Back in Burma

Heute habe ich den Faulkner ausgelesen und war nicht wirklich begeistert. Ich fand die Geschichte irgendwie deprimierend, und es gab auch keinen Lichtblick, irgendeine - wenn auch nur winzige - Chance auf ein besseres, ein anderes Leben. Vielleicht habe ich es auch nur nicht zum richtigen Zeitpunkt gelesen.

 

Nach den Berichten von Präsident Obamas Besuch in Burma habe ich mich dann entschieden, ebenfalls literarisch wieder nach Burma zu Reisen, und zwar mit dem folgenden Buch:

Thant MYINT-U
The River of Lost Footsteps

A Personal History of Burma

Product Description: What do we really know about Burma and its history? And what can Burma's past tell us about its present and even its future? For nearly two decades Western governments and a growing activist community have been frustrated in their attempts to bring about a freer and more democratic Burma--through sanctions and tourist boycotts--only to see an apparent slide toward even harsher dictatorship. Now Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, and the story of his own family, in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Through his prominent family's stories and those of others, he portrays Burma's rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through a sixty-year civil war that continues today--the longest-running war anywhere in the world. "The River of Lost Footsteps "is a work at once personal and global, a "brisk, vivid history" (Philip Delves Broughton, "The Wall Street Journal") that makes Burma accessible and enthralling.