ကြာသည်တော့လည်း မောင့်စကား

by ဂျူး

Unknown Binding

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

Ju is a Burmese novelist, well known for her strong, intelligent female characters.

Despite her interest in writing, upon her mother's prodding, she pursued medical studies at the Institute of Medicine, Mandalay. She started writing while in medical school, and her first short story (ရာဇဝင်ထဲမှာမောင့်ကိုထားရစ်ခဲ့) was published in 1979. Her writing career took off in the late 1980s, with her debut novel, Remembrance (အမှတ်တရ), published in 1987.The bestseller novel stirred controversy for endorsing Western existentialist philosophy and portraying cohabiting unwed couples.

She has published fifteen novels (most of them were adapted into films), seven collections of short stories and seven collections of articles on the environment. She currently works as a co-founder of an HIV positive children orphanage and also a participant in the HIV/AIDS Media Initiative and Yadana Metta Foundation. Her writings now focus on environmental conservation.

Reviews

[Thida · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a complicated love triangle between two men and one women. Phyo Kyaw and Tin Tin Zaw grew up together in Yenanchaung. They were in love with each other but Phyo never confessed his feeling. While Zaw was in the 9th standard, she became friends with Nanda. She became attracted to him but he moved back to Yangon after a year. He sent her a letter but Phyo ripped up half of the letter so she didn't know what was written in the lower half of the letter and she couldn't reply back to him. Nanda didn't send her a letter again.

Zaw and Phyo drifted apart after she passed the matriculation exam and went to study in Mandalay and he started working on a ship. After she graduated, she started working at a clinic in her hometown while Phyo was living in Yangon with his sister and Zaw's cousin (who got married).

One day, Zaw met Nanda again while she was in Yangon and started a complicated relationship with him. Phyo didn't approve of the relationship but he couldn't stop them. Even after sleeping with Nanda, Zaw was not even sure whether or not she wanted to marry him.

This novel is a hot topic in Myanmar now because it is being adapted to a movie and the fans are not pleased at all. I can't blame them because even I'm not happy with the change in location from Yenanchaung to Pyin Oo Lwin. Well, at least they made me want to read the book again. I can't remember the last time I read it.

[Thinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously, Phyo loves Zaw. He will do everything for her.

Zaw loves Phyo too. That's why she always compared Nanda with Zaw. She was expecting things from Nanda because she never need to ask attention from Phyo. But with her ego, she can't accept Phyo.

Nanda is an asshole but he do know how to chase dream.

[Thinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The clash between two intellectual people. The battle of love and ego. Of course, Ju will make the woman stronger than man.

[Emily Kyaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

မိန်းကလေးတွေအနေနဲ့ အမျိုးသားတွေရဲ့ ဖွင့်ဟဝန်ခံမှုကို မျှော်လင့်ရတာ သူတို့ဖွင့်ပြောလာမှ yes or no ပြောရတာဆိုတဲ့ အမျိုးသမီးတွေရဲ့ ရပ်တည်မှုဘဝကို လှစ်ဟပြခဲ့တာဟာ ဒီစာအုပ်ထဲမှာ အထင်းသားမြင်ရပါတယ်။

[Yamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though all the three characters make me want to scratch my eyes out, 4 stars for amazing story and character development (I'll act like I didn't noticed the gender stereotyping/ expectation and domestic violence (?) on women from so-called "feminist" female writer).
But, the author surely make me feel all the uncertainties, confusions, passion and internal struggles of the protagonist woman. Well, kudos to the writing!

[Thet Thet]

I Like this

[Yoon Nadi · Rating 3 out of 5]

ဖ

[Thiri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I honestly do not understand why people label Juu as a feminist writer, coz I don’t find anything empowering in her book or most of her character. Her writing is amazing tho.

[Hnin Set Phyu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate to love this book but i've read it multiple times. Everytime I read it, i get infuriated by the characters' decisions. I think Juu can portray very frustrating and unlikeable characters very well. The thing I don't like about Juu is that you can't separate author from the characters. Characters are always similar and always speak for the author and I'm getting bored.

[Nhin Sandi · Rating 2 out of 5]

ံShe really don't know what she wants.

[Ei · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading it. It engages the reader well on the journey of a young woman learning love and lust.