The Lizard Cage

by Karen Connelly

Beautifully written and taking us into an exotic land, Karen Connelly’s debut novel The Lizard Cage is a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit.Teza once electrified the people of Burma with his protest songs against the dictatorship. Arrested by the Burmese secret police in the days of mass protest, he is seven years into a twenty-year sentence in solitary confinement. Cut off from his family and contact with other prisoners, he applies his acute intelligence, Buddhist patience, and humor to find meaning in the interminable days, and searches for news in every being and object that is grudgingly allowed into his cell.Despite his isolation, Teza has a profound influence on the people around him. His very existence challenges the brutal authority of the jailers, and his steadfast spirit inspires radical change. Even when Teza’s criminal server tries to compromise the singer for his own gain, Teza befriends him and risks falling into the trap of forbidden conversation, food, and the most dangerous contraband of paper and pen.Yet, it is through Teza’s relationship with Little Brother, a twelve-year-old orphan who’s grown up inside the walls, that we ultimately come to understand the importance of hope and human connection in the midst of injustice and violence. Teza and the boy are prisoners of different only one of them dreams of escape and only one of them will achieve it—their extraordinary friendship frees both of them in utterly surprising ways.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club, Asia, Novels, Cultural, Literary Fiction

536 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 27, 2005

About the author

Karen Connelly was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1969, to a large working class family. She's the author of eleven best-selling books of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. She has read from her work and lectured in Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. She has won the Pat Lowther Award for her poetry, the Governor General’s Award for her non-fiction, and Britain’s Orange Broadband Prize for New Fiction for her first novel The Lizard Cage. Karen has served on the board member of PEN Canada and has been active in the Free Burma movement. A proficient to fluent speaker of several languages, she divides her time between her home in rural Greece and her home in Toronto, Canada. She is married with a young child.

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every now and then, I read a book that I just want to grab the next person I see and say, “You MUST read this.” The Lizard Cage is one of those books. It is lyrical, poignant, astonishing, at times shocking, and ultimately, unforgettable. It is that rare book with a solid humanitarian plea at its center that never, ever slips into pedanticism or manipulation.

The carefully constructed plot hinges on two prisoners – one who is behind the bars of a cage and the other who is constrained by his own spiritual bars. The first is Teza, a “songbird”, a man who has been wrongfully imprisoned by the Burmese government for singing songs that they deemed revolutionary. The other is his self-appointed “little brother”, a nameless boy who goes by the name of his faded t-shirt, which reads, “Free El Salvador.” Only 12 years old, the boy has taken refuge in the prison where he scrounges for food and is unable to leave.

These two broken souls – Burmese political prisoner and broken orphan boy -- find each other within this place of horror. At times, their friendship is enabled by the senior jailer Chit Naing, one of the more complex characters in fiction, truly a duck out of water. The junior jailer, known as Handsome, is a sadist who thrives on working out his own childhood demons by the torture and abuse of others.

There is much in this book about man’s inhumanity to man. Witness Teza’s musings: “When you make love, you begin the world with another person; two small gods build the first kingdom out of the body’s clay…But when a man beats you in the cage, he wants you to know he’s got the whole substance of you in his hands, your life and your death.” There is also much about how the spirit triumphs and kindness prevails even in the most brutal of places.

And there’s much about how even the most physically run-down and broken person can achieve inner freedom when he is true to his core, in this case, the Buddhist principles. Again, Teza: “The Buddha taught us that things change over time…Even if people or things look the same, they’re always shifting or growing or dying. Nothing keeps the same for any of us. So we try to have upekkha, to live with upekkaha. That means to accept the change that comes and be calm in it.”

But perhaps most, this is a book about how the power of the written or spoken word are both powerful weapons against oppression anywhere. There is a strong subplot about pen and paper contraband, and the lengths that the jailers go to eliminate it. The pen is, indeed, mightier than the sword.

I love this book. I love its complex characters, its poetic language, its plots and themes, and particularly its faith in humanity at a time when that faith is waning. It’s an important and courageous book, a book for our time and all time.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burmese politics, including their political prison system, is harrowing and vicious. Not a lot has changed in the past fifty years or so, other than changing the name to Myanmar. They remain under military rule and they are one of the least developed nations in the world. Karen Connelly has not only written a striking and engaging tour de force about this area, but she has brought a country's atrocities into focus that needs attention badly, and help from developed nations. However, she hasn't forgotten the novelist's rule of thumb to entertain. It doesn't read like a diatribe or soapbox, it reads like an exquisite, dramatic story of friendship, endurance, compassion, love, and faith in the human condition.

Teza is a young man of (approximately) thirty who is revered by freedom fighters in Burma (Myanmar) for his political songs that expose the corrupt government, and give hope and spiritual fuel to the people. He is in solitary confinement in his seventh year of a twenty-year sentence for this "crime." The conditions in this prison are something beyond harsh and cruel--absolutely appalling, savage--with lice, scurvy, rickets, bed bugs, and other illnesses invading the prison population. Also, the jailers frequently abuse the prisoners physically.

Teza has become adept at his Buddhist meditation practices and has a strange but beautiful relationship with the lizards, spiders, and ants that share his cell. The most desired item for prisoners, besides food--as he is practically starved by the warden and guards--is pen and paper. If caught with it, it adds another several years to your sentence. Teza is therefore in isolation with nothing but the creatures, a dirty mat, stinking water, inedible food, and his mind. He lives by the power of his heart and mind. Teza knows how to be free in this cage, and his subtle power over the jailers, a different kind of power, is fascinating to comprehend.

Little Brother is a twelve-year-old orphan whose father worked for the prison until he died. This young boy, who doesn't read or write, knows nothing outside the prison, and has no desire to leave. He is afraid of the outside world. He spends his days running errands for the guards or helping the top-tier prisoners--the ones with lots of pull and power--get extras of food. He is beloved by the few that have half a heart, but generally treated as sewerage by those in power.

The story moves in graceful, gradual, lyrical strokes, bringing the world of the inmates and the jailers to a taut climax. The building relationship between Teza and Little Brother is the most weighty of all. It works brick by brick, like the building of a cell, layer upon layer, surging into an intense, suspenseful, atypical thriller. There are hints of Papillon,(although that story was non-fiction), but this is not a jailbreak thriller. But, like PAPILLON, it has much to do with the life inside the mind, and the cultivation of formidable inner strength, and the bonds between people who are seemingly so vastly different, and yet connected.

If you only read a handful of books this year, do read this one. Besides its presence as a quietly exciting, non-formulaic suspense thriller, it will invite and heighten interest in this culture and this country. You will thoroughly inhabit these characters and story, page by page; the quintessence of fine literature is actualized in the characters of Teza and Little Brother. Finally, this an unforgettable story that lives in, breaks, and mends the human heart.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to say to everyone please please read this ..it's achingly beautiful an also brutal a compelling story that fills you with such love for the boy,a boy who is known by the logo on his t shirt who has nothing and for Teza,the songbird whose compassion made me humble and brought tears to my eyes many many times,the message of compassion and the teachings of Buddhism and the two broken souls makes it a book I could never forget.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than halfway into this beautiful work of literature. I love it so much that I miss it when I'm not reading it..

That period in Burma's history was mostly unknown to me at the time. I traveled through the country rather extensively maybe around 2005 and loved its quiet beauty and haunting spirituality. We did experience a troupe caricaturing the gov't. in a carport in Mandalay put on by the Mustache Brothers which was so funny and felt a little dangerous. One particular young boy seemed to be on look-out and would stare into the street every time a car went by. Except for that evening, my experience stands in stark contrast to the lives of the characters in Karen Connelly's book. I loved them all. Even 'Handsome'. In every society the brutal are drawn to jobs that give them autonomy over the disenfranchised and their stories are usually tragic, too. And yet love always wins out. Maybe not over the bad guys but as long as the good guys choose to love and be loved, love wins.
I guarantee you will find this a compelling read and don't miss the author's story at the end and how she came to write this book.

[Έλσα · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ύμνος στην επανάσταση και στην επιβίωση !

Μνεία στην πραγματική αγάπη, αλληλεγγύη και συμπόνια!

Η ιστορία διαδραματίζεται στη Βιρμανία όπου επικρατεί το δικτατορικό καθεστώς! Γι’ αυτό η επανάσταση είναι μόνη λύση για την κατάλυση της δικτατορίας.

Ο Τέζα είναι πολιτικός κρατούμενος που βρίσκεται στο «κλουβί» ή αλλιώς «φέρετρο» (φυλακή)

Οι σαύρες και τα παράσιτα υπάρχουν στο χώρο ως συντροφιά και ως τροφή.

Μέσα στο ζοφερό αυτό τόπο ξεπροβάλει μια αχτίδα καλοσύνης ενός δεσμοφύλακα. Το σκληρό του πρόσωπο έρχεται σε αντίθεση με την ανθρώπινη πλευρά του και την καλή του καρδιά.

Αυτός συναντά τη μητέρα του κρατούμενου κάθε μήνα με σκοπό να της λέει τα νέα του γιου της. Αυτή η συνάντηση συνιστά ιεροτελεστία. Και οι δύο αποκαλύπτουν τις μύχιες σκέψεις τους.

Οι συνθήκες διαβίωσης είναι απάνθρωπες. Χρήζουν υγειονομικού ελέγχου. Φυλακισμένοι συμβιώνουν με κατσαρίδες, ερπετά και τρωκτικά.
Τα μικρόβια και τα παράσιτα κατακλύζουν τα σώματα των φυλακισμένων. Η ελονοσία και άλλες αρρώστιες καραδοκούν λόγω εκτεθειμένων ανοιχτών πληγών.

Βία, κακοποίηση, εξευτελισμός της ανθρώπινης ύπαρξης.

Κρατούμενοι κάνουν θελήματα για να μειωθεί η ποινή τους.

«Ο Τέζα δεν μπορεί να δει τη βροχή αλλά ακούει το ρυθμικό της ταμπούρλο, το μουρμουρητό, τους αναστεναγμούς της, το επίμονο πήγαιν’ - έλα από τον ουρανό στη γη και από τη γη πίσω στον ουρανό, ξεπλένοντας τις βρωμιές των ανθρώπων, πράγμα που τους ενθαρρύνει να ξανακάνουν τα ίδια και χειρότερα»

Απόσπασμα από το επίμετρο (αφήγηση της συγγραφέως)

«Αυτή τη δύναμη υπηρετώ . Έχω νιώσει την εκπληκτική ισχύ της. Ξέρω πως ένα καλό μυθιστόρημα μπορεί να σου αλλάξει τη ζωή. Τα βιβλία άλλαξαν και τη δική μου ζωή όταν ήμουν μικρή. Κάτι συμβαίνει όταν βρίσκουμε μπροστά μας τις σωστές σελίδες τη σωστή στιγμή…
Πρέπει να παραδεχτούμε : η ανάγνωση είναι η πιο υγιής εθισμός. Η ώρα είναι περασμένη… στο σπίτι, σιωπή. Είστε στο κρεβάτι, κάτω από το φως της λάμπας, μ’ ένα βιβλίο… Να είστε μόνοι μ’ ένα βιβλίο. Να ποθείτε να μάθετε -πάση θυσία- τι θα γίνει παρακάτω • να σας νοιάζει τόσο πολύ, που να μην μπορείτε να σταματήσετε το διάβασμα, ενώ από την άλλη προσπαθείτε να μη διαβάζετε πολύ γρήγορα γιατί τότε το βιβλίο θα τελειώσει. Η αυγή πλησιάζει και το μυαλό σας έχει ποτίσει πια από τα χάρτινα πρόσωπα και τα νοήματα. Αυτού του είδους η ανάγνωση είναι βαθιά ηδονική»

[Sorayya Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lizard Cage is a tremendously disturbing novel that, for the most part, takes place in a Burmese prison during the 1990's, a particularly brutal time for political activists. The protagonist is Teza, a songwriter who is seven years into a twenty year solitary confinement prison sentence. He develops a friendship with a young, orphaned boy who works at the prison and also has nothing. It is true that there is beauty in this novel and that it describes a tremendous resilience of spirit. But it is desperately sad in its depiction of how people are made to suffer. It is a fierce reminder of how many struggles exist in our unjust world and how many people die (in endless ways) while trying to make their case. If only it wasn't so.

On being beaten: "It's odd, but when he thinks about the beatings, later he always thinks about making love with Thazin. It's the only other touching he's ever experienced that was as unbounded and total. But when you make love, you begin the world with another person; two small gods build the first kingdom out of the body's clay. That's why another soul, a baby, might come from it. But when a man beats you in the cage, he wants you to know that he's got the whole substance of you in his hands, your life and your death. The distance between those points is all the agony a human body can feel."

Forgets-remembers? Such a beautiful and true combination of words. "The boy drops his head. He forgets-remembers many things about his father, whose image has blurred in the midst of so many men. Cage faces--even the warders'--share a certain tightness, as though the bones are too large for the skin that contains them. It's like a mask the prison gives to every man who passes the gates. The boy sees it on Sein Yun's face too."

Maybe there is a beginning word that holds up a whole book: "Edging closer to the candle, he flips the well-thumbed pages. He stops at a random page and searches through the long printed lines. He wants to find the beginning, the way he found the beginning of his shack at the place where he dug a hole and sunk a wooden post into the earth and buried it again, to hold up a slab of corrugated metal. Isn't there a word like that, the beginning word that holds up a whole book? The boy grips the flimsy cover with both hands, tensing the muscles of his forearms and shoulders."

[Mary Lins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I totally immersed myself in “The Lizard Cage”, by Karen Connelly (2005), and it was a boon because I was on a long plane flight and this enthralling novel took me out of the pain of traveling and put me in a prison in Burma in 1995, which was SO MUCH MORE MISERABLE than my traveling experience!

Set in a horrific prison in Burma (Myanmar) the novel focuses on political prisoner Teza, or “Songbird”, a famous singer who has been imprisoned for writing songs extolling the revolution, and a twelve-year-old boy whose father was a jailer in the prison.

After his father was killed, the boy was allowed to live in the prison and perform unpaid work bringing meals to Teza. A relationship forms, and Teza realizes that he must get the boy out of this dangerous environment.

I highly recommend this historical novel of friendship and resilience!

[Camie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set entirely in a prison known as The Lizard Cage, this is the poetic and sometimes brutal account of an unlikely friendship between a Burmese political prisoner known as Songbird, and a 12 year old orphan who lives and works at the prison known as Free El Salvador, the caption on his charitably donated tee shirt. It tells the desperate story of years of solitary confinement and finally of the human connection between these two , which finally allows both their own unique freedom. Fictional but well studied as explained by the author in the afterword. 5 stars

[Susan Sherwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading "the Lizard Cage" is not for the squeamish. It's about Teza, a jailed buddhist political prisoner in Burma (Myanmar) and his brutal solitary confinement. Details about his imprisonment in a small teak coffin cell are brutal and graphic; his conditions are inhuman. Teza uses meditation and reflects upon Buddhist principles to stay alive and imparts these ideas to a young boy, who though not a prisoner, lives in the prison and works there. In this story we see the power of resistance and language. Contraband paper and pen that would enable one to read and write are powerful weapons against oppression and the prisoners risk much to obtain such items and to have others "outside" hear their voices. In The Lizard Cage we also see the significant of the characters' relationships with other living things such as insects, lizards, what we would commonly consider pests. Additionally, we see how the environment of the prison affects different jailers--some are loyal and kind whereas others are cruelly blinded by ambition and their own survival.

Though I often had tears in my eyes as I was reading this book I loved the writing with the well drawn characters, story lines, and most of all because of its messages.

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the afterward, the author talks about the difficult process she underwent as she went outside herself and entered others' lives in an effort to write The Lizard Cage. It must have been both extraordinary and difficult considering that she was a young woman from Canada and the world she was trying to enter was that of political prisoners in a Burmese prison.

Hunger, filth, disease and tortuous cruelty are all daily parts of life in such a place. And you, as a reader, must go outside yourself to enter this world too. You will not like to read of vicious beatings, of painful recoveries, of starvation, of a child being sexually forced; but this is what the author brings you.

She also brings you acts of kindness and moments of bravery in the face of great evils.

I cannot recommend this book to everyone, but there are those who can be moved beyond its horrors and find its merit. Ms. Connelly has written about a difficult subject, and written well. Such a book cannot be regarded as entertainment- it is much more a challenge for those who are willing to accept it.

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, but very slow moving. If you are going to enjoy this book, you can't get impatient with the pace. You have to wait it out. The only way I can think to describe it is like the ocean tide. The story moves in and out, steadily building to a climax.

I didn't mind the pace because it fits with the story. The book chronicles the slow development of an unlikely friendship between an orphaned boy who lives and works on prison grounds in a modern day Mynamar (Burmese) prison because he has no where else to go and a political prisoner who is being tortured and slowly starved. Though fiction, the book sheds light on some of the horrible practices of the violent ruling regime of Mynamar of only a few years ago and the application and value of a Buddhist philosophy in the face of extreme torture, pain and starvation. Despite the dark and violent circumstances of the story, it is a hopeful book, suggesting that we all have the power to rise above difficult circumstances to choose love, friendship and goodness, and that some of us will actually do it.

[Danika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book and it taught me a lot about Burma/Myanmar. I really know very little about the political situation there. In any case, it's set in a prison and mostly details the relationship between a political prisoner and a young orphan who lives and works there. Their relationship is beautiful. But there are a lot of disturbing and sad things that take place. Some quite hard to read. I almost felt emotionally manipulated by the author, if that makes sense (similar to how I felt about parts of "The Kite Runner". Not sure how to explain it).

Anyway, I do recommend it, though it's not a light-hearted read.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding story of a devout Buddhist named Teza who is sentence for 20 plus years solitary confinement in a Burmese Prison Camp. This book is equally about grave sadness and loss as it is about love and inner peace. Teza uses his Buddhist patience, and humor to find meaning in the interminable days. I did some searching and will also read “Pleading Not Guilty in Insein” which provided direction for Karen Connelly when writing this exceptional book.

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and heartbreaking; one of those rare books that you don’t forget for a long time. A must read for friends who have also spent time in Myanmar.

[Steven Langdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Burma at last, there seems to be momentum toward democratic change. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is free and there are signs that the military regime may be ready to give up power -- heralding what could be full transition from one of the most oppressive autocracies in the world.

Just how oppressive the SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Committee) has been is conveyed in harrowing and harsh detail by this remarkable novel. Karen Connelly writes the tragic yet heroic story of the Songbird, Teza, whose name means "Fire," who is in prison for 14 years for singing songs. This is a story not just of survival, of somehow remaining human despite slow starvation and isolation in solitary confinement, but also of trying to overcome hatred through Buddhist meditation in the face of appalling maltreatment.

Not just a story of one man's ordeal, it is also a novel about those connected to Teza -- the jailer who brutalizes him most viciously (called Handsome,) another jailer who is changed by his relations with the Songbird (Chit Naing,) and an exploited yet bright child (Zaw Gyi) who becomes the tie-in back to Teza's brother Aung Min. Connelly traces the human dynamics of these relationships superbly, with deep insight and compassion.

But above all, this is a harrowing book about brutality inflicted and pain endured. It is an honest and dark novel, grim in its depiction of prison conditions and vicious oppression. I read it, as it turned out, while I was on holiday -- and that was not very wise, since this is a novel with a powerful impact, and I found myself feeling shattered by the foul abuse that Burmese prisoners were suffering. Yet the novel was too compelling for me to stop reading.

The day will come when the political prisons of Burma will become museums of a disgraceful past, as in present-day Bangladesh and Cambodia. Karen Connelly's novel will then continue to be read as a heartfelt testament to the bravery and heroism of those held within their cages.

[Roberta · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a read! I never thought I could like something so grim so well.

I read her earlier book about Thailand and was impressed with how well it was written, especially for such a young writer. This novel is a whole new dimension. The story pulled me along with a huge desire to know - what happens next? While this was happening, I was slowing down to savour the language and the meticulous descriptions. on top of all of that, the characterization was amazing.

I loved the way she wove mindfulness into the book. The Songbird was able to leave the situation by meditating and by focusing on the essential details of everything in his constrained world. In many ways , this aspect of the book reminded me of The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. Songbird describes the spider, its web and the lizards in the same minute, sharply observed detail. He may be in a prison, beaten and abused, but he never allows his jailers to diminish him in any way or to shape how he reacts to them. He maintains his humanity and choses what to do with his personal suffering.

The character of the boy is amazing. Like Songbird, he has maintained his core, his own childish innocence, in spite of his surroundings. I thought a lot about how every person has a choice to make when faced with brutality. All too many succumb, like Handsomne, and becone brutal themselves. Others, like the guard Chit and the convidxt Tiger, retain their humanity and kindness.

Highly recommended.

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teza is a Burmese political prisoner in his early 20s, known for his charm and musicality. Despite being held in solitary confinement for years, he manages to maintain his sanity and various relationships (with wardens, jailers, workers, and a spider) through the practice of his faith and absolute cerebral creativity. Karen Connelly's deft balancing of brutal violence with exquisite beauty and grace is genius. The characters she has us fall in love with suffer, but with such equanimity it is inspiring. Somehow I gained a deeper understanding of Buddhism from 24 hours with this book, than I did attending temple weekly for years. I love the way all the nicknames came into play, particularly with Teza's line, "it's a gift, to feed a small, struggling country" alluding to Nyi Lay aka El Salvador and also his beloved Burma.

I actually crossed the border into Burma the year its name was changed to Myanmar, which is right around the time this story takes place. I was with friends on mini-motorcycles, we buzzed in from Sukhothai Thailand just for the thrill - on the way we passed a little kid beating a pangolin, got caught in a rainstorm and swam in the floods, saw armed guards at the border, and just hung out watching the stream of Burmese wading home across a little river balancing their Thai purchases on their heads; in particular I remember wondering what the flaky white stuff was swirled on the little kids cheeks. I can't think of a better way to get to find out what Thanaka is, and how lovingly moms apply it to their littles' faces. I can't wait to read more of this author's work.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book. It breaks your heart while lifting you up.

The plot is centered around a political prisoner, Teza, who is serving 20 years in a Burma jail for writing songs that inspired revolutionaries. After 7 years in solitary, he starts to develop a relationship with a 12 year old child whose father worked in the prison. The boys father is killed in a car accident and the boy continues his work in the prison, running errands for inmates, delivering food trays, dumping out waste buckets, and trying to make himself invisible to the authorities. Events conspire to make his life in the prison, the only life he has ever known, too dangerous for him.

As Teza learns to draw more and more strength from his Buddhist beliefs and meditations, he comes to realize the path he needs to take to escape his prison cell, while he helps the illiterate child to realize his own departure from the jail.

The depth and poignancy of this book are hard to convey. I couldn't put it down. It was so compelling. The depravity of evil, the courage of goodness, the triumph of love, the relief of forgiveness, the mercilessness of hunger. Wonderfully written and intensely real, it packs an emotional wallop that lingers long after you have finished the last page.

[Mary Crowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give this 4 1/2 stars.

This book was recommended by a friend. When I picked it up, I knew it was going to be a tough topic so I had prepared myself mentally for some gruesome writing.

I thought the author did a nice job of not overdoing it. Sometimes when the story is tough to hear, authors can over-compensate? by ... romanticizing the language and/or almost over-indulging in the violence. I did not feel this by the writer- I thought she kept the integrity of the experience honest- not foreceful and not romanticized. Hard to do with difficult topics/events!

I felt the character development happened moreso through the author's exploration into Burma's history and cultural tensions rather than individual storytelling. I liked this approach as it felt like she was able to incorporate some historical and cultural (re)evolution into the tapestry of the reading experience.
Recommend!

[Elizabeth Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm hard to please when it comes to contemporary fiction. So much of it is psychologically ingrown, disconnected from history or politics or the grand questions of what it means to be human. THE LIZARD CAGE is a welcome exception. On the surface this story might seem unbearable--a main character who never makes it out of solitary confinement in a Burmese prison; a physically, sexually, and verbally abusive setting; and political circumstances that we know are still unbearable. But the main character's Buddhist practice deepens in such a way that beautiful, redemptive relationships are formed regardless of the circumstances. This story explores the nature of freedom and how it's available to us all despite outward appearances. Deeply heartening!

[Maryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in Burma, this tale of a political prisoner moves straight to your heart. Imprisoned because of his activist singing and song writing Teza is held an isolation cell called the teak coffin. He endures torture, betrayal and starvation. His Buddhist practices are essential to his survival and the positive impact he has on a jailer and a young boy who is growing up in the horrors of the compound. Amidst the suffering there is compassion, humour and a deep love of life. The plot is engaging, the character development convincing and writing heart wrenching. An important book to get a beginning grasp of life and death for politicals in Burma.

[Ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a couple of days since I read this book, and the characters keep appearing in my head, like friends you worry about do.

Woven together with a story of Buddhist awakening, this recounting of the ordeal of one Burmese political prisoner is heartbreaking, enlightening, and inspiring at once. Every character is explored with the heart of a Buddhist--even the bad guys have a story of suffering you are able to feel compassion for.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't assume my 5-star rating is a recommendation -- it's not. I can't think of a single person I'd actually recommend it to because it was just so very disturbing and shocking and terrible to read. It's not just the brutality and torture either. It's the hopelessness and helplessness of Teza's life and situation. And many other things.
But it's so very compelling and beautifully written!
And I was glad to learn about Burmese politics and have a small window into that country's culture.

[Kat Huang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes caged animals can be free

It was an incredible hard to read book but the raw emotions and humanity is undeniable. The book reminds you that we are al human, and are capable of so much cruelty as well as compassion. It is a good wake up call to the reality that “we” and “ them” mentality can be so dangerous.

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both compelling and harrowing, this is an extraordinary novel. You live the life on a Burmese political prisoner during the 1990's. Such depth of understanding of human beings make this novel of Connelly's a joy to read- in spite of the subject matter.

[Chris Waterford · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great writer and a good story despite the protracted introduction (200 pages) to the main story. A horrifying and amazing and authentic tale. I had to re-read the first 10 pages. They don't really make sense until you finish the book---and they add a lot to the narrative.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that this is the best book that I have ever read. Absolutely loved it.

[Mathias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having not much prior knowledge of Myanmar's political history, I began this book with very little understanding of the context which the book is based on. However, I was still able to fully appreciate this piece of literature.

It truly captures as the power of language, hope and the human spirit. The piece is almost entirely set in a prison called "the cage", where a political prisoner is tortured and beaten due to having his differences regarding Burma's military regime. In the face of such inhumanity and terror, this prisoner, Teza, shows how light and hope still can be found in the darkest corners of the cage through language and faith. This remains relevant to many conflicts today. Where those who face oppression have nothing but words and hope to fight with. These two commodities are greatly underrated and taken for granted and are deeply seated in all our lives. Especially from a religious standpoint (which is thoroughly highlighted in the book with Teza being a devout Buddhist), they provide the foundation where all beliefs are able to sprout from.

This book is great and I believe it captures the sense of oppression and fear in Burma at the time of the riots. However, this is a fictitious piece and possibly exaggerated. Talking to my Burmese friends I was skeptical about the happenings in the plot, but I am simultaneously reassured by the authors background and deep understanding of Burmese culture and political situation at that time.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am eating an egg. He revises it.
I am eating my whole life.
Rain begins to fall, all at once, steadily, a wet broom sweeping out the sky. Fresh air billows into the cell. The rain has a mantra: egg, egg, egg, egg, egg.
With a fleck of yellow yolk stuck on his lower lip, Teza makes up a stupid joke.
What comes first, the chicken or the egg?
The political prisoner, of course.
He swallows as slowly as it's possible to swallow without choking. He revises it.
What comes first, the chicken or the egg?
The boy. Free El Salvador, who brought the political prisoner an egg from a bowl of mohinga.

The Lizard Cage was published in 2007, at a time when Burmese prisons were still full of political prisoners; mostly demonstrating students rounded up in a 1988 crackdown by the country's ruling generals (as mentioned in the book, it was these generals who changed the country's name from Burma to Myanmar in 1989, and even though some democratic reforms have taken place since 2011, it's still unclear whether it is considered "correct" for English speakers to acknowledge the name change; to acknowledge the authority of the generals' dictatorship). Since the famous dissident Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in 2010, there have been waves of amnesty for the other political prisoners, but this was a future hardly dreamed of in the bleak and brutal world captured in The Lizard Cage by author Karen Connelly (a Canadian who travelled extensively within Burma and based her novel on interviews and eyewitness accounts).

This is the story of -- primarily -- two characters: Teza, a protest singer who is in year seven of a twenty year prison sentence, currently held in solitary confinement, whose sanity relies on meditation and his communion with the ants, lizards, and a copper-coloured spider that visit his "teak coffin"; and a twelve-year-old orphan (known by various nicknames) who makes his home in the prison, performing errands for the right to live in a crude shack and hunt the rats that he trades to the prisoners for rice and other treasures. When their paths eventually cross, these two characters change each other's lives forever. Prison life is as horrible as the phrase "Burmese prison" might conjure -- with corrupt and sadistic warders, small amounts of barely edible food, sleeping on a concrete floor with a thin cover and bedbugs, brutal beatings, and sexual bullying -- but Teza and "Free El Salvador" both find ways to escape through the written word: Teza, by unwrapping scraps of newsprint from the filters of the cheroots he is allowed to smoke (which he ceremonially assembles into modernist poetry of a sort -- siblings existed remained boy flawlessly/loved despite everything rain understood -- before destroying the evidence of his contraband words); and the orphan, by examining the paperbacks he has collected, hoping to discover the key word that will unravel the mystery of reading for him. Just as Teza's songs have survived his imprisonment, both of these characters know that one white pen -- and the stories it might capture -- can be the most dangerous weapon within the prison walls.

As long as there is paper, people will write, secretly, in small rooms, in the hidden chambers of their minds, just as people whisper the words they're forbidden to speak aloud.

Between the prison scenes and Teza's memories of a Burma before the dictatorship, Connelly revealed a world to me that I hadn't given much thought to before. For this reason, The Lizard Cage is a very interesting novel and, since it was written during the height of the regime's power and brutality, it's a very important story to have captured. The scenes of beatings and sadistic characters wielding their authority were written powerfully, and it's easy to have one's emotions manipulated by a poorly-treated orphan, yet overall, I didn't find this to be a powerful novel, and it's hard for me to pin down what's missing. Like with books about the Holocaust or memoirs of childhood abuse, I often want to rate books higher just because I sympathise with the subject matter, but I can't deny that there was something imperfectly accomplished about The Lizard Cage, while admitting that I am happy to have read it.

One small complaint: this book has quite a few photographs throughout it (pictures taken by the author over her years in Burma), and as this isn't something I've ever seen in a novel before, I found them a bit distracting; like I wasn't trusted to imagine a young Buddhist monk or a man in shackles. One picture of a table with an overturned stool is opposite a page where the orphan sees an overturned stool and spits at it and I had to wonder, "Did that picture come first and the author needed to work in the image? That image?" In another section, a very powerful inmate is described and it's explained that his nickname "the Tiger" comes from his many tiger tattoos. On the next page, there is a photo of a spindly man's legs, complete with amateurish tigers prowling their lengths -- and again, "Did that picture come first and inspire the character? Why doesn't it jibe with the mental image I was just given?" It was a strange (and distracting) editorial choice.

Bottom line: I am happy to have read The Lizard Cage and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in a peek into a Burmese prison during the years it was a pariah state.

[Susan Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book. It begins with a boy entering a monastery in Myanmar (Burma). His eagerness to learn to read pleases the Hsayadaw (abbot) who spend much time with him and becomes fond of his pupil. Then some officials from the state turn up looking for the boy. The abbot tells them the boy has run away. They come back with those who can recognize the boy to look each novice in the face and see if it is the one they seek. But, after they left the first time the Hsayadaw had sent the boy away with some monks to another monastery - and then another until the boy arrives at the border where he is met by one of the revolutionaries there.
Then the book goes back to a political prison. In solitary is a prisoner known as Songbird. Teza is a political singer and kept in solitary because he wrote and sang songs with a political message against the regime. He has served 7 years of a 20 year sentence without seeing another prisoner, only those who bring his meals (when he gets them). At this time, he is under the care of the brutal under jailor called "Handsome" by the prisoners. Handsome is sadistic and subject to ungovernable rages. When a plot falls through to cause Songbird's sentence to be extended, Handsome beats him so badly he nearly dies - his jaw is broken, some ribs and his toes. So, he is removed from the "teak coffin" where he had been confined and moved to another part of the prison and put in solitary there. He comes under the care of the senior jailor Chit Naing who had cared for him before and begun to sympathize with the cause. He does not care for the brutality of this regime - or at least those people he has daily contact with. At that time, the boy (whose father had been a warder and had died) is assigned to bring him his food. The boy has no place else to live but the prison since his father died, his mother having already died, and built himself a small hut and has various jobs like emptying the latrine pails, etc.
Teza and the boy begin to build a tenuous understanding.

The story of prison and conditions is real, built from stories and information that have filtered through from the prisons. Court cases, etc. have been smuggled out. The author lived for some time among the revolutionaries across the border and did her research.
Well worth reading for the knowledge of the lies and conditions created in such regimes, no mattter what they claim.