write, eventually befriending Michael, a boy who is disabled and on crutches, who not only becomes her friend but also her protector, his family making this lonely, unloved girl feel welcome.

    The world her father has exposed her too has come with terrifying dangers, all of which she is unprepared for, resulting in an appalling situation fraught with tragedy, but at the same time, placing a society on notice.

    As Justine struggles to try and understand what is happening and what has happened to her, she begins to realise that she is not really all that helpless, that she too can fight back!

    How is it that a small community could let this happen, is a moral question which underlines the story which sadly, in many cases, was once all too real.

    Vital, alive and terribly real, Laguna’s characters come to life questioning, challenging and crying out to be recognised, to be heard, as real people, living and surviving in an all too real situation.

    Powerful and gripping, the characters and tale told will remain long after the final page has drawn to a surprising conclusion.

     

  • White Butterflies (Updated edition)

    White Butterflies (Updated edition)

    When Colin McPhedran was 11 years old he lived in Burma, son of a Burmese mother and British Oil executive father. Life was good growing up until in 1941 the Japanese invasion of Burma began. The high point in his young life was when the Principal Father of the boarding school he and his brother Robert attended called an assembly to advise the school would be closing down due to an imminent threat of Japanese invasion

    The boys returned home with a large amount of enthusiasm for the unexpected freedom granted and for a time life continued on with some restrictions. It soon became apparent it was becoming far too dangerous for them to remain in the small town of Maymyo, not far from the old capital of Mandalay. Plans were made to remove the family to somewhere a lot safer; Mandalay to begin with.

    They managed to make the last train out of Mandalay, finally arriving at the small town of Mogaung, after an adventure filled with bridges being blown up once the train has passed, to Japanese planes searching overhead; scary, but from the view point of an 11 year old boy – incredible. They thought Mogaung would be the end of their journey, but sadly it was just the beginning of a journey that was to bring tragedy and death to thousands, over the coming days and months.

    It soon became apparent that they would have to, like many others, join a trek out of Burma and into India, a journey of some 500 kilometres and so Colin and Robert set about gathering what supplies they could, for what Robert had estimated as a journey of about 150 miles. Adding to the challenge was the fact the Monsoon season was about to commence and it was a very great concern that the trails would become all but impassable across the mountainous terrain.

    But set off they did, with thousands of others, on a trek which was to see his beloved mother and brother Robert perish along the way, and his sister Ethel die just one day after finally being rescued, not far from the Burmese-Indian boarder, and Colin’s life hanging in the balance.

    Colin owed his life to Major Alasdair Ramsay Tainsh, a supply officer in the Royal Indian Army Services, a man who had risked his life on many occasions, going into the jungle along the border to rescue many survivors, describing the plight of the McPhedran children, when he found them, as ‘in a dreadful state’.

    Beautiful, sad, joyful and reflective, it is a story which is all the better for the telling, will reach out and touch many, bring memories of times past to many, many others and also help fill in some of the myriad of missing pieces of a past that should not ever be forgotten.

    Colin McPhedran passed away in Perth in 2010 surrounded by his family, leaving behind him not just an extraordinary, story but an extraordinary legacy.