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The Road to Wanting
Sometimes the hardest journey is the road home.
Na Ga was always in search of a better life. But now she sits, alone, in a hotel room in Wanting, a godforsaken town on the Chinese-Burmese border. Plucked from her wild life as a rural eel-catcher, Na Ga is then abandoned by her would-be rescuers in Rangoon. Later, as a teenager, she finds herself chasing the dream of a new life in Thailand - where further betrayals and violations await. Yet it seems that her fighting spirit will not be broken.
But for how long can Na Ga belong nowhere and with no one? In the dingy hotel in Wanting she is forced to confront her compulsion to keep running, and to ask herself why, until now, she's resisted the journey home.
Longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2011.
Na Ga was always in search of a better life. But now she sits, alone, in a hotel room in Wanting, a godforsaken town on the Chinese-Burmese border. Plucked from her wild life as a rural eel-catcher, Na Ga is then abandoned by her would-be rescuers in Rangoon. Later, as a teenager, she finds herself chasing the dream of a new life in Thailand - where further betrayals and violations await. Yet it seems that her fighting spirit will not be broken.
But for how long can Na Ga belong nowhere and with no one? In the dingy hotel in Wanting she is forced to confront her compulsion to keep running, and to ask herself why, until now, she's resisted the journey home.
Longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2011.
272 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2010
2 people are currently reading
310 people want to read
About the author
Wendy Law-Yone
11 books25 followersWendy Law-Yone (born 1947) is a critically acclaimed Burmese American author of novels and short stories.
The daughter of notable Burmese newspaper publisher, editor and politician Edward Michael Law-Yone, Law-Yone was born in Mandalay but grew up in Rangoon. Law-Yone has indicated that her father's imprisonment under the military regime limited her options in the country. She was barred from university, but not allowed to leave the country. In 1967, an attempt to escape to Thailand failed and she was imprisoned, but managed to leave Burma as a stateless person. She relocated to the United States in 1973, settling in Washington D.C. after attending college in Florida. In 1987, she was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Award for Creative Writing.[8] In 2002, she received a David T.K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship from the University of East Anglia.
Her novels, The Coffin Tree (1983) and Irrawaddy Tango (1993), were critically well received, with the latter nominated in 1995 for the Irish Times Literary Prize. Her third novel, "The Road to Wanting," (2010) is set in Burma, China and Thailand and was long-listed for the Orange Prize 2011.
The daughter of notable Burmese newspaper publisher, editor and politician Edward Michael Law-Yone, Law-Yone was born in Mandalay but grew up in Rangoon. Law-Yone has indicated that her father's imprisonment under the military regime limited her options in the country. She was barred from university, but not allowed to leave the country. In 1967, an attempt to escape to Thailand failed and she was imprisoned, but managed to leave Burma as a stateless person. She relocated to the United States in 1973, settling in Washington D.C. after attending college in Florida. In 1987, she was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Award for Creative Writing.[8] In 2002, she received a David T.K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship from the University of East Anglia.
Her novels, The Coffin Tree (1983) and Irrawaddy Tango (1993), were critically well received, with the latter nominated in 1995 for the Irish Times Literary Prize. Her third novel, "The Road to Wanting," (2010) is set in Burma, China and Thailand and was long-listed for the Orange Prize 2011.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 20, 2017
Perspective is vital to a meaningful life, which is why I travel, and which is why about half of my travel is through what are called Third World countries: What is important? What is necessary? What is frivolous? What do I need? What do I think I need? What do I think I want? Who is important to me?
I was in Myanmar (formerly Burma) when I read this heart-wrenching story of Na Ga, a girl from the Lu tribe, the poorest, most ignorant, most feral of all of the primitive tribes in the northern region of Burma, right on the Chinese border. Though it is slowly being developed and progress is visible, poverty in Myanmar is a given. Yet most of the people I personally saw live luxurious lives compared to Na Ga.
Interestingly, I explored in my book Petrocelli a lot of what she went through, confirming that my own research and insights into the life of those trafficked for labor and prostitution were quite accurate. However, even with a familiarity with the inhumane, gruesome practices common in these parts of Southeast Asia, I couldn't help but be horrified and pained by all Na Ga went through.
Perspective ... we in the West, certainly in the advanced, developed economies, despite the shortcomings of capitalism, the corruption of our mechanisms of government, despite horrendous wealth inequality, racism, social and class division, have so much! Actually, we have so much we don't need, so much which disconnects us from the base realities of the lives of billions of people around the world, so much that makes us accomplices in the exploitation of these "others".
This is the perfect book for me to have read as I wander among tens of thousands of human beings who have no plan other than whatever it takes to put together their next meal. Perspective.
I was in Myanmar (formerly Burma) when I read this heart-wrenching story of Na Ga, a girl from the Lu tribe, the poorest, most ignorant, most feral of all of the primitive tribes in the northern region of Burma, right on the Chinese border. Though it is slowly being developed and progress is visible, poverty in Myanmar is a given. Yet most of the people I personally saw live luxurious lives compared to Na Ga.
Interestingly, I explored in my book Petrocelli a lot of what she went through, confirming that my own research and insights into the life of those trafficked for labor and prostitution were quite accurate. However, even with a familiarity with the inhumane, gruesome practices common in these parts of Southeast Asia, I couldn't help but be horrified and pained by all Na Ga went through.
Perspective ... we in the West, certainly in the advanced, developed economies, despite the shortcomings of capitalism, the corruption of our mechanisms of government, despite horrendous wealth inequality, racism, social and class division, have so much! Actually, we have so much we don't need, so much which disconnects us from the base realities of the lives of billions of people around the world, so much that makes us accomplices in the exploitation of these "others".
This is the perfect book for me to have read as I wander among tens of thousands of human beings who have no plan other than whatever it takes to put together their next meal. Perspective.
September 30, 2019
For eight years, this book lay forgotten on my bookshelf. But when I finally picked it up over the weekend, I couldn’t understand why it had taken me so long. ‘The Road To Wanting’ is a poetic, fragmented journey of Na Ga’s life as she tries to pick up the pieces of her broken life and return to her homeland, Burma. The back and forth narrative might appear disjointed but I was always invested in Na Ga’s story. The despair seemed to be unrelenting at times. But there is a note of hope. Of some sort of way into the light toward the end. And in the character of Minzu, the hotel receptionist in Wanting, Wendy has created one of the most adorable characters ever.
A thoughtful book that sheds light on a country that is often forgotten.
A thoughtful book that sheds light on a country that is often forgotten.
April 7, 2011
Wanting: a frontier town, lying between China and Burma.
In a hotel room Na Ga considers how she got there, and where she might go next.
She tears cloth to make a rope. Maybe to escape, or maybe to hang herself.
But she is interrupted, by the news that the man who was to guide her over the border has chosen to end his life …
A compelling opening.
The Road to Wanting is not a happy book, not an easy book, but it is powerful, often beautiful, and took me into a world that I knew nothing about.
The narrative moves back and forth in town, slowly building a picture of Na Ga’s life, It took time and concentration to put the story together, but in time I did.
She grew up in a countryside community, but her parents sold her into slavery.
An American family saved her, and became a companion to their young daughter. But she was left behind, left to fend for herself when the political situation became unstable.
It was then that Na Ga was tricked. She found herself a slave again, in a brothel in Thailand,
She was rescued again, by another American. Will. He protected Na Ga for a long time, but eventually his home in America would call him back, and Na Ga would be left behind.
He left her money, and a guide to steer her home. Na ga wanted to go home.
But it wasn’t that easy. Years of conflict had changed Burma. Boundaries had moved, villages had been destroyed, tribes wiped out.
“I want to go home,” I said, still sitting where I had fallen. I wanted to be back in my own village, among the animals I knew and the cousins I played with, in the dirt yard behind the thorn hedges of our village gates.
Where was home? Should Na Ga cross the border and take her chances, or should she stay in Wanting?
It took time to put things together, but I’m glad that I did. The prose was rich and evocative, lyrical and still very, very readable. It drew me right to Na Ga’s life. I saw the sights, I heard the sounds. I was shocked, I was fascinated, and I was moved.
It helped that Na Ga’s first person narrative was clear and direct, and it hooked me from the first page. At first I thought she was passive, and yes she was, but I began to realise that she had never had the luxury of choice, that the course of her life had always been determined by other people, that she was doing what she had to to survive.
That made is difficult for me to engage with her, but it also allowed me to stand back and look at her life and her situation.
She had survived, she had accepted, and that said so much about her spirit, her character.
I closed The Road to Wanting thinking hard, and hoping against hope for Na Ga and her country.
I’m very pleased that this book was longlisted for the Orange Prize, and I’d be more than happy to see it on the shortlist.
In a hotel room Na Ga considers how she got there, and where she might go next.
She tears cloth to make a rope. Maybe to escape, or maybe to hang herself.
But she is interrupted, by the news that the man who was to guide her over the border has chosen to end his life …
A compelling opening.
The Road to Wanting is not a happy book, not an easy book, but it is powerful, often beautiful, and took me into a world that I knew nothing about.
The narrative moves back and forth in town, slowly building a picture of Na Ga’s life, It took time and concentration to put the story together, but in time I did.
She grew up in a countryside community, but her parents sold her into slavery.
An American family saved her, and became a companion to their young daughter. But she was left behind, left to fend for herself when the political situation became unstable.
It was then that Na Ga was tricked. She found herself a slave again, in a brothel in Thailand,
She was rescued again, by another American. Will. He protected Na Ga for a long time, but eventually his home in America would call him back, and Na Ga would be left behind.
He left her money, and a guide to steer her home. Na ga wanted to go home.
But it wasn’t that easy. Years of conflict had changed Burma. Boundaries had moved, villages had been destroyed, tribes wiped out.
“I want to go home,” I said, still sitting where I had fallen. I wanted to be back in my own village, among the animals I knew and the cousins I played with, in the dirt yard behind the thorn hedges of our village gates.
Where was home? Should Na Ga cross the border and take her chances, or should she stay in Wanting?
It took time to put things together, but I’m glad that I did. The prose was rich and evocative, lyrical and still very, very readable. It drew me right to Na Ga’s life. I saw the sights, I heard the sounds. I was shocked, I was fascinated, and I was moved.
It helped that Na Ga’s first person narrative was clear and direct, and it hooked me from the first page. At first I thought she was passive, and yes she was, but I began to realise that she had never had the luxury of choice, that the course of her life had always been determined by other people, that she was doing what she had to to survive.
That made is difficult for me to engage with her, but it also allowed me to stand back and look at her life and her situation.
She had survived, she had accepted, and that said so much about her spirit, her character.
I closed The Road to Wanting thinking hard, and hoping against hope for Na Ga and her country.
I’m very pleased that this book was longlisted for the Orange Prize, and I’d be more than happy to see it on the shortlist.
Want to read
December 5, 2021Recommended in 'Oh Reader' Issue 002 Winter 2020
March 28, 2011
This is my first pick from the Orange Prize Long List 2011. The Road to Wanting is Wendy Law-Yone’s third novel but my first experience of a novel set in South Eastern Asia, in this case Burma and Thailand.
The “Wanting” of the title is a town on the Chinese/Burmese border where we first encounter our narrator, Naga, a young Burmese girl whose life up until now has been a mixture of poverty, abuse and neglect. Jiang, the man who is to ensure her safe passage over the border to Burma, has just killed himself and Naga also contemplates suicide as she sits in a hotel room, in a limbo-like situation awaiting her fate.
The first person narrative reveals a litany of trials and tribulations which have beleaguered Naga from an early age – as a child her parents sold her into slavery. Later she is “rescued” by an American family living in Rangoon and she leads a relatively comfortable existence as friend/playmate for their daughter. However, happiness is always in short supply as the family abandon her when the political situation becomes unstable. Naga finds herself tricked into prostitution in a brothel in Thailand and is later “rescued” again by another American, Will who will, in turn, abandon her when the novelty wears off. Thus, Naga finds herself at this turning point in her life, facing the possibility of returning to a homeland which probably doesn’t exist anymore. In the tradition of her tribe, the Wild Lu, each child had a “name-seed” to which their real name was entrusted but Naga never discovers her real name, mirroring the fact that she is displaced, not really belonging anywhere or to anyone.
I loved the way the author captures the sights, sounds and smells of Burma and Thailand, the traditions of Naga’s tribe, the Wild Lu (apparently non-existent but she convinced me!), the seediness of Bangkok, the chasm between the rich and the poor. Surprisingly there is also humour in the midst of all the tragedy. This is a very readable novel, lyrical and a very quiet read which somehow reflects the calm, stoic nature of our narrator Naga. She’s been passed from pillar to post and so dehumanised, always wanting to please and serve so that she’s never really had the opportunity to be her own person.
The Road to Wanting is a beautifully written, intelligent account of a lost girl at a crossroads in her life; its, at times, matter of fact tone belies a poignancy which deeply affects the reader and you’re left with the hope that Naga will eventually achieve the happiness she so richly deserves.
April 24, 2011
Another one off the Orange Prize Longlist. Na Ga tells her life story in a rambling manner, from her childhood as a member of the Wild Lu in Burma via an adoption by an American family, time working in a brothel, a relationship with a Westerner, to the town of Wanting on her way back to Burma. The dual meaning of "Wanting" is obviously intentional.
I found the narrative captivating at first, then put the book down for a long time and couldn't be bothered to finish it. When I did pick it up again I found it quite the page turner again. Not sure what happened in the middle really but it lost my interest somewhere. So in the end I'm not really sure what to make of it. I thought it was a good book but I'd hesitate to recommend it.
I found the narrative captivating at first, then put the book down for a long time and couldn't be bothered to finish it. When I did pick it up again I found it quite the page turner again. Not sure what happened in the middle really but it lost my interest somewhere. So in the end I'm not really sure what to make of it. I thought it was a good book but I'd hesitate to recommend it.
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August 31, 2016This review was deleted following Amazon's purchase of GoodReads.
The review can still be viewed via LibraryThing, where my profile can be found here.
I'm also in the process of building a database at Booklikes, where I can be found here.
If you read/liked/clicked through to see this review here on GR, many thanks.
The review can still be viewed via LibraryThing, where my profile can be found here.
I'm also in the process of building a database at Booklikes, where I can be found here.
If you read/liked/clicked through to see this review here on GR, many thanks.
December 29, 2011
A spare incisive book, elegant even when depicting brutality and horror, absolutely unsentimental and clear eyed. If the book has a flaw its that we never quite understand the motivations of any character other than Na Ga (especially Will), but then, she is our narrator and she is too busy trying to survive to really understand other people either. Really moving and deeply human, even when also deeply painful.
February 12, 2015
I quite enjoyed this book, and the difficult journey it took readers through. I find it important sometimes to remind myself of the sheer horror human beings put others through, every single day, through deception, desperate necessity or sometimes even just inaction; Na Ga isn't wrong with her 'slave planet' idea. Though a bit disjointed sometimes it was all for the greater purpose of the book; not an uplifting read, but not entirely depressing either in the way it ends.
June 1, 2011
This was a fairly disappointing read - I was unsure about why Na Ga was actually going back to Burma. It didn't seem her decision, instead it was Will's and what was he after?
Read my full www.ourbookclub.net.au review at http://www.ourbookclub.net.au/Literat...
Read my full www.ourbookclub.net.au review at http://www.ourbookclub.net.au/Literat...
April 2, 2011
The ending worked, but so much of the book felt like a long, brutal series of horrible things happening to the lead character--the plot wasn't strong enough for me and I didn't think the characters felt real. Beautifully written, though.
August 3, 2012
Another Hong Kong Literary Festival book. The writing was incredibly descriptive, and the story was moderately interesting, but the two were incompatible with each other. The first person account was not convincing as the voice of the main character, and some of the facts were hard to reconcile.
May 27, 2012
Ignore the name and the blurb ("Sometimes the road home is the hardest" or some such); this is a hard-hitting account of a real woman's life in C20th Burma, Thailand and China.
September 8, 2013
A powerful story that feels like a metaphor for the Wild Lu of Burma who have lost everything except their memories of what once was and will never be again.
May 28, 2014
a haunting window into the lives of displaced and abused minorities ....
April 2, 2015
A good look into the life of a trafficked woman in Southeast Asia. Recommended.
June 4, 2023
This was my read the world selection for Myanmar.
This story opens with Na Ga sitting alone in a hotel in Wanting, on the China/Burma (as it was formerly named) border as she waits to be led back to a Burma that she is unfamiliar with.
The story moves around in time and the reader learns that Na Ga was sold by her family in hard times and what follows is a series of her being “saved” then left behind twice, with some pretty ghastly times in the intervening years where she ultimately ends up in Thailand.
It’s a haunting story and beautifully told. The story moves around in time quite a bit without warning. This didn’t bother me and I never felt lost in the narrative, but can imagine this may not work for some people. It had many fascinating cultural references about the different regions of Burma/Myanmar.
Na Ga was a complex character who had a difficult life and was sometimes a bit baffling and almost unlikeable at times, but I felt such empathy for her character and what she had endured. By contrast, the character of Minzu (who worked in the hotel that Na Ga was staying at in Wanting) was an absolute delight and provided the light and hope in this book.
Really quite a moving and haunting story that was longlisted for the Orange Prize (now Women’s Prize) back in 2011 and in my view, definitely earned its place in it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.
This story opens with Na Ga sitting alone in a hotel in Wanting, on the China/Burma (as it was formerly named) border as she waits to be led back to a Burma that she is unfamiliar with.
The story moves around in time and the reader learns that Na Ga was sold by her family in hard times and what follows is a series of her being “saved” then left behind twice, with some pretty ghastly times in the intervening years where she ultimately ends up in Thailand.
It’s a haunting story and beautifully told. The story moves around in time quite a bit without warning. This didn’t bother me and I never felt lost in the narrative, but can imagine this may not work for some people. It had many fascinating cultural references about the different regions of Burma/Myanmar.
Na Ga was a complex character who had a difficult life and was sometimes a bit baffling and almost unlikeable at times, but I felt such empathy for her character and what she had endured. By contrast, the character of Minzu (who worked in the hotel that Na Ga was staying at in Wanting) was an absolute delight and provided the light and hope in this book.
Really quite a moving and haunting story that was longlisted for the Orange Prize (now Women’s Prize) back in 2011 and in my view, definitely earned its place in it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.
May 9, 2020
'The Road To Wanting' follows the story of Na Ga, who has been passed through different hands on several occasions in her life, and robbed of her identity time again. The story opens with her attempted suicide in a dingy hotel in a Chinese border town. We know she is heading to her 'home' Myanmar, but the rest of the story unravels slowly in her recollections.
As the narrator of her story, it is not clear whether she wants to return home - torn by heartbreak and mournful spite towards a former lover, a British Expat, who 'saved' her from a prison camp, but mirroring the cyclical patterns of being outcast, later sent her away.
"What sort of life was it for you, holed up like that, not really his mistress, but not really his servant either? Neither fish nor fowl, animal nor mineral. Time struck you out on your own."
The book was slow to get started, and found myself sorting through paragraphs of narrative that may be significant to the story, or just surplus to needs. Overall, a nice prelude for my visit to Myanmar.
As the narrator of her story, it is not clear whether she wants to return home - torn by heartbreak and mournful spite towards a former lover, a British Expat, who 'saved' her from a prison camp, but mirroring the cyclical patterns of being outcast, later sent her away.
"What sort of life was it for you, holed up like that, not really his mistress, but not really his servant either? Neither fish nor fowl, animal nor mineral. Time struck you out on your own."
The book was slow to get started, and found myself sorting through paragraphs of narrative that may be significant to the story, or just surplus to needs. Overall, a nice prelude for my visit to Myanmar.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews